Effect of feeding diet with graded levels of energy on digestibility and dry matter intake in adult medium sized nondescript dogs

An experiment was conducted for 120 days with the objective to study the effect of feeding diet containing graded levels of energy on the digestibility and dry matter (DM) intake in adult medium sized (12 – 18kg body weight) nondescript dogs. Fifteen dogs were randomly allotted to the dietary treatments T1, T2 and T3 so as to have five replicate for each treatment. The experimental feeds contained graded levels of energy and was isonitrogenous for the entire feeding trial period. The three experimental diets were T1- (Control ration with 18 per cent crude protein (CP) and 3000 kcal/kg ME), T2 (Feed containing 18 per cent CP and 2700 kcal/kg ME) and T3 (Feed containing 18 per cent CP and 2400 kcal/kg ME). A digestibility trial was conducted at the end of feeding trial. The data on daily dry matter intake and digestibility trial were recorded. The average daily DM intake per kg body weight was 14.44, 15.22 and 16.91g, respectively for dogs in T1, T2 and T3 groups. The results showed that dogs belonging to T3 group was having higher (P<0.01) DM intake than those of T1 and T2 groups due to the consumption of low energy diet. Based on the results obtained in this study, diets T2 and T3 recorded reduced digestibility of DM and CP which was compensated with higher DM intake. Ether extract (EE) digestibility reduced in T3 (2400kcal ME/kg feed) diet compared with T1 (3000kcal ME/kg feed) and T2 (2700kcal ME/kg feed) diets. The digestibility variation of crude fibre (CF) was non-significant (P>0.05) among three feeds. It can be concluded that the digestibility of CF was not affected even at the level of 6.35 per cent.