RESUMO
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of feeding Saanen goat kids with calcium salts of fatty acids (CSFA) in diet, on intake, performance, digestibility of nutrients, and blood parameters. Twenty-eight uncastrated male goat kids, with round average age to 112.86 ± 4.81 days and an average body weight (BW) of 19.54 ± 2.76 kg, were distributed in a completely randomized design distributed into four groups with seven animals per group: one control group fed a diet containing 2.5 Mcal metabolizable energy (ME)/kg dry matter (DM) and three groups fed a diet containing 2.6, 2.7, or 2.8 Mcal ME/kg DM, with CSFA added to increase the energy levels. The animals were fed the diets until they reached an average BW of 28 kg. There was hardly any apparent effect of dietary CSFA on intake of DM and organic matter (OM). The digestibility of DM and OM showed an improvement with 2.64 and 2.65 Mcal ME/kg DM in the diet. The diets containing CSFA improved average daily gain and reduced the time on the feedlot to 30 days fed diet with 2.8 Mcal ME/kg DM. However, lipid supplementation increased serum cholesterol levels. Thus, CSFA can be used to increase the energy density of the diet in finisher Saanen goat kids and improve performance by reducing days on feedlot.
