Two experiments were carried out to evaluate the inclusion of vegetable oils with different fatty acid content in starter and pre-starter broiler diets. In Experiment I 480 1- to 9-day-old male Ross 308 broilers were fed diets containing corn oil (CO), acid corn oil (ACO), linseed oil (LO) or coconut fat (CoF). Chicks were distributed according to a factorial 2x2x2arrangement (2 free fatty acids - FFA ) x (2 n6:n3 ratios) x (2 medium-chain fatty acids levels - AGMC). Performance responses and dry matter (DMM), crude protein (CPM), and crude fat (CFM) metabolizability were evaluated. In Experiment II, 480 1- to 20-day-old male Ross 308 broilers were offered the free choice of 2 different diets: with no fat addition, or with 10% addition of the following fat sources: CO, LO, CoF, soybean soapstock (SBS), acid soybean oil (ASO), or acid cottonseed oil (ACtO). Performance responses and diet selection were evaluated. In experiment I, there were no significant effects of the diets on performance, DMM, or CPM; however, the inclusion of FFA depressed CFM. In experiment II, there was a marked preference of birds of the diets with fat inclusion, leading to the selection of diets with more than 3100 kcal/kg ME in the period of 1 to 20 days, independently of fat source. The broilers selected the high fat and energy diets since the first days of age, which resulted in better bird performance.
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