Dr. Ally KAKHIL PREM2024-08-082024-08-082023-03-23https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810213036An experiment was conducted in medium sized adult nondescript dogs kept restrained for a period of four months to evaluate the formulated dry food. Four medium sized healthy adult nondescript dogs of about one to four years of age and around 10 to 15 kg body weight were selected and experimental design adopted was switch over design. The dietary treatments are T1 (40 per cent CP, 23 per cent fat, 30 per cent carbohydrate and 3626 kcal ME), T2 (35 per cent CP, 20 per cent fat, 38 per cent carbohydrate and 3528 kcal ME) T3 (26 per cent CP, 15 per cent fat, 52 per cent carbohydrate and 3475 kcal ME) and T4 (20 per cent CP, 11 per cent fat 62 per cent carbohydrate and 3370 kcal ME). The animals are allotted to each dietary treatment for a period of 4 weeks, one week was given in between the treatment to nullify the carry over effect wherein control diet was given following which animals are switched over to next dietary treatment. The blood samples were collected at the end of each trial period to estimate haemato-biochemical parameters. A digestibility trial was conducted at the end of each trial period for three consecutive days to determine the digestibility of nutrients.The average initial body weights of dogs in the T1, T2, T3 and T4 groups were 10.38, 10.40, 13.42, and 11.62 kg respectively and the corresponding values after feeding trial were 10.38, 11.60, 13.46 and 11.64 kg respectively. The average body score of dogs initially in the T1, T2, T3 and T4 groups were 4.00 ± 0.04, 4.05 ± 0.03, 4.23 ± 0.03 and 4.00 ± 0.07, respectively and the final body score at the end of feeding trial were 4.00 ± 0.07, 4.00 ± 0.04, 4.25 ± 0.03 and 4.00 ± 0.04, respectively in T1, T2, T3 and T4 groups. The average daily dry matter consumption of dogs maintained on four experimental diets were 151.23, 158.52, 164.06 and 173.02g for T1, T2, T3 and T4 respectively. Average DMI per kg body weight were 12.94, 13.93, 14.27 and 14.88g for dogs in T1, T2, T3 and T4 groups respectively. The average daily DMI per 100 kg body weight were 1293.73, 1392.65, 1426.53 and 1488g and average daily DMI per kg metabolic body weight were 23.9, 25.55, 26.25 and 27.46 g, respectively for the animals in the four treatment groups (T1, T2, T3 and T4). The data on average daily crude protein consumption of dogs maintained on the four experimental rations were 60.14, 55.48, 42.7 and 34.88g, respectively. The average CP intake per kg body weight was 5.14, 4.87, 3.71 and 3.00g for animals in T1, T2, T3 and T4 groups, respectively. The weekly average daily CP intake per 100 kg body weight was 0.51, 0.48, 0.37 and 0.29 kg and average daily CP intake per kg metabolic body weight was 9.50, 8.94, 6.83 and 5.54 kg, respectively, for T1, T2, T3 and T4 groups. The digestibility coefficient of nutrients in the four experimental rations (T1, T2, T3 and T4) were 79.39, 77.23, 74.83 and 72.26 per cent for dry matter, 82.92, 80.48, 85.26 and 82.34 per cent for crude protein, 95.99, 95.66, 97.15 and 95.18 per cent for ether extract, 48.34, 47.20, 47.98 and 46.17 per cent for crude fibre and 59.16, 60.59, 60.47 and 58.71 per cent for nitrogen free extract, respectively. The mean daily faecal output of the experimental animals maintained in T1, T2, T3 and T4 during digestibility trial are 119.37, 137.85, 171.55 and 188.06g respectively. The faecal output per kg body weight was 10.17, 11.97, 14.78 and 16.15g, resectively in T1, T2, T3 and T4. The faecal score of animals maintained in T1, T2, T3 and T4 groups were 3.10, 2.75, 2.48 and 1.95, respectively. The calculated value for total digestible nutrients (TDN) 98.47, 92.42, 85.47 and 75.80 per cent, digestible energy (DE) 4341, 4074, 3768 and 3342 kcal/kg feed and metabolizable energy (ME) 3559, 3340, 3089 and 2740 kcal/kg feed for the four diets T1, T2, T3 and T4, respectively. The average daily ME intake was 783.37, 799.18, 814.45 and 832.97 kcal. The average daily ME intake per kg metabolic body weight was 123.82, 128.82, 130.30 and 132.17 kcal for animals in T1, T2, T3 and T4 groups respectively.The values of various haematological and serum biochemical parameters estimated in T1, T2, T3 and T4 were 15.9, 15.73, 15.43 and 15.9g/dL haemoglobin, 43.35, 42.7, 42.45 and 41.38 per cent packed cell volume (PCV), 7.02, 7.08, 6.89 and 7.03 red blood cell (106), 10.38, 9.83, 11.18 and 10 white blood cell (106), 22.27, 21.93, 23.53 and 21.44 blood urea nitrogen (mg/dL), 2.62, 2.71, 2.81 and 2.61 g/dL serum albumin, 6.88, 6.42, 7.05, 6.81 g/dL serum total protein and 65.38, 66.02, 65.87 and 68.46 IU/L serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP), respectively. The overall acceptability of four experimental rations T1, T2, T3 and T4 are 5.7, 6.4, 6.8 and 6.2 respectively. The T3 experimental diet was ranked as the most acceptable followed by T2, then T4 followed by T1 which was ranked as least acceptable among the four experimental rations. Total cost of feed and cost of feed per kg were Rs.6573.2, 4781.1, 2693.2, 1483.3 and Rs. 329.65, 231.31, 127.28, 66.46 respectively for T1, T2, T3 and T4 feeds. All the experimental rations met the requirements for metabolizable energy and crude protein intake as stipulated by NRC (2006) and ICAR (2013).Based on the observations, the experimental rations T3 and T4 are found to be more acceptable. The carbohydrate content in T4 was higher than T3. Also T3 performed better than T4 in case of faecal scoring and consumer acceptance. So it can be recommended that pet food for medium sized dogs with moderate activity in Indian conditions can be made with 26 per cent protein, 15 per cent fat and 52 per cent carbohydrate.EnglishThesis