COMPARISON OF INTAKE BEHAVIOR OF LLAMAS A ND SHEEP FED DRY ROUGHAGE

Feeding and ruminating activities of four llamas and four sheep were c ompared for four roughages: three hays (fed without concentrate) and o ne straw (fed with concentrate). For the four roughages voluntary dry matter intake was respectively 13.5 g/kg LW for llamas and 15.8 for sh eep, results significantly different, but respectively 43.5 and 45.4 g DM/kg LW0.75, results non significantly different. Time for ingestion was, on average, 335 min/day for llamas and 287 for sheep (significan t difference) and time for rumination 437 min/day against 559 for shee p (significant difference). After correction for the live weight the e fficiency of chewing was comparable for the two species: 1.78 g DM/min /100kg LW. To note is that the llamas practically do not ruminate duri ng the day. The time spent for eating is a little higher for llamas th an for sheep. During the night, and above all the second part of the n ight, llamas spent more time ruminating than sheep. On average the bar ycentre of the rumination was delayed by 3.2 h for llamas compared to sheep. This mechanism could explain the higher length of particle rete ntion in the digestive tract of llamas and a higher digestion of the c ell wall contents. Length of rumination periods was longer for llamas, 45 min, against 40 min for sheep.