The Effect of Feed Form and Particle Size on Growth Performance, Intestinal Morphology and Nutrient Digestibility in Japanese quails at 21-35 days of age

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of particle size and feed form on growth performance, digestibility, and intestinal morphology of growing Japanese quails from 21 to 35 days of age. A total of 480 mixed Japanese quails were used in a completely randomized design with a 2×3 factorial arrangement, three feed forms (mash, crumble, and pellet) and two levels of particle size (fine, and coarse), with 6 experimental treatments, 4 replicates and 20 birds per each replicate. Birds consumed pelleted and crumbled feeds with coarse particle size showed significantly higher body weight gain, compared to the birds fed with mash feed with both coarse and fine grinding particle size(p<0.05). A significant increase in feed intake were detected in birds fed with pelleted form (p<0.01). Feed conversion ratio was significantly higher in quails fed with pelleted diets than mash and crumbled diets and also in fine particle size than coarse particles (p<0.01). Birds fed with pellets with higher particle size had significantly heavier gizzards (p<0.05). The length of villi was significantly higher in birds fed with pelleted and crumbled feeds (p<0.01). The highest percentage of dry matter and nitrogen digestibility were observed in birds fed with the mash form diet and also in coarse particle size diets (p<0.05). Based on the results, the use of crumbled diets with coarse particle size are recommended due to more weight gain compared to the mash diets and also better feed efficiency in compare to the pelleted diets.