The effect of ash content in feed on the amount of faecal phosphorous of blue foxes

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate how dietary meat bone meal (MB), meat meal (M) and feather meal (F) affect the amount of manure and the solubility of dietary ash during the growth period of farmed blue foxes. The total P content and the DM content of the manure were determined. In both experiments, the ash and P content of MB and M feeds were higher than in F feed. The amount of faeces was highest in MB treatment and lowest in M treatment. Furthermore, the DM content in faeces was highest in MB treatment in E1 and in M and MB treatments in E2. The digestibility of ash was significantly lower in MB treatment compared to especially M treatment. However, the faecal P content of M treatment was higher than in MB treatment in E1 but not in E2. The faecal P content of F treatment was considerably lower than in other treatments. In regards to the environmental load of fur farming, it would be ideal to use raw materials in the feed that has low ash content and good digestibility. The amount of 5-8 % of feather meal used in our study fulfils the ash and P requirements of growing foxes. Therefore, our study implies that environmentally the most suitable raw material could be feather meal.