1 American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) ISSN (Print) 2313-4410, ISSN (Online) 2313-4402 © Global Society of Scientific Research and Researchers http://asrjetsjournal.org/ Growth Performance of Grasscutters (Thryonomys Swinderianus) in Captivity Fed on Pelleted Forage and Cassava Tubers with the Peel in Ghana Seidu J. M.a*, Dzisi K. A.b, Addo A. G.c, Barte-Plange A.d, Odai, B.e aCollege of Agriculture Education, University of Education, Mampong-Ashanti, Ghana b,c,d,eCollege of Engineering, Department of Agriculture Engineering, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana aEmail: jmseidu58@yahoo.com Abstract The study was to investigate the growth performance and quality of the meat of grasscutters in captivity fed on two pelleted diets made of Elephant grass, gliricidia leaves and cassava with the peel with urea as ration 1 and with soy bean meal as ration 2. The control was feeding with only Elephant grass. Feed intake, feed wastage, weight gain were measured and feed conversion ratio was calculated. Feed intake and feed conversion ration were not significantly different at P> 0.05. Although the feed intake of the experimental animals was low on the pelleted feed their growth rate was numerically higher as compared to those fed on the Elephant grass ( Pennisetum purpurenum) only. The final body weight of the animals fed on the pelleted feed were not significantly different but were significantly different to those fed on the control feed p>0.05. Grasscutters are noted for their feed wastage, in the study feed wastage of the three rations were significantly different p>0.05.with the control feed recording the highest feed wastage. The dressing percentage of carcass as well as the protein content of the meat of the animal fed on the pelleted diets were not significantly different but were significantly different to those of the control ( p>0.05). It was also observed that it would cost GHȻ 21.70 for one kilogram weight gain feeding the grasscutter with Elephant grass whilst with the pelleted feed it would cost GHȻ 9.83 and GHȻ 6.85 for ration 1 and ration 2 respectively feeding the grasscutter. Grasscutter farmers in Ghana are encouraged to feed their grasscutters with pelleted combination of Elephant grass, gliricidia leaves and cassava with the peel with either urea or soy meal with other commercial ingredient as complete diets for sustainable grasscutter production in Ghana and countries south of the sub-Saharan region. Keywords: Growth Performance; Grasscutters (Thryonomys Swinderianus); Ghana. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ * Corresponding author. http://asrjetsjournal.org/ American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) (2016) Volume 18, No 1, pp 1-15 2 1. Introduction Grasscutter domestication is gaining grounds among most rural farmers and urban settlers in Ghana as well as most countries of the Sub-Saharan African Region as its meat is tasty, less fatty, popular and sells at very good price in both the local and foreign markets of the US and Europe. Poor indigenous methods of hunting the grasscutters for their meat are almost to the point of extinction of the animal in most areas in Ghana. Rearing of the animal has become important because of the quality of its meats. It is considered a delicacy by both the rich and the poor alike and the most popular and perhaps the most expensive meat in Ghana. Studies by [1,2,3 ]. In Ghana revealed that 65% and 64%, respectively of traditional restaurant (“chop bar”), customers prefer grasscutter meat to all other meat. Reference [4] also observed that grasscutter meat sells at about 2 to 4 times higher than beef, mutton; chevon and chicken in the West African Sub-region. Domestication of grasscutter is therefore important to the economy of Ghana. The Ministry of Food and Agric in collaboration with the German Development cooperation (GTZ, DED), HEIFER International, Food and Agric organization (FAO) and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Ghana, since 2005 are promoting grasscutter farming as a viable option for income and improve in nutrition for a wide scope of people including the marginalized groups in rural areas to reduce poverty. In 2010 the number of registered grasscutter farmers were 1,500 and the grasscutter population was also about 16,000 [5].Currently, Ghana can boost of over 250,000 of both registered and individuals who ventured into the business [6]. Although grasscutter farming has gained grounds in Ghana, their growth performance is very low. The low growth rate has been attributed to inadequate supply of balanced diets. At the moment most grasscutter farmers fed them on grasses and some household waste. However, there are potential of feedstuff from local and available plants sources which are capable of supplying the nutritive requirement of grasscutter in captivity. Forage and crop residues though inexpensive and easily available feedstuffs for feeding grasscutter in capacity are nutritionally, poor, not balance for optimum performance and therefore, require supplementation. Most grasscutter farmers in Ghana feed the animal with guinea grass, elephant grass, maize, cassava tubers or peel and at times sugarcane stems and sweet potato. A combination of dried Elephant grass, Gliricidia leaves, cassava with the peel mixed with either urea or soy meal with some commercial ingredients were pelleted as Grasscutter; Growth performance; Feed intake; and meat quality. ration 1 and ration 2 and fed to grasscutters in captivity to determine their growth performance and quality of meat. 2. Materials and Methods 2.1 Feed component American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) (2016) Volume 18, No 1, pp 1-15 3 Four week elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum.) and Gliricidia leaves were harvested from the college cocoa plantation field while the cassava was purchased from a farmer. The selection of the material was based on the fact that they are the most used feed of the grasscutter and are common and available all year round. The elephant grass and cassava tubers were chopped into pieces of sizes between 2-4 cm whiles the gliricidia leaves were left whole. They were separately shade dried at a temperature of 25oC and ground in a hammer mill of sieve size 2.0mm. The ground materials were mixed according to a feed formulated formula together with some industrial ingredients to obtain a crude protein level of 18% as stated by [7]. 2.2 Composition of pelleted feed rations Table 1 gives a descriptive summary of the various levels of inclusion of feedstuffs in the two rations. The calculated crude proteins for the two rations are 17.50% and 18.16% respectively. Our calculation was based on [7].who postulated that the crude protein required for optimal growth of grasscutters from weaning to puberty stage is 18%. 2.3 Proximate Analysis of the feed before and after pelleting The proximate analysis of samples of the two feed rations were carried out to determine their nutrient values and other chemical properties they possed at the Animal Nutrition Laboratory of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, KUST, Ghana. Table 2 describe the level of nutrient of the composed feed before and after pelleting of the types of rations. The initial crude protein content of 13.10 and 15.8 were higher than the levels of crude protein content (9.25%) of diets fed by farmers in most parts of Africa since they mostly fed the grasscutter with Panicum maximum and pennisetum puripuratum [8,9]. The proximate analysis of the pelleted feeds fed to the experimental grasscutters was carried out to determine the nutritional values for dry matter (%DM), ash (%DM), organic matter (%DM), crude protein (%DM), crude fibre (%DM), ether extract (%DM), Nitrogen free extract (NFE) (%DM), metabolizable energy (MJ/kg DM) at the animal nutritional laboratory of Kwame Nkrumah university of Science and Technology (Table. 2) above. The table indicates most levels of the individual chemical components increased after pelleting. The crude protein for the ration 2 (soybean inclusive) increased from 15.8% (loose feed) to 20.6% and that of ration 1(urea inclusive) also increased from 13.5% (loosed feed) to 17.9%. Ether Extract of the pellet increased from 2.00 % for both loosed ration to 3.00 %; moisture content increased from 5.00 % to 11.5 % and 14.50 % for ration 1 and ration 2 respectively; Metabolizable Energy increased from 1983.70 (kcal/kg) to 2344.85(kcal/kg for ration 1 and 2230.10(kcal/kg) to 2314.05(kcal/kg) for ration 2. The cellulose content for the loosed feed of rations 1and 2 (29g/100g and 28g/100g respectively) also increased to 30 and 36g/100g. American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) (2016) Volume 18, No 1, pp 1-15 4 Table 1: composition of pelleted feed ration Ration with Urea Ration with soya bean meal Ingrdients Inclusive level (%) Crude protein (%) Calculated crude protein (%) Ingrdients Inclusive level (%) Crude protein (%) Calculated crude protein (%) Major Ingredient Elephant grass Gliricidia leaves Cassava with peel Urea Minor Ingredients Dicalcium phosphate Premix Common salt/table salt Sodium sulphate 45.0 29.0 22.0 2.8 0.28 0.35 0.44 0.13 7.40 19.70 4.4 44 2.96 5.52 0.96 8.05 Major Ingredient Elephant grass Gliricidia leaves Cassava with peel Soya bean meal Minor Ingredients Dicalcium phosphate Premix Common salt/table salt 40.00 28.00 10.00 21.00 0.25 0.25 0.5 7.40 19.7 4.4 44 2.96 5.52 0.44 9.24 Total 100.00 17.49 Total 100.00 18.16 According to [10,11], pelleting feed increases most chemical components of feed and makes them available to animal and thus improves their performance. On the other hand the hemicelluloses content of the pelleted feed decrease for both rations while the lignin level of ration 2 increased from 14.29 to 18.18. According to [12 ], in1998; urea decrease the resilience characteristics of the fibres, degrade the cell wall structure and separated lignin from the cellulose, this reaction has caused the low level of the lignin in the diet with the urea as one of it component. On the tested minerals, (calcium, Magnesium and Phosphorus) had their values either increased or reduced. Calcium in ration 1 increased from 0.71 to 0.85 g/100g while that of ration 2 decreased; magnesium increased American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) (2016) Volume 18, No 1, pp 1-15 5 from 0.51 to 0.72g/ 100g; and phosphorus increased from 0.10 to 0.30g/100g in ration 1 and ration 2 had the phosphorus also increased from 0.16 to 0.33. For ration 2 Calcium that was 0.76 in the raw mix before pelleting decreased to 0.52g/100g after pelleting; whilst those of magnesium increased from 0.51 to 0.72g/100g for ration 1 with that of ration 2 increasing from 0.63 to 0.64g/100g. Table 2: Chemical composition feed components in the two rations before and after pelleting Feed Chemical Composition (g/100g) Constituent Ration with Urea inclusive Ration with Soy meal Inclusive Before Pelleting After pelleting Before Pelleting After Pelleting Dry matter Crude Protein Ether Extract Crude fibre Ash Moisture content Nitrogen free Extract Acid detergent fibre Neutral detergent fibre Cellulose Hemi-cellulose Lignin Calcium Phosphorous Magnesium ME(MJ/kg) 95.00 13.10 2.00 32.18 9.00 11.00 38.72 37.00 69.00 29.00 32.00 14.29 0.71 0.10 0.51 1983.70 85.00 17.90 3.00 16.67 7.00 13.50 40.93 42.00 43.00 36.00 1.00 8.57 0.85 0.30 0.72 2314.05 95.00 15.80 2.00 24.14 10.00 10.50 43.06 39.00 57.00 28.00 18.00 14.29 0.76 0.16 0.63 2230.10 88.50 20.60 3.00 19.79 6.00 10.50 39.11 30.00 37.00 28.00 18.18 7.00 0.82 0.33 0.64 2340.85 Laboratory – KNUST, Department of Animal Science, 2014 2.4 Performance of grasscutters fed on experimental pellets 2.4.1 Feed and water Intake The average daily feed intake, feed conversion efficiency (FCE), water intake and feed wastage recorded for the three dietary treatments are shown in Table 3. Treatment means with the same letters within the same row are not significant at p<0.05. American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) (2016) Volume 18, No 1, pp 1-15 6 2.5 Growth performance of Grasscutters on dietary treatments Table 4 is a descriptive summary of the growth performance of the grasscutters fed on the dietary treatments. 2.5.1 Mean biweekly feed intake of experimental grasscutters fed on the three diets (kg) Fig 1a indicates the mean biweekly feed intake of the different diets fed on each experimental group of grasscutters. The lowest feed intake was recorded in grasscutters fed with pelleted ration 1 (urea inclusive) and the highest feed intake was the control feed (pennesetum purpureum with concentrates at albeit) followed by the pelleted ration 2 (soymeal inclusive). It could be realised that from the fourth month to the six month the rate of feed intake was almost constant with the control feed and slightly increased in the pelleted feeds, this could be attributed to coincide with their period for mating as stated by [13]. Table 3: Mean feed intake, Water Intake, Feed conversion Efficiency (FCE), and Feed Wastage. Parameter Control Ration 1 (Urea inclusive)Pelleted Ration 2 (soymeal inclusive) Pelleted LSD Mean Feed intake (g/day) Mean Water intake (g/day Mean feed wastage (%) Feed converversion Efficiency (%) 96.93a 100.69c 15.30a 12.28a 88.65a 107.20a 8.13b 8.87a 87.67a 104.60b 6.74c 8.12a 2.047 0.88 0.02 16.11 2.5.2 Biweekly mean weight gain of animal fed on the three diets (kg) Figure 1b illustrates the growth performance of the experimental animal with respect to the type and form of feed. The gain in weight of the animals feed on the pelleted feed did not show much differences as compared with those feed the elephant grass (control) even though much of the control feed was eaten by the animals. 2.6 Biweekly feed intake and weight gain of grasscutters fed on the three diets. (kg) Figures 1b, 1c, 1d. and1e, indicates the feed intake and weight gain of the grasscutters fed on the three deitary feeds. It was realised that the feed intake of the animal fed on the control diet did not commensurate the weight gain hence they had to eat more to gain weight. On the other hand the grasscutters fed on the pelleted feed showed increases in weight gain with increased in feed intake as observed by [13]. American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) (2016) Volume 18, No 1, pp 1-15 7 Table 4: Growth Performance of Grasscutter on dietary Treatment Diet Control Ration 1 Pelleted Ration 2 Pelleted LSD Initial Body weight (kg) Final Body weight (kg) Total weight gain (kg) Daily weight gained (g/day) Mortality 0.66a 1.96b 1.30b 6.75a 2 0.65a 2.43a 1.78a 9.97a 3 0.67a 2.77a 2.10a 10.65a 2 1.68 2.69 2.46 9.12 Treatment means with the same letters within the same row are not significant at p<0.05. Figure 1a: Mean weekly feed intake (kg). Figure 1e: Weekly feed intake and weight gain (kg); Ration 2 pelleted fee 2.7 Mortality A total of seven (7) animals, (two each of the control feed and of pelleted ration 2 feed and three animals of the pelleted ration 1 feed) died during the first two weeks due to stress. According to [8 ].one major cause of mortality in grasscutters in captivity is stress. After the two weeks there was no more mortality recorded because stress was duly managed. The distance of the farm to other facilities also contributed to reduce noise. Pawpaw seeds were fed to the animal after the third month as against worms, a factor that has been identified to be responsible for high mortality of captive grasscutters by [14 ]. 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 F e e d i n t a k e ( k g) Periods (days) Biweekly feed intake Control Ration 2 Ration 1 American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) (2016) Volume 18, No 1, pp 1-15 8 Figure 1 b: Biweekly weight gain (kg) Biweekly feed intake and weight gain of grasscutters fed on (Control feed) kg Figure 1c: Weekly feed intake and weight gain (kg); Control feed Biweekly feed intake and weight gain of grasscutters fed on ration 1 (pelleted) kg. 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 W e i g h t( k g) T i t l e Period (weeks) Weekly mean weight gain of grasscutter (kg) Control Ration 2 Ration 1 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 w e i g h t g a i n F e e d i n t a k e ( k g) Period (weeks) Control feed: Biweekly feed intake and weight gain (kg) Feed intake Weekly weight gain (kg) American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) (2016) Volume 18, No 1, pp 1-15 9 Figure 1 d: Weekly feed intake and weight gain (kg); Ration 1pelleted feed Weekly feed intake and weight gain on pelleted ration 2. (kg) Figure 1e: Weekly feed intake and weight gain (kg); Ration 2 pelleted fee 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 W e i g h t g a i n ( k g) F e e d i n t a k e ( k g) periods (weeks) Ration 1:Biweekly feed intake and weight gain (kg) feed intake (kg) Weight gain (kg) 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 W e i g h t g a i n ( k g) F e e d i n t a k e ( k g) Period (weeks) Ration 2: Biweekly feed intake and weight gain weekly feed intake weekly weight gain American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) (2016) Volume 18, No 1, pp 1-15 10 2.8 Carcass Characteristics Table 5 is a descriptive summary of the carcass characteristics of the slaughtered grasscuttesr of each treatment. Table 5: Carcass Characteristics Variable Control Ration 1 Pelleted Ration 2 Pelleted LSD Dressing percentage (%) Trimmable fat (g) Mean Heart (g) Mean liver (g) Mean kidney g) Mean lung (g) Mean spleen (g) 65.12a 0.22c 15.45a 26.53b 8.23b 12.30b 3.83a 71.78a 4.32b 19.10a 45.45a 13.34a 17.53a 4.43a 75.42a 6.52a 21.45a 46.52a 14.23a 18.35a 5.34a 109 0.07 53.24 12.9 2.5 1.10 14.68 Treatment means with the same letters within the same row are not significant at p<0.05. Chemical Composition and pH of the raw meat of the slaughtered grasscutters The table 6 shows the levels of protein, fat, Ash, moisture and pH of the raw meat of the slaughtered grasscutters fed on each feed treatment. Table 6: Chemical Composition and pH of raw meat Variable Control Ration 1 Ration 2 LSD Protein (%) Fat (%) Ash (%) Moisture (%) pH (%) 16.32a 1.6a 0.50a 67.87a 6.24a 19.63a 3.12a 0.61a 64.43a 6.10a 22.03a 3.02a 0.63a 63.05a 6.18a 9.81 5.86 Ns 22.34 11.34 Treatment means with the same letters within the same row are not significant at p<0.05. 2.9 Mean feed Wastage The amount of feed wasted during the experimental period of six months ranged between 6.74% and 15.30%. Animals fed on the control diet had the highest percentage feed wasted followed by the grasscutters fed on ration 1. The least feed wastage (6.74%) was recorded on the grasscutters fed on ration 2 (soy meal inclusive). American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) (2016) Volume 18, No 1, pp 1-15 11 The results indicated that there were significant differences between the amounts of feed wasted by the animals under the various diets. The level of wastage observed in the study was however lower than the 70% reported by [15]. The low wastage level could also be attributed the depth of the feed containers (larger tomatoes tins of 11cm depth) as compared with earth pots of 5cm depth used by [15]. The solid nature of the pelleted feed also made it impossible for the grasscutter to scatter them with their fingers. 2.10 Feed conversion efficiency (FCE) From Table 3, animals fed on the pelleted feed that had high crude protein level were more efficient in converting feed into body weight than those fed with diet with low protein content (13.5%) the control feed. There were significant difference (p<0.05) between animals fed on the pelleted diet and the control diet. The different protein levels have contributed to the differences in FCE. [14], gave FCE of grasscutters as 16:1 for animals fed fodder and supplementary feed concentrates of (77.9DM). However, FCE of 7:1 was reported for animal fed ration with 17% crude protein [14]. (This is to say animals put on rations higher in protein content, the ability of the animal to convert the feed into body weight increases compared to animals put on low protein diets. [16].in his assertion the ability of utilization of dietary nitrogen for protein deposition decreases when low quality diet is fed because such diets lack the essential amino acids needed for the synthesis of body proteins, hence the differences in FCE realised in the study. 2.11 Mean Water Intake The mean water intake ranged from 100.69 g/day to 107.20g/day. With the higher mean water intake recorded by the grasscutters fed on ration 1 and the least recorded on those on the control feed. The mean water intake of 104.16ml/animal/day recorded in this present work is relatively higher than 90ml/animal/day reported by [14]. This was expected for according to [19], water content of animal’s diet influences its drinking habits. The mean moisture content 8.5 of the diet used in the study were relatively lower than 22.1% as postulated by [14]. Furthermore the diet fed by them was supplemented with grass that contained about 70% moisture. Currently, some Ghanaian grasscutter farmers are of the view that grasscutter do not drink water. Their assertion could be attributed to the fact that the animals are fed with fresh grasses that have moisture contents of about 70% [9]. They either refuse water or drink very small amount of water in a day. 2.12 Mean Growth Rate The growth performance of the grasscutter on the three diets is represented in Table 4 and Figures 1a to 1e. The result shows that though there was no significance differences between treatment in terms of weight changes, the weight changes of the grasscutters fed on pelleted feed (ration 2, soymeal inclusive) performed better than the pelleted feed ration 1(urea inclusive) and the control feed (T3>T2>T1). The feed intake and growth responses of the twenty eight grasscutters fed the three feeds are respectively illustrated/represented in Figures 4.15 and 4.16. Generally weight changes was directly related to feed intake though there were fluctuations in the feed intake and weight gain per treatment during the study period American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) (2016) Volume 18, No 1, pp 1-15 12 The analysis of variance shows significant different (P<0.05) between animals fed on the pelleted diet and the control, but there was no significant difference (p<0.05) between the mean growth of animals fed on the pelleted feed. The mean growth rate (daily weight gain) as shown in the table showed no significant difference P<0.05 as well as the total weight gain. The differences observed in weight gain per day between the animal on the three diets could be attributed to the difference in the quantity of dietary protein because protein aid in apparent digestibily of dry matter [17]. (The results obtain in this study compared favourably with the values of 8.8 to 12.1 g/day as reported by [18] and 4.8 to 11.2 g/day reported by [15] when the animals were fed with freshly cut Panicum maximum supplemented with concentrates with varying levels of crude protein from 12 – 17%. 2.13 Mean Final Weight and Total Weight Gain The mean final body weight of grasscutter increased with increased dietary protein level as shown in Table 4. No significant difference was observed (P>0.05) between mean final body weight of grasscutters fed on the two pelleted feed. However, there was significant difference (P<0.05) between the final body weight of grasscutters fed on the pelleted diet and the grasscutters fed on the grass with supplemented concentrates (control). The highest weight of 2.77kg was recorded for grasscutters fed on the pelleted feed of ration 3 followed by the pelleted ration 2 weighing 2.34kg and the control feed grasscutters weighed 1.96kg at the end of the study Similarly, the total body weight gain of the animals on the treatment diets increased with increasing crude protein. Total weight gain of animals fed on the pelleted fed were significant (p<0.05) from the animals fed on the control diet. The high protein levels might have increased breakdown and digestibility of the fibre contained in the pelleted feed since microbes which are responsible for breakdown of fibre are basically protein [21]. and would need dietary protein to build body protein for effective breakdown of fibre. [18]. observed in grasscutters that, low protein levels in diets tend to decrease digestibility of nutrients leading to poor growth performance. High protein levels might have also increased the digestibility of nutrients contained in the diets fed since the enzymes responsible for digestion are protein. For instance, proteases are responsible for digestion of proteins whiles amylase and lipases are responsible for the digestion of carbohydrates and fats respectively. Secondly, since protein forms the greatest portion of muscles, nails, hairs and hooves of farm animals [20], increased levels of protein in diets could be associated with an increase in total weight gain. The total weight gain recorded for the animal fed on the pelleted feed with protein levels of 20.6% and 18.01%) in this study compares favourably with the suggestion made by [18] that crude protein requirement of captive grasscutters should be more than 17%. The study therefore suggest that the minimum crude protein level required for growing grasscutters in captivity for optimum growth should be 18% [7]. 3. Conclusion and Recommendation Although the feed intake of the experimental animals was low on the pelleted feed their growth rate was numerically higher as compared to those fed on the Elephant grass only. The final body weight of the animals after the six months period were; 1.96 kg, 2.43 kg and 2.77 kg for the control feed, pelleted ration 1 and American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) (2016) Volume 18, No 1, pp 1-15 13 pelleted ration 2 respectively, with the pelleted feed having the soy meal having the highest weight of 2.77kg. Feed wastage was low in the pelleted feed (8.13% and 6.74% for pelleted feed ration 1 and 2 respectively) while feed wastage of 15.30% was recorded on the control feed, Elephant grass only. The dressing percentage of carcass was observed to be 65.12% for the control feed (Elephant grass), 71.70% and 75.42% for the pellet ration feed and pelleted ration 2 feed respectively. Protein content of the meat of the slaughtered experimental animals was 16.32 % for those fed on the elephant grass (control feed); 19.63% and 22.03% respectively of the meat of the grasscutter fed the pelleted ration 1 and ration 2. It was observed that it would cost GHȻ 21.70 for one kilogram weight gain feeding the grasscutter with elephant grass whilst with the pelleted feed it would cost GHȻ 9.83 and GHȻ 6.85 for ration 1 and ration 2 respectively feeding the grasscutter. It was therefore concluded that elephant grass pelleted with gliricidia leaves and cassava with the peel could be used as complete diets for sustainable grasscutter production in Ghana and countries south of the sub-Saharan region using the pelletizer without any precondition with either steam or hot water and without the use of commercial binders 4. Recommendations Grasscutter farmers in Ghana could therefore successfully feed their animal with pelleted feed made of a combination of dried Elephant grass leaves and stem, gliricidia leaves, cassava with the pee andl either with urea or soy meal with other commercial ingredient as complete diets for sustainable grasscutter production in Ghana and countries south of the sub-Saharan region using the locally constructed pelletizer without any precondition with either steam or hot water and without the use of commercial binders. Grasscutter farmers are therefore advised to pellet the feed to reduce cost of transportation, handling and storage. Pelleting minimize feed wastage feeding grasscutters with the bulky raw material. The pelleted feeds supported high growth rate than the control feed of pennisetum purpurenum with occasional supplement of concentrates. The cost of the constructed pelletizer is Eight Hundred and Ninety Ghana Cedis as compared to the imported ones exported from China that cost between US$600 and US$2000 depending on their capacity References [1 ] Achana, B. (2002). Conservation International’s experience in grasscutter production: Kakum National Park Grasscutter Research Station. Proceedings of Workshop on promoting grasscutter Production for Poverty Reduction in Ghana, Eusbett Hotel, Sunyani, Ghana. K. Atta-Agypong American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS) (2016) Volume 18, No 1, pp 1-15 14 [2] Adu, E. K. and Rhule, S.W. A. (2005). Preliminary study on the effect of protein supplementation on live weight gain in captive Grasscutters fed freshly cut Panicium maximum. Proceeding of the fourteenth biennial conference of the Ghana society of animal production. Research Memorial Centre, Tamale Ghana. 31st August – 3rd September, 2005: 27-37. [3 ]Adu, E. K. 2005. Constraints to grasscutter production in Ghana. Proceedings of the International Forum on Grasscutter. Institute of Local Government Studies, Accra, Ghana. Theresa Antoh, Rita Weidinger, Joshua Ahiaba and Antonio Carrilo (Editors). Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Accra, Ghana. Dececember, 12 – 16th,2005: 45-50. [14] Annor, S.Y., Garrick, D. J. and Blair, H. T. 2000. Economic values of traits for beef production in Ghana. Bulletin of Animal Health and Production Africa, 48:97-110. [5] Annor, S. Y., Kagya-Agyemang, J.K., Abbam, J. E. Y., Oppong, S. K. and Agoe, I.M. 2008. 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(kg) 2.7 Mortality Biweekly feed intake and weight gain of grasscutters fed on (Control feed) kg Biweekly feed intake and weight gain of grasscutters fed on ration 1 (pelleted) kg. Weekly feed intake and weight gain on pelleted ration 2. (kg) 2.8 Carcass Characteristics Chemical Composition and pH of the raw meat of the slaughtered grasscutters 2.9 Mean feed Wastage 2.10 Feed conversion efficiency (FCE) 2.11 Mean Water Intake 2.12 Mean Growth Rate 2.13 Mean Final Weight and Total Weight Gain 3. Conclusion and Recommendation