Consumption and nutritive value of feedstuffs used for great-billed seed finch (“Sporophila maximiliani”)

Abstract

An experiment was carried out to determinate the nutritive value and consumption of canary grass (Phalaris canariensis L.), rice (Oryza sativa L.), proso millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) and barnyard grass (Echinochloa spp) for the Great-billed Seed Finch (Sporophila maximiliani). Twenty four adult females averaging two years of age were assigned to a completely randomized design with four treatments, three replicates and two birds per pen. Fecal output was used to determine dry matter, protein and energy metabolizable coefficients, and also the values of apparent metabolizable energy and corrected by nitrogen. No differences were observed in consumption, with 3.55±0.11g of feedstuff/birds/day. Rice provided the best values for metabolization coefficients of dry matter (90.57%) and energy (90.55%). No differences were observed for protein metabolizable coefficients. The best values for metabolizable energy were obtained from canary grass (3,612kcal/ME kg) and barnyard grass (3,509kcal/ME kg).