Performance and nutritional value of hydroponic green barley forage in feeding guinea pig

Abstract

The aim of this research was to compare the feeding of guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) with hydroponic green forage (HGF) as a plant base. A completely randomized design and the Duncan test at 5% were used. In total, 100 male guinea pigs aged 14 ± 5 days were distributed in five treatments (T1: Integral concentrate, T2: HGF, T3: chala maize, T4; Mixed concentrate + HGF and T5: Mixed concentrate with chala maize), with five repetitions. Body weight, daily weight gain, feed consumption, feed conversion and carcass percentage were evaluated over 68 days. The body weight gain per day in T4 (16.11 g), T1 (15.95 g) and T5 (15.65 g) was significantly higher than that obtained in T2 (5.51 g) and T3 (4.95 g) (p<0.05), T5 and T4 presented the highest feed consumption on a dry basis (3538.9 and 3239.9 g; p<0.05), followed by T1 (2973.4 g). The best feed conversions were presented in T1 (3.81), T4 (4.11) and T5 (4.63), and the guinea pigs from T5 (74.79%), T4 (74.26%), T1 (73.66) obtained the highest carcass percentages (p<0.05). In conclusion, the integral and mixed feeding system has a positive influence on the productive parameters.