Dietary Energy and Protein Requirements of Lesser Mouse Deer (Tragulus Ja Vanicus) in Captivity
A series of experiments was conducted to study various aspects of nutrition of lesser mouse deer to determine their dietary energy and protein requirements for maintenance and growth in captivity. When given a choice of feeds male mouse deer preferred sweet potato, while the female preferred carr...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
2001
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/7952/1/IB_2001_1_.pdf http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/7952/ |
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| Summary: | A series of experiments was conducted to study various aspects of nutrition of
lesser mouse deer to determine their dietary energy and protein requirements for
maintenance and growth in captivity. When given a choice of feeds male mouse deer
preferred sweet potato, while the female preferred carrot in terms of fresh weight.
However, in terms of dry matter (OM) intake, the rabbit pellet (90% OM) was
consumed the most by both male and female mouse deer. The daily intakes of OM,
organic matter (OM) and gross energy (GE) were significantly (P<0.05) higher in
male than female when given these feeds, but the OM intake was similar when they
were fed only rabbit pellet. The crude protein (CP) intake was similar between male
and female -mouse deer when fed various types of feed or only pellet. The ability of
male and female mouse deer to digest OM, OM and GE of feed were also similar.
In the energy expenditure and activity study, it was observed that both male
and female mouse deer spent most of their time sitting (926.0 min/d), followed by
standing (491.5 min/d) and eating (22.5 min/d). Heat production (HP) for male and female (0 .44 and 0.43 kJ/kg WO 75/min, respectively) was the highest during eating
followed by standing (0.37 and 0.33 kJ/kg WO 75/min, respectively) and sitting (0.26
and 0.26 kJ/kg WO 75/min, respectively). The HP for morning to afternoon and
afternoon to evening periods were significantly higher than the night and early
morning periods . The overall HP of males during morning to afternoon and afternoon
to evening periods was significantly (P<0. 05) higher than that of females.
When the mouse deer were fed diets containing 5% to 20% of fiber, the
digestibility values of DM, OM, CP and GE were significantly (P<0.05) decreased
with an increase in fiber level . Positive nitrogen balance and body weight gain was
obtained when the levels of fiber were in the range of 5% - 1 0%. The passage rate
constants of solid and fluid were significantly increased when more than 10% fiber
was in the diet. On the other hand, the mean retention time of solid and fluid decreased
with increasing levels of fiber in the diet.
Metabolisable energy requirements for maintenance in growing and mature
mouse deer were in the range of 418.0 kJ/kg WO 75/d - 424.9 kJ/kg WO 75/d. Efficiency
of utilisation of energy requirement for maintenance was 0.52 for growing mouse deer
and 0.44 for mature mouse deer. Maximum nitrogen balance was achieved at 20%
metabolisable energy above maintenance. The protein requirement for maintenance of
growing male, mature male and mature female was 0.33, 0.25 and 0.28 g N/kg W0 75/d
or 6.4%,5.4% and 5 .3% CP in the diet, respectively and for growth was 0.93 , 0.94 and
0.98 g N/kg W075/d or 18.2%,18.8% and 18.7% CP in the diet, respectively. |
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