Abstract
production cost of feed, militate against West African dwarf goat productive performance. Wild cocoyam (Caladium bicolor) is an alternative feedstuff which is readily available and not in competition with man therefore suffices. This has led to the investigation of the growth performance, hematology and serum biochemical indices of West African dwarf (WAD) goats fed boiled Caladium bicolor and Panicum maximum as basal diet. Four diets containing 0 (control), 10, 20 and 30% of boiled Caladium bicolor meal (BCBM) designated as T1, T2, T3, and T4 respectively were compared. Sixteen (16) WAD goats of about 6-9 months of age were randomly assigned to the 4 treatments groups, each having 4 replicates in a completely randomized design. At the end of the study, result showed that there was no significant difference (P>0.05) recorded for final body weight. There were significant differences (P<0.05) in the value of total and daily weight gains, of which WAD goats fed 30%BCBM (T4) based diet recorded 2.26, 46.74 respectively when compared with 1.30, 23.22 recorded by goats fed the control (T1) diet. Daily feed intake (DFI) showed significant (P<0.05) differences across the treatment groups with T4 (163.62) recording the highest value. Goats fed10%BCBM (T2) (100.85) based diet had the least feed intake value. Animals fed 30%BCBM had a superior feed conversion (FCR) ratio of 2.94, while the control group (T1) recorded the poorest FCR of 7.01. The result revealed the ability of animals on T4 to convert the feed consumed to a better weight gain. The result obtained in this study showed no significant difference (P>0.05) in hematology. But significant differences (P<0.05) only occurred in total protein and aspartate aminotransferase components of serum biochemical in this experiment, indicating that the animals were not in health danger. This study however, revealed that BCBM can be included in WAD goat’s diets up to 30% without any deleterious effect on animal.