Study on levels of Kluai Hin Banana (Musa sapientum) peel meal in Japanese quail ration: 2. Laying period

Kluai Hin banana peel meal (KHBPM) contained 92.70% dry matter, 5.61% crude protein, 6.66% crude fat, 9.32% crude fiber, 10.90% ash, 60.21% NFE, 0.37% Ca, 0.22% P and 1.25% tannin on dry basis and 4,362 Kcal GE/kg. It was incorporated into 8 Japanese quail diets at 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35%. Three hundred and thirty head of 5-weeks-old birds were randomly allotted to 8 treatments each with 4 replicates (10 quails/ replicate), fed with the above mentioned diets until 20 weeks of age. The results showed no significant (p> 0.05) difference among treatments in terms of their ages at first laying, egg production, egg weight, feed efficiency and feed consumption and feed cost when KHBPM was included up to 25% of the diet. However, treatment at the higher levels (>25% KHBPM), gave significantly (p