Use of Feed Color and Odor as Attractive Tools for Managing Turkey Chicks at Early Feeding

Abstract

total number of 180 one-day old unsexed native turkey chicks were chosen for evaluating the response of turkeys to different feed odors and colors on growth performance, carcass characteristics, some meat quality and health traits. Birds were allocated in three main groups according to feed odor (non-odor, molasses and fish odors) and then each main group was divided to two subgroups corresponded to non-colored and green colored feed, respectively. The findings indicated that birds fed diets of molasses or fish odors had significantly better values of body weight (BW), body weight gain (BWG), feed consumption (FC) and feed conversion ratio (FCR). Birds fed green color had heavier BW than those fed non color feed. BW, BWG and FC of birds fed green feed with molasses and fish odors significantly exceeded those of untreated feed at marketing age. No significant differences were found in each of some carcass traits, meat tender and juiciness due to feed odors, colors and their interactions. Liver percentage and meat flavor were increased in birds fed diets with molasses and fish odors than those of the non-odor group. Score of meat color was higher in birds fed green feed than those of the other group. Birds fed green feed with molasses or fish odor had the highest values of liver percentage, meat color and flavor scores. Plumage condition, H / L ratio and tonic immobility of turkeys fed green feed was significantly better than those of non-color group. No significant differences were found in plumage condition, body temperature, H / L ratio and tonic immobility due to feed odors. Considering the improved performance, it could be concluded that the native turkeys prefer green feed with molasses or fish odors over traditional one. Finally, the feeding on green colored feeds with molasses or fish odors for turkeys during growing period may be recommended.

Effect of Broiler Diet Colour on Production Characteristics and Economic Parameters

“…The reason could be that the colour of the feed attracts chicks, causing them to feed early, which improves the development of their digestive and immune systems. The results were in agreement with [12] and [7], [13] while these results differed with [3] that there were no significant differences between the treatments.…”

“…The reason may be due to the use of coloured fodder in the early days of the birds' lives, where some of the fodder colours are attractive to the newly hatched chick, which helps them to find feed early, or the attraction of birds to the green colour may be due to the colours of [14]. Promote weight gain [15].…”

Growth Performance and Carcass Characteristics of Broilers as Affected by Feed Color

“…Birds fed diets contained molasses and fresh fish meat significantly (P 0.05) increased body weight gains compared with that obtained from birds either fed diets contained skim milk or fresh whole egg. Farghly (2017) and Farghly and Abou-Kassem (2014) observed that final body weight and body weight gain of birds fed green and red significantly (P≤0.05) increased than those of non colored feed group. However, in contrast to these findings Farghly and Sharara (2016) found that colored feed insignificantly affected body weight performance in local turkey.…”

“…It was concluded that the local turkey prefer green feed as well as green feeders over orange, yellow, red feeders and white, orange, yellow or red feeds, respectively. Farghly and Mahrose (2017) and Farghly (2017) found that turkey poults fed green feed were insignificantly higher in their BW than the other groups and that was reflected on the marketing weight. While, they showed insignificant differences in FC and FCR of the experimental groups due to feed color.…”

“…Feeding strategy in growing broiler chickens should be considered to produce birds with maximum lean body mass, best feed conversion ratio and maximum body weight. Delayed feeding was found to be the main factor affecting growth in broiler chicken (Pinchasov, 1991).The importance of early feeding of newly hatched chicks on their performance was adequately demonstrated by several studies (Juul-Madsen et al, 2004;Farghly and Glaal 2016;Farghly et al, 2016a&2017;Farghly 2017 andFarghly andMahrose 2017).…”