Effect of feeding different dietary protein levels on growth performance of Kadaknath chicken

A biological trial was carried out to study the dietary protein requirement of Kadaknath chicken during the growing phase (0-12 week) to assess the growth performance. A total of 240 day old Kadaknath chicks were wing banded, weighed individually and distributed randomly into four experimental groups with three replicates of 20 chicks each. Four experimental diets were formulated with four levels of crude protein viz., 14, 16, 18 and 20 per cent with 2800 kcal/Kg ME. The birds fed with 20 per cent crude protein with 2800 kcal /Kg ME had highest body weight (895.81±16.11 g ) when compared to other treatment groups. The cumulative feed consumption was 3481.59±39.25 g, 3384.09±40.23 g, 3386.31±36.64 g and 3478.46±32.89 g in groups fed with 20, 18, 16 and 14% CP respectively. Among the various treatment groups, T₄ group fed with 20% CP showed better feed conversion ratio (FCR) of 4.03±0.08 followed by with 18, 16, and 14% CP respectively. The above study concluded that Kadaknath chicken diet having 20 per cent crude protein and 2800 kcal/Kg ME up to 12 weeks of age is optimum to elicit best growth performance in terms of body weight and feed conversion ratio.