Effect of Potassium, Sodium or Calcium on the Growth of Young Rabbits Fed Purified Diets Containing Different Levels of Fat and Protein

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Abstract
The addition of extra amounts of sodium bicarbonate, potassium acetate or calcium carbonate (over that in the 4% Wesson salt mixture) to a purified diet increased growth and decreased mortality in three- to 4-week-old rabbits. The effect of either of the three mineral supplements was greater on diets containing 30% casein than on diets containing 20%. Increasing fat in the diet tended to decrease the growth of rabbits on the 20% casein diets not supplemented with extra minerals. When the added minerals were present, the growth rate on the 30% casein diets increased as the fat level was raised from 1 to 12%; the increase on the 20% diets was considerably less than on the 30% diets. With levels of fat ranging from 5 to 12% in the diet, there was an indication that sodium and calcium produced greater weight gains than potassium. The latter diets containing 30% casein produced weight gains comparable to those obtained on commercial pellets. The addition of all three minerals to the diet produced no greater growth than sodium. No explanation is available for these observations other than the suggestion that an animal's requirement for minerals may be more intimately related to the composition of the diet than has been thought heretofore.