Protein Nutrition of the Golden Hamster

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Four experiments were run to study the quantitative and qualitative protein requirements of the hamster. In the first experiment, five levels of protein ranging from 5 to 25% were fed. The 6-week growth response indicated a requirement of between 15 and 20% of diet when a protein mixture of commonly fed ingredients was used. In the second experiment, growth of rats and hamsters was compared when animals were fed the 10 and 20% protein diets as well as the 10% diet supplemented with amino acids to meet the National Research Council rat growth requirements. In rats, the supplemented 10% protein diet produced a growth response equal to that of the 20% diet, while in the hamsters, no response to amino acid supplementation was observed. In experiment 3, rats and hamsters were fed diets containing 10% protein from wheat gluten (WG), ground soybean meal (SM), or fish protein concentrate (FPC), and growth and protein efficiency ratio (PER), values were determined. Neither species grew well on WG. In rats, FPC produced a higher gain and PER than SM, while in hamsters, this situation was reversed. In experiment 4, in vitro digestibility of different quality roughages by inocula from hamster forestomach and cecum was compared with digestibility by inocula from bovine rumen. For alfalfa, digestibility of dry matter or cell wall was identical for all three inocula, and the ranking of the roughages was the same for the inocula from the three sources. Absolute digestibility decreased more rapidly with forestomach and cecum inocula as roughage quality decreased.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: