-The use of viscera and bone meal in poultry pre-starter and starter diets and its effects on performance, digestive organ development and digestibility and nutrient retention were evaluated. In the first assay, 280-day-old Avian Cobb ® chicks were allotted in four experimental groups with five replicates of 14 birds each, in the pre-starter phase; in the second assay, 280 eight-day-old Avian Cobb 48 ® chicks were allotted in four experimental groups with five replicates of 12 birds each. The experimental diet consisted of increasing levels of viscera and bone meal: 0% (control diet), 3%, 6% and 9% in pre-starter (Assay 1) and starter (Assay 2) diets, to meet nutritional requirements and feed composition proposed by the Brazilian Tables, all of them isonutritive and isoenergetic. A metabolic assay was developed and the total excreta collection was performed from the 4 th to the 7 th days in Assay 1 and from the 14 th to the 17 th days in Assay 2. On these days, one chick per experimental unit, representing the mean body weight of the parcel, was euthanized to perform digestive organ