Effect of Dietary Inclusion of Chocolate Waste on Growth, Carcass Characteristics and Economics in Japanese Quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica)

Abstract

A study was undertaken for five weeks to investigate the effect of graded levels of chocolate waste on growth and carcass characteristics of Japanese quails. A total of 500 straight run Japanese quail chicks were randomly allotted to 4 treatment groups fed with brooder (0 to 3 weeks) and grower diets (4 to 5 weeks) containing varying levels of chocolate waste, viz. control (T₁), 5 % (T₂), 10 % (T₃) and 15 % (T₄). At the end of the 5^th week, body weight (g) was 166.09 ± 1.76, 178.97 ± 1.72, 180.70 ± 1.72 and 181.14 ± 1.77 in four treatment groups, which was highly significant (P < 0.01) in  chocolate waste fed groups (T_2, T_3, and T₄) than control (T₁). Similar trend was observed in body weight gain and feed efficiency. No significant difference was observed in livability, carcass characteristics except dressing percentage across the dietary treatments. Hence, chocolate waste could be safely incorporated up to 15 % in quail diets without affecting growth performance.