Comparative evaluation of maize, sorghum, millet and biscuit waste meal as dietary energy sources for laying Japanese quails in a derived savannah zone of Nigeria

An eight-week feeding trial was conducted to compare the potential of maize, sorghum, millet and biscuit waste meal (BWM) as energy sources in diets of laying Japanese quails. One hundred and forty four laying quails (15 weeks old) were divided into 4 dietary treatment groups and each group replicated thrice with 12 quails each. Quails on dietary treatment group I were fed maize based diet while groups 2, 3 and 4 were fed sorghum, millet and BWM based diets respectively. Results showed significant differences in daily feed intake, hen-day production and feed conversion ratio. Quails fed millet and BWM based diets had the highest feed consumption while those on millet had the highest kg feed per dozen egg laid. Quails on BWM and sorghum based diets recorded the highest (p<0.05) hen day production. Daily weight gain, egg weight and feed cost per dozen egg revealed no significant (p>0.05) variations among dietary treatments. Data on egg quality traits indicated non-significance (p>0.05) among most parameters measured except for yolk color and shell thickness where quails fed millet and biscuit meal recorded highest egg yolk color. Quails fed biscuit and maize diets had thicker shells than those fed with sorghum or millet based diets. The findings indicated that BWM, millet and sorghum proved to be tolerable in the diets of laying Japanese quail in a derived savannah zone of Nigeria.