ABSTRACT

A study was conducted on the growth pattern of male and female Japanese quails (Cortunix cortunix japonica). The aim of this research was to detennine body weight, morphometric changes and production characteristics of male and female Japanese quail. The experiment was conducted for eight weeks using 100 Japanese quails, replicated five times with each replicate consisting of 5 males and 15 females in a Completely Randomized Design. Data was collected and analyzed using T-test, for body weight, body length, keel length, shank length, breast length, wing length and production parameters including daily feed intake (DFI), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and daily weight gain (DWG). The result of the body weight changes revealed sexual dimorphism as the female Japanese quails consistently outweighed the males from week 3 through 8. Significant differences (p<0.05) were observed in the shank length (male-2.84 cm; female-2.44 cm) and keel length (male-5.59 cm; female-4. 76 cm) at the were observed in the shank length (male-2.84 cm; female-2.44 cm) and keel length (male-5.59 cm; female-4. 76 cm) at the 4" week; whereas, at the sixth week, significant differences were observed in body length (male 16.96 cm; female-16.21 cm) and wing length (male-8.51 cm; female-8.94 cm). The differences in these morphometric parameters did not follow a regular pattern week wise. The result of the production perfonnance showed that the females recorded higher DFI (41.43 g/bird/day), DWG (2.03 g/bird/day) and lower FCR (0.05) than the males, 35.00 g/bird/day, 1.91 g/bird/day and 0.06 respectively. This difference again, was attributed to sexual dimorphism. This study concludes that growth pattern and production perfonnance of Japanese quails is characterized with sexual dimorphism; whereas, the linear body parameters did not follow a regular trend up to the 6 th week of age. Separate studies on the sire and maternal contributions to sexual dimorphism in Japanese quails progenies is recommended.