Effect of Diet Supplementation with Oat Hay and Whole Carrot on Rabbit Growth and Productive Efficiency

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Rabbit meat production presents high labor costs per rabbit, making it less competitive than other meats. Concentrate feed, the prime feeding option in rabbit meat production represents an important share of total production cost. Therefore, to reduce rabbit meat production costs and make it more competitive, it is essential to incorporate alternative feed sources with reduced costs. The study aimed to investigate the effect of supplementation with oat hay and whole carrot from self-production, presented singly or in combination on rabbit production efficiency. The results revealed that combined supplementation with oat hay and whole carrot resulted better than supplementation presented independently and reduced concentrate intake (39.2% less or minus 1107 g/animal) without affecting carcass meat weight. At the same time, supplementation with oat hay represented the lowest feeding cost of all in the analysis (less than 14% of the cost associated with feeding exclusively on concentrate feeding). Therefore, the supplementation of rabbit’s diet either with oat hay singly or in combination with whole carrot, from self-production, is an effective option to reduce rabbit’s production cost. ABSTRACT: Is it possible to reduce feeding costs in rabbit meat production without compromising rabbit health and productive yield? The study tested four feeding strategies: Control group (CC) fed exclusively with concentrate feed; group CT supplemented with whole carrot; group OH supplemented with oat hay; and Group CO supplemented with oat hay and whole carrot. Each feeding strategy was tested in 20 rabbits, randomly allocated in five cages with four rabbits each. The average daily weight gain (ADG), feed conversion ratio (FCR), and the amount of concentrated feed consumed daily were estimated in all experimental groups. Group CC displayed the best ADG (37.1 g/rabbit/day), carrot had no significant influence on ADG (34.2 g/rabbit/day), but oat hay had a negative impact (p < 0.05), either used alone or in combination with carrot (33.0 and 32.6 g/rabbit/day, respectively). Supplementation with carrot, oat hay, or both increased the FCR (p < 0.001). Nevertheless, there were no significant differences in final live weight or carcass weight between the rabbits in the different experimental groups. In conclusion, supplementation with oat hay, carrot, or both can be a valid approach to reducing production costs by decreasing concentrate feed without affecting rabbit’s health and meat yield. The combined supplementation with oat hay and carrot proved to be the best option in reducing the amount of concentrate feed ingested by rabbits (less than 1107 g/animal), but at current market values, supplementation exclusively with oat hay was the less expensive feeding strategy (less 14% than fed exclusively with concentrate feeding).