Nutritional management of broilers in the pre-starter period

The effects of feeding a pre-starter diet until different ages on the performance of broiler chicks were evaluated in an experiment of completely randomized design. Two thousand male chicks of the Peterson x Hubbard Line were distributed among four replicates of 125 birds each per treatment and subjected to four treatments based on age (T1, 7; T2, 10 ; and T3, 14 days) at changing from pre-starter (22% CP, 2.94 Mcal ME/kg) to starter (21% CP, 3.04 Mcal ME/kg) diet and T4 involving use of the starter diet from days 1 to 21. Subsequently grower and finisher diets of 19.9 and 18.0% CP were fed. Feed consumption, weight gain, feed conversion, and index of productive efficiency (based on viability, weight gain, and feed conversion) were appraised at the ages of 7, 10, 14, 21, 35, and 43 days. The treatments had no (P > 0.05) effects on the criteria of animal performance. Mean liveweight per treatment was 720, 689, 683, and 699 g at 21 days and 2 065, 2 085, 2 040, and 1 990 g at final weighing (43 days) in T1, T2, T3, and T4, respectively.