Abstract
The effects of diets on the excretion of cecal feces and their nitrogen contents were studied using 80-day-old Single Comb White Leghorn male chicks. The diets used here were whole grain wheat and stock diets added with or without 10% fibrous part of Italian ryegrass, 10% fish meal and 15% feather meal (Group 1), semi-purified diets containing 15% feather meal or 13% casein as a sole protein source (iso-nitrogenous) (Group 2), and semi-purified diets containing graded levels of casein (0 to 30%) (Group 3). The results obtained were as follows:
1. Among the birds in Group 1, the chicks given whole grain wheat excreted the largest amount of cecal feces, and the chicks fed the fibrous part of Italian ryegrass and feather meal excreted the smallest amount of cecal feces. The amounts of nitrogen components in rectal feces were largest in the chicks fed the feather meal diet and smallest in those fed the whole grain wheat. The reverse result was obtained in the cecal feces.
2. Although the chicks were given the same amount of protein in Group 2, the chicks receiving the feather meal diet excreted twice as much rectal feces and half as much cecal feces as those receiveng the casein diet. Compared to the casein diet-fed chicks, the feather meal diet-fed chicks excreted a larger amount of rectal nitrogen and a smaller amount of cecal one. Frequency of excretion was not affected by the diets in Groups 1 and 2.
3. As the casein level of the diet was increased, the amount of nitrogen was increased in both rectal and cecal feces. Nitrogen contents of blood was also increased in the chicks fed the diet containg 30% casein in Group 3.
