The effect of nutrition, hatching time, and hatching conditions on the weight gain and survival of ostrich (Struthio camelus) chicks until 4 weeks of age

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The study investigated how three types of commercial starter diets, formulated for ostrich (OS), turkey (TS), and chicken (CS), along with hatching time and manual assistance, affected the early growth and survival of ostrich (Struthio camelus) chicks during the first 4 weeks of rearing. A total of 75 chicks were individually marked and randomly assigned to one of the three diet groups. From day 5, chicks received a 55% starter feed and 45% alfalfa hay mix ad libitum. Weekly body weight and daily mortality were recorded. Based on hatching circumstances, chicks were categorized as unassisted on day 40 (D40), assisted on day 41 (D41), or assisted on day 42 (D42). We applied univariate analysis of variance (GLM) for weekly weight and weight gain analysis, and we investigated the correlations between hatching group and hatching weight, and hatching group and 4-week growth intensity with Pearson's bivariate correlation in SPSS 22.0. We performed Kaplan-Meier procedure and Cox regression in SPSS 22.0 to analyse the effect of hatching and feeding groups on the relative culling risk of chicks. Results showed that the starter diet strongly influenced both growth and survival. Starter feed with 11.4 MJ/kg metabolizable energy, 25.91% crude protein, and 3.89% crude fiber content showed the best effects both on growth intensity (341.41 g in weekly average) and survival (85%) during the 4-week experimental period. Chicks fed with starter feed with similar energy (11.1 MJ/kg) and similarly low (5.08%) crude fibre, however, remarkably lower crude protein (17.9%) content performed moderately well (239.79 g in weekly average with 76% survival). In contrast, starter feed with low metabolizable energy of 8 MJ/kg, relatively low (17.77%) crude protein, but extremely high crude fibre (13.00%) content resulted in poor growth (193.34 g in weekly average) and extremely high mortality (> 80%), with only 16% surviving. Hatching groups also exhibited significant differences in chick mortality, with D40 showing the lowest culling risk. These findings highlight that early nutrition is critical, and starter diets with higher metabolizable energy and protein and lower crude fiber markedly improve survival and productivity in ostrich chick rearing.

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