An experiment was carried out to determine the apparent metabolizable energy (AME), apparent metabolizable energy corrected for nitrogen balance (AMEn) and chemical composition of bravo bean hay (HBB), jureminha hay (HJ) and maniçoba hay (HM) for use in birds feeding. Two hundred and eighty, 17 days old broiler chicks were distributed according to a completely randomized design, into seven treatments organized in a factorial arrangement 3 x 2 + 1 (three hay types x two levels of substitution of the reference diet + reference diet), with four repetitions of 10 birds each. The contents of AME and AMEn of jureminha, bravo bean and maniçoba hays were 3.205 and 2.911, 2.990 and 2.648, 2.728 and 2.419, respectively, when the ingredients test substituted 15% of the reference diet, and 2.678 and 2.371, 2.875 and 2.523, 2.277 and 1.956, respectively, when the ingredients test substituted 30% of the reference diet. Therefore, the level of substitution of the reference diet by the ingredient test affects AME and AMEn. Jureminha and bravo bean hays presented higher AME and AMEn values than maniçoba hay for bird feeding.
alternative food; broiler chicks; native forage
