INFLUENCE OF FEED RESTRICTION REGIMES ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF BROILERS WITH DIFFERENT INITIAL WEIGHT CATEGORIES

A total of 1440 day-old broiler (Hubbard) chicks with 4 initial body weight categories i.e. small (31-34gm), medium (35- 38gm), A (39-42gm) and A+ (43-46gm) were subjected to 4 feed restriction regimes i.e. ad-libitum, 1, 2, and 3 hour restriction with 3,2, and 1 hour feeding, respectively, after observing one week adjustment period. These 16 treatment groups were replicated 6 times making a total of 96 experimental units having 15 chicks each. The experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with two factors. Weekly data on feed intake, body weight gain, FCR, mortality and production efficiency factor (PEF) were analyzed using SAS 9.1. Birds with 1-hr feeding-3hrs off showed better performance with significantly (P<0.05) improved FCR having overall lower mortality rate, whereas, chicks fromA+ weight category showed significantly better FCR. A better PEF was recorded in birds from medium weight category in 3hr feeding-1hr off feeding regime, while, A+ category with1-hr feeding-3hrs off showed the best economic efficiency.