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Forage Fibre Digestion, Rates Of Feed Passage And Gut Fill In Juvenile And Adult Red Kangaroos Macropus Rufus Desmarest: Why Body Size Matters, Adam J. Munn, Terence J. Dawson

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Using red kangaroos Macropus rufus Desmarest, a large (>20 kg) marsupial herbivore, we compared the digestive capabilities of juveniles with those of mature, non-lactating females on high-quality forage (chopped lucerne Medicago sativa hay) of 43 +/- 1% neutral-detergent fibre (NDF) and poorer quality, high-fibre forage (chopped oaten Avena sativa hay) of 64 +/- 1% NDF. On chopped lucerne apparent dry matter (DM) digestibilities by young-at-foot (YAF) red kangaroos (an age that would normally be taking some milk from their mother), weaned juveniles and mature females were similar (55-59%). On chopped oaten hay apparent DM digestibility was lower in the …