Effect of the percentage of protein in the initiator and finisher periods on some of the productive traits for Japanese quail bird

This study was conducted in the poultry field belonging to the Department of Animal Resources,College of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Mosul for the period from 1/5/2018 to 15/6/2018. Inthis study, 90 chicks of local quail with one day age were used, where was raised collective breedingin the first week, and then distributed to three treatments, each of them consisting of three replicates,with rate of 10 birds in each replicate, which raised in wooden cages with a dimensions of 50 x 50 x 50cm2. The first treatment included initiator diet (26% crude protein) from 1 day age to the end of thethird weeks, and finisher diet contains 24% crude protein from the fourth week to the end of the sixthweek. Third treatment: one diet contains 24% protein throughout the breeding period from 1 one day tothe end of the sixth week. All treatments were equal in the metabolic energy (2,900 kcal.kg-1) in thediet. The results showed no significant differences (P 0.05) in the average percentage of live bodyweight, feed conversion ratio and protein conversion efficiency at the end of the breeding period. Thethird treatment was excelled on the first treatments and the second treatment in the percentage ofweekly weight gain and relative growth rate, It was also observed that there were significantdifferences in the amount of consumed feed, which decreased significantly in the second treatmentcompared to the third treatment at the end of the breeding period (the sixth week). In general, the quailbird needs a diet containing 24% crude protein. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the effect ofthe percentage of protein in the initiator and finisher periods and the comparison between the threetypes of diets on some of the productive traits for Japanese quail bird.