Study was carried out on 500 straight run chicks of Kadaknath breed of fowl, under intensive system of housing up to 5 months of age. The average daily feed consumption, body weight, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were recorded weekly up to 8 week of age and thereafter at monthly interval up to 5 months of age. The average weight of day old chicks was 28.55 ± 0.5 g. The mean weekly feed consumption recorded from 1-8 week of age was 21.29 ± 0.11, 46.43 ± 0.71, 82.60 ± 0.9, 104.38 ± 2.09, 115.45 ± 2.66, 150.51 ± 1.17 and 163.63 ± 2.99 and 244.52 ± 2.62 g, respectively. The overall mean weekly body weight gain from 1-8 week of age was 7.54 ± 0.10, 16.84 ± 0.44, 32.23 ± 1.87, 42.42 ± 3.23, 50.91 ± 1.22, 72.30 ± 3.36, 70.59 ± 4.24 and 86.34 ± 5.65 g, respectively. The corresponding values obtained for FCR were 2.82 ± 0.35, 2.75 ± 0.09, 2.56 ± 0.05, 2.46 ± 0.05, 2.26 ± 0.03, 2.09 ± 0.08, 2.32 ± 0.13 and 2.84 ± 0.12. The weekly body weight gain linearly increased up to eight week. The mean monthly feed consumption during 3rd, 4th, and 5th month of age was 1682.09 ± 38.59, 1739.05 ± 11.84 and 1622.83 ± 7.14 g, respectively. The overall mean weight gain recorded at 3rd, 4th, and 5th month of age was 260.52 ± 7.49, 174.58 ± 7.50 and 131.41 ± 18.84 g, respectively. The corresponding values for FCR were 6.46 ± 0.06, 9.97 ± 0.37 and 12.56 ± 1.98, respectively. The dressing percentage, giblet yield, breast muscle, thigh muscle, abdominal fat and weight of organs (spleen, thymus and bursa) were 70.43 ± 1.79, 5.35 ± 0.02, 19.41 ± 0.13, 14.91 ± 0.25, 1.59 and 0.88 ± 0.04 per cent, respectively of live weight at 5 months of age. An overall mortality of 25.2 % was recorded during entire period of experiment with a maximum of 11.40% during first week.

Highlights

• Economic traits of Kadaknath under intensive system of housing.
• To establish feed requirement under intensive system of housing.
• Adoptability of Kadkanth birds in malwa region of M.P.