Table 1.
Production performance (n = 100), egg production and quality (n = 30) and meat quality (n = 10) among conventional cage feeding (CC), free dietary choice of mealworms feeding (FDM), and free dietary choice of mealworms and grass feeding (FDMG).
| Items | CC | FDM | FDMG | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feed consumption (FC, g) | 82.05 a ± 0.06 | 78.90 b ± 0.05 | 82.16 a ± 0.09 | ||
| Egg weight (EW, g) | 42.86 a ± 0.05 | 39.21 c ± 0.06 | 40.73 b ± 0.07 | ||
| FC/EW | 3.56 b ± 0.11 | 3.77 a ± 0.11 | 3.84 a ± 0.20 | ||
| Egg production (%) | 49.95 ± 1.00 | 51.07 ± 1.00 | 51.20 ± 1.01 | ||
| Mortality (%) | 18.09 | 9.57 | 12.77 | ||
| Soft-shelled eggs (n) | 186 | 193 | 211 | ||
| Yolk weight (g) | Day 182 (Age) | 10.88 a,b ± 0.07 | 10.42 b ± 0.09 | 11.27 a ± 0.07 | |
| Day 224 | 12.47 a ± 0.88 | 12.15 a,b ± 1.13 | 11.79 b ± 1.06 | ||
| Day 266 | 14.03 ± 1.00 | 13.84 ± 0.09 | 13.54 ± 1.00 | ||
| Yolk color | Day 182 | 7.29 b ± 0.05 | 9.27 a ± 0.07 | 9.54 a ± 0.09 | |
| Day 224 | 6.20 b ± 0.09 | 6.20 b ± 1.01 | 7.75 a ± 0.08 | ||
| Day 266 | 6.24 b ± 1.00 | 7.08 b ± 0.06 | 7.79 a ± 0.07 | ||
| Drip loss (%) | Thigh | 2.29 ± 0.01 | 1.92 ± 0.01 | 2.11 ± 0.01 | |
| Breast | 2.54 a,b ± 0.02 | 2.22 b ± 0.02 | 2.91 a ± 0.01 | ||
| Cooking loss (%) | Thigh | 4.70 ± 0.03 | 4.42 ± 0.02 | 3.07 ± 0.03 | |
| Breast | 7.70 ± 0.02 | 6.48 ± 0.03 | 7.71 ± 0.03 | ||
| Shearing force (kg/cm2) | Thigh | 52.82 ± 0.05 | 49.82 ± 0.06 | 53.96 ± 0.05 | |
| Breast | 46.70 ± 0.05 | 44.55 ± 0.07 | 48.08 ± 0.05 | ||
| Meat color | Light | Thigh | 35.45 a ± 0.02 | 33.37 a,b ± 0.03 | 30.33 b ± 0.03 |
| Breast | 42.86 ± 0.02 | 41.21 ± 0.02 | 40.26 ± 0.05 | ||
| Red | Thigh | 3.63 b ± 0.21 | 4.28 b ± 0.20 | 5.07 a ± 0.12 | |
| Breast | 7.90 ± 0.34 | 7.44 ± 0.26 | 8.61 ± 0.33 | ||
| Yellow | Thigh | 7.73 ± 0.05 | 7.43 ± 0.03 | 7.33 ± 0.03 | |
| Breast | 11.36 b ± 0.07 | 13.07 a ± 0.05 | 11.48 b ± 0.05 | ||
Different superscript letters a, b, c represents a statistically significant difference in the same line.