Importance of grit and its interaction with gizzard
- grit provides valuable minerals - needed for growth and egg shell formation
- grit aids gizzard to grind better - affects the frequency of muscular contractionsin gizzard and consequently provides better feed utilization in digestive tract
Function of the insoluble grit
When present in the gizzard in reasonable quantities, flint-type grits have two main functions:
- to divide and separate food particles so that the digestive, enzyme-likesecretions from the proventriculus and the mineral acid of the gizzard canpermeate freely
- grinding and crushing
Both functions are dependent on normal gizzard motility. When the gizzard contains both solid food particles and grit, a masticating effect follows. Grass, leaves and grain undergo pulverization, and with each muscular contraction more vegetable cells are exposed to the action of the digestive juices.
The grit aid better food utilization, and therefore may play an economical and indeed important part in poultry husbandry.
Benefits of ZeoGrit
- grit plays important role in enhancement mechanical digestion of gizzard, grit stimulates the secretion of digestive enzymes and consequently mixing of the enzyme with the ingest leads to improved digestibility of feed and greater performance in broiler chickens
- grit aid gizzard's grinding to break down hard ingredients and thus more surface can be exposed to enzymes
- improves the efficiency of feed utilization and enhances average feed intake
- reduces cost of feed in broilers fed with grit, improves the utilization of feed by 30 %
- improves daily feed intake, daily body weight gain and feed conversion ratio of chickens feed with grits
- increases weight of gizzard in birds fed with grit, increases weight of gizzard in birds fed with grit, increasing gizzard weight might be the result of muscle movement acceleration, increases the thickness of gizzard muscles
- dietary addition of grit increases the digestive efficiency of ostriches and consequently promotes the nutrient assimilation and sustains performance in ostriches
- stone eating is natural behaviour in broilers, generally associated with animal welfare, for this reason, free choice of grit alleviates stress conditions and improves the animal welfare
- addition of grit in the diet of broilers significantly improves weight gains and FCR
