Influence of time of feeding on dam performance prepartum and postpartum and its impact on its kids

Abstract Background This study was conducted to evaluate the impact of time of feeding on the performance of WAD goats during pregnancy, and to assess how the time of feeding of the dam affect the growth of their kids’ postpartum. Twelve (12) pregnant does were used in the pre-partum and in the postpartum, the same 12 lactating does and their 12 kids (1 kid per doe) were used. The dams were randomly distributed into three treatments and were fed once daily either in the morning, noon, or evening at 0600 h, 12:00 h and 18:00 h respectively under the natural light–dark cycle. Result Serum creatinine in noon-fed does was higher (P = 0.005) than in morning and evening-fed does. In addition, low density lipoprotein in morning-fed gravid does was the high (P = 0.007) compared to noon-fed does while the evening-fed does had the lowest. During postpartum, morning and noon-fed dams consumed more feed (forage, concentrate, and total daily feed intake) than evening-fed dams (P ≤ 0.006). Kid weight of morning-fed does was numerically higher than noon-fed does, which was higher than kids of evening-fed does. Conclusion This study shows that time of feeding did not affect the performance of pregnant WAD goats. However, it has the potential to influence the serum parameters of pregnant animals. It also showed that time of feeding influences maternal feed intake postpartum and can influence the growth of the kids.