Effect of one-day chicks weight and period of feeding of the pre-starter diet on broiler performance

This research was carried out to evaluate the use of pre-starter diets, for different periods to broilers with different one-day weights. Two hundred and eighty one-day old chicks were allotted to brooded battery cages, in a completely randomized design, with six treatments and four replicates in a factorial design 2 x 3 (chicks weight-less or more than 40 g, and periods of feeding of the pre-starter diet, 1 to 7; 1 to 10 and 1 to 14 days). The performance was not influenced by the periods of feeding of the pre-starter diets, but the one-day weight of chicks infuenced the feed intake and live weight at 42 days of age. It was not observed effect of the treatment on the feed intake for the period of feeding of the pre-starter diet, but chicks with less weight showed lower feed intake of nutrients and energy. Based on the obtained results, it's possible to conclude that chicks with weight lower than 40 grams resulted in significant reduction in the feed intake and showed tendency of worst weight of broilers at the end of the experiment. The morphometric parameters were not affected by the treatments.