PRELIMINARY STUDY OF USING TREATED WHEAT STRAW IN RABBIT DIETS

Six digestion trials have been carried out on adult male rabbits to investigate the effect of treated wheat straw with sodium hydroxide solution and subsequent neutralization with distilled water on its digestibility and nutritive value for rabbits. The effect of NaoH treatment on the chemical composition of the wheat straw was also studied. Chopped wheat straw was soaked in a solution of 4&8% NaOH (4&8 g NaoH / 100 g staw). After 8 hours the soaked straw was neutilized with distilled water, while the control (untreated one) was soaked only in distilled water for the same time. The straws (untreated and treated) were exposed to sun to be dried before being offered to rabbits in a maintenance diets containing 80&75 % concentrate mixture. The rabbits were subjected for a 7 days preliminary and other 7 days for collection periods. To
avoid the associative effect of the basal food, the digestibility and the nutritive value of both treated and untreated wheat straw were calculated by using the simple algebric method. The obtained results showed that: The most constituent changes associated with NaoH treatment are a significant higher content of ash and CF, while that for EE and NFE are significantly decreased. The contents of OM and CP are also decreased. The NaoH treatment of wheat straw specially at 8 % significantly improved its digestibility and nutritive value. From these results it could be concluded that NaoH treatment is effective in improving the digestibility and the nutritive value of wheat straw for rabbits.