The objective ofthis work was to evaluate the nutrient intake and ingestive behavior of growingSanta Inês lambs fed different levels of metabolizable energy (ME). Itwas used 20 non-castrated lambs at 50 days of age and with 13.00 ± 0.56kg of body weight. The animals were distributed into four experimental treatmentswith different levels of metabolizable energy (2.08, 2.28, 2.47 and 2.69 Mcal/kgof dry matter) in a randomized block design with five replications. It was usedas roughage tifton hay added to concentrate diet. Levels of metabolizable energy(ME) linearly affected intakes of dry matter, organic matter, crude protein,ether extract, no-fiber carbohydrates, and total digestible nutrients, expressedin g/day. The NDF intake, expressed as % BW and kg/BW0.75, decreasedlinearly with the increase of levels of energy in the diet due to the reductionin NDF content in the total dietary dry matter. Feeding and total chewing time,expressed in hour/day, decreased linearly with the energy levels of the experimentaldiets. However, idle time increased linearly, whereas rumination was not influencedby energy levels of the diets. Number of ruminate boli, of ruminating chews,of ruminating chews per bolus and time of chewing per bolus were not influencedby levels of metabolizable energy in the diets. Increase in metabolizable energylevels of diets affects intake of nutrients and ingestive behavior of growingSanta Inês lambs.
