Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Housing
Grasscutters are housed in hutches (cages) constructed with wooden frames using
hard wood. This is lined with a hard wire mesh that cannot be easily chewed with
the grasscutter's powerful teeth. The hutches are placed individually, arranged in
single rows or put together in tiers.
An alternative involves a low-cost housing, whereby mud bricks are used to
construct a double-wall box about 1.2-1.4 m under a hut. The box is provided
with a wooden lattice cover that may be partitioned to house one or two females,
or up to nine females per compartment. Each cubicle is provided with an entrance
at the top.
Feed and feeding
Grasscutters do well on very succulent vegetation. They possess a rather narrow
throat and hence can only swallow small pieces of feed at a time. For this reason
there is a very high percentage (70 per cent) of feed wastage. Under domestication,
grasscutters are fed on fodder grasses like elephant grass (
Pennisetum purpureum
)
and Guinea grass (
Panicum maximum
) on which they normally feed in the wild
together with other fodder species including
leucaena
(
Leucena leucocephala
),
gliricidia
(
Gliricidia sepium
), and
stylosanthes
(
Stylosanthes guinensis
), pineap-
ples, tubers of yam (
Dioscorea
sp.), cassava (
Manihot esculenta
), sweet potato
(
Ipomea batatas
), cereal grains, maize stovel, and husk. They may also be fed on
left-over meals and industrial waste. In addition, specially compounded feed may
be used as a supplement (Table 17.1). When fed on succulent feeds, the grasscut-
ter requires little water. However, a ready supply of good clean water is provided,
especially where dry feed supplement is served.
Reproduction and disease control
The females reach sexual maturity at about six months. Males are ready to serve
as breeding animals at seven months at a mating ratio of four females to a male.
Animals on heat are sent into the male pen for crossing. After successful mating
Table 17.1 Concentrate feed supplement for grasscutters
Feed ingredient
Quantity (kg)
Maize grain
10.0
Wheat bran
15.0
Oyster shell
2.0
Salt
0.5
Source: Annan, Duku, and Sulemana (2002)
