Abstract
The effects of graded levels of energy and crude protein (CP) on the performance parameters of 150, 13-weeks old Black Olympian cockerels were investigated in a 3 x 5 factorally designed experiment according to randomised complete block design. There were three levels of energy (2400, 2600 and 2800Kcal ME kg-1 diet) and five levels of CP (140, 160, 180, 200 and 220g kg-1) per energy level giving 15 treatments coded A to O in ascending order of energy level. The diets were produced according to the modified diet dilution technique and were offered ad libitum to the treatment groups of 10 birds per treatment group housed in the two-tier battery cage units. Each diet was replicated twice with 5 birds per replicate. Results on the weight changes and feed conversion ratio indicated that these response criteria were optimized in the finishing cockerels by the diets containing 180g kg-1 CP and 2600Kcal ME kg-1 in the humid tropics. Hence, the use of feeding standard outside the recommended requirement values of CP and energy for the cockerel finishers would appear to have adverse effects on the performance and cost of production of cockerel finishers.
