ABSTRACT

The experiment was conducted to determine the effect 0f different dietary protein regimes on the production indices of Japanese quail. Four !so-caloric diets were used throughout the experimental periods and a total number of 129 birds were randomly distributed into four experimental treatments namely Tl thirty six (36) birds, T2 thirty eight (38) birds, T3 thirty three (33) birds and T4 twenty two (22) birds. Each group had 4 replicates while T4 has 3 replicates, they were all fed with 24%CP, 22%CP, 20%CP and 18%CP diets respectively for the laying phase. Data collected on the productive performance includes; weekly body weight, daily egg

number and weight, daily feed intake. Data was also collected on the egg parameters per week. All data.was collected per replicate. After the experiment was conducted, 22%CP was found to be high for egg laying but it is not economical, so 18% CP recommended to be the optimum protein required for laying quail hen in the humid tropics because it has the least cost of feed production. Egg production parameters of quails hens was also found to be influenced by different protein contents from soya bean meal and groundnut cake mixture and were favoured by the diets with high protein level, Tl. Egg weight, egg diameter, yolk height and albumen weight were significantly (P<0.05) higher in Tl (24%CP) than the other CP levels. This implies that the best egg quality parameters in quail can be achieved when the birds are fed with an optimum level of protein.The feed efficiency ratio (FCR) was also found to vary with different levels of the protein content; FCR for egg production was not influenced by the different CP levels. The birds in Tl were found to have the highest final body weight, weight gain, average weight gain and average egg weight.