The objective of this work was to evaluate the effects of sodium levels in the diet for the growing phase on the performance of Japanese quails during the the growth and production phases. It was used 480 quails at 1 day of age distributed in a completely randomized design with six diets containing 0.07; 0.12; 0.17; 0.22; 0.27 and 0.32% of sodium, evaluated with eight repetitions of ten birds per experimental unit. In the phase from 1 to 21 days of age, level of sodium had a linear effect on feed and water intake and a quadratic effect on weight gain and feed conversion whose best values were obtained with the levels of 0.23% and 0.21% of sodium, respectively. However, from 21 to 42 days of age, the increase in the level of sodium did not affect feed intake but it promoted a linear reduction of weight gain, increase on water consumption and a worse in feed conversion. In the complete period (1 to 42 days of age), the increase of sodium levels in the diet linearly increased water consumption and moisture of excreta and quadratically affected digestibility of dry matter (DM), nitrogen and gross energy (GE) and the values of apparent metabolizable energy (AME) and apparent corrected energy (AMEn). Optimum levels of 0.20% and 0.27% were calculated for coefficients of DM and nitrogen digestibilities and 0.19% for coefficients of digestibility of gross energy, AME and AMEn. In general, the performance of quails during the laying period is not influenced by the sodium levels received in the growing phase. Feeds for Japanese quails at 1 to 42 days of age should be formulated with sodium levels between 0.12% and 0.23%.
bicarbonate; conversion; electrolyte balance; performance; salt; water
