Effects of feeding commercial and locally formulated milk replacers on performance of camel calves in Kenya

Abstract

Camel calves’ in pastoral production system are constrained by limited milk feeding. Their survival is important for camel herd growth and milk availability for the camel keepers. A seventy (70) days feeding trial was conducted to determine the nutritive value, dry matter intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio (FCR), and apparent digestibility coefficients in 15 growing camel calves with a body weight of 102.3 ±1.3 Kg (mean ± SE). They were randomly assigned to plant based milk replacer (PBMR) and commercial milk replacer (CMR) diets in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with five replications. The Crude Protein (CP), Metabolizable Energy (ME) and Dry Matter (DM) among other components were significantly (p