Table 4.
Food intake, fecal characteristics, and total tract apparent macronutrient digestibility by adult dogs fed dietary treatments containing selected fiber sources, prebiotics, and saccharin and eugenol
| Item | Treatment1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CT | FP | FSE | SE | SEM2 | |
| Food intake, g/d (DM basis) | 148.1 | 146.4 | 149.9 | 149.5 | 7.03 |
| Fecal output, g/d (as is) | 64.5 | 62.4 | 62.9 | 65.7 | 5.41 |
| Fecal output, g/d (DM basis) | 27.1 | 23.1 | 23.5 | 26.7 | 1.78 |
| Fecal score3 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 2.7 | 2.8 | 0.29 |
| Digestibility, % | |||||
| Dry matter | 81.6 | 84.3 | 84.4 | 82.1 | 0.92 |
| % DM basis | |||||
| Organic matter | 86.4 | 87.3 | 87.2 | 86.7 | 0.72 |
| Acid hydrolyzed fat | 94.4 | 94.7 | 94.9 | 94.3 | 0.27 |
| Crude protein | 87.2 | 86.8 | 86.5 | 87.3 | 0.73 |
| Total dietary fiber | 25.6b | 36.3ab | 47.0a | 28.3b | 3.29 |
| Digestible energy | 87.4 | 88.1 | 88.1 | 87.7 | 0.65 |
| Digestible energy, kcal/g | 4.6 | 4.6 | 4.6 | 4.6 | 0.03 |
| Metabolizable energy, kcal/g | 4.3 | 4.4 | 4.3 | 4.3 | 0.04 |
1CT = Control; FP = fiber and prebiotic blend; SE = saccharin and eugenol additive; FSE = fiber and prebiotic blend + saccharin and eugenol additive.
2Standard error of the mean.
3Fecal scores: 1 = hard, dry pellets; small hard mass; 2 = hard formed, remains firm and soft; 3 = soft, formed and moist stool, retains shape; 4 = soft, unformed stool; assumes shape of container; 5 = watery, liquid that can be poured.
a,bSuperscripts with different letters in a row represent statistical differences (P < 0.05).