The reproductive response of female ostriches to dietary protein

A study was conducted with breeding ostriches over two consecutive breeding seasons to determine their response to different concentrations of a well-balanced dietary protein. Five concentrations of protein were fed to both females and males at an intake of 2.5kg/bird d. The respective diets contained 75, 91, 108, 123 and 140g protein/kg feed with energy held constant at 9.2MJ metabolisable energy/kg feed. Egg production (mean +/- SE, 39.1 +/- 3.6 eggs/female/season) was unaffected by dietary protein concentration. Similarly, no significant trends were found for the number of unfertilised eggs (9.1 +/- 1.8), dead-in-shell chicks (8.2 +/- 1.3), the number of chicks hatched (19.5 +/- 2.5) and change in the mass of females (-16.3 +/- 10.2kg). Egg weight decreased linearly as dietary protein content increased. Age of the ostrich female had a highly significant effect on the number of eggs laid, the number of chicks hatched, the number of dead-in-shell and infertile eggs produced per hen, as well as the mass change of female breeding birds, but did not affect the response of any of these variables to dietary protein content. It was concluded that ostriches do not benefit from dietary protein contents greater than about 75g/kg when this is fed at a daily total feed intake rate of 2.5kg/bird during the breeding season.