Water intake and excretion of growing she-camels in relation to the type of roughage fed and concentrate

Abstract

 The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effect of three roughages (Atriplex, clover hay or rice straw) were fed ad lib with two levels of concentrate (95% and 50% ad lib) on feed intake, water utilization,(water intake and excretion)of growing she-camels. Nine healthy growing she-camels (28-30 months old and 376.3 kg body weight, BW) were housed individually in metabolic cages and randomly allotted to three treatments, three camels each. The experiment lasted for 60 days. Results indicated that limiting concentrate to 50% decreased (P <0.05) ME intake, DCP intake and metabolic water as well as average daily gain, while increased (P <0.05) roughage feed intake, free water intake and total water intake as well as non-excreted water. On the other hand, the effect of roughage type indicated that the Atriplex-fed camels had higher (P <0.05)daily feed intake, water intake and water excretion. The camels fed hay were significantly higher in the metabolic water than those fed Atriplex or rice straw(15.23, 11.06 and 11.95 ml/kg0.85, respectively). The camels fed Atriplex recorded significantly (P<0.001) higher free water intake, feed water, total water intake, faecal water output, urinary water excretion and non-excreted water than camels fed hay or straw. The roughage-concentrate interaction was significant (P <0.05) for feed water, faecal water output, urinary water excretion and metabolic water than the other groups. The results indicated that camels fed high concentrate level 95% with clover hay showed the best results concerning by energy intake, body weight gain and feed efficiency. While camels fed Atriplex revealed the highest feed and water intake. The limited concentrate and ad lib roughages offered in camels fed, had significant (P <0.05) increasing free water intake, total water intake, and non-excreted water but decreased metabolic water. There was no observed effect on the amount of faecal water and urinary water excretion.