Year: 2018 | Month: December | Volume 8 | Issue 6
Comparative Evaluation of Vegetarian and Meat Based Dry Pet Food on Palatability, Food Intake and Growth Performance in Growing Nondescript Female Dogs
Abstract:
A study was undertaken to compare and evaluate vegetarian and meat based dry pet food on palatability, food intake and growth response by growing non-descript dogs. Twelve growing non-descript female dogs were randomly divided into two experimental groups of six dogs each, fed with vegetarian and meat based complete dry pet food, respectively for twelve weeks period. Palatability, daily dry matter intake (DMI), daily digestible crude protein (DCP) intake, weekly body weights and weekly body weight changes were recorded during the experimental period. The palatability of meat based pet food was found to be better than vegetarian diet. No significant difference (P˃0.05) was observed in dry matter intake between the two groups, however, there had a significant difference in digestible crude protein intake as well as feed intake per kg gain. Dogs from meat based group weighed constantly more (6.8%) at the end of experiment than the dogs of vegetarian group. The type of diet had significant (P≤0.05) effect on average weekly body weights, indicating that meat based group had significantly higher body weight at the end of experiment. At the end of experiment, dogs from meat based group gained about 41.80% more body weight as compared to the dogs of vegetarian group. Here, the type of diet had highly significant (PË‚0.01) effect on average weekly gain in weights, indicating that the dogs receiving meat based diet gained significantly higher weights than those receiving vegetarian diet. However, in terms of economics, meat based diet was little costlier than vegetarian diet.
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