Abstract
When trying to establish feeding recommendations for South American camelids, basic information on their feeding behaviour like voluntary forage intake becomes important. Dry matter intake (DMI), intake of neutral detergent fibre (NDFOM), crude protein (CP), energy and feed selection were compared in two different but similarly conducted experiments between five male and five female llamas (Lama glama) (experiment 1) and five male llamas and five male alpacas (Vicunja pacos) (experiment 2). Two runs were conducted per experiment, in which two hay types differing in harvesting time were offered (all DM basis): early 2nd cut and late bloom cut in autumn. In experiment 1, daily DMI of male and female llamas averaged 52.8 and 56.6 g/kg(0.75) for 2nd cut hay and 45.6 and 37.8 g/kg "for hay cut in autumn. In experiment 2, daily DMI averaged 29.4 and 42.0 g/kg 75 for llamas and 26.5 and 43.3 g/kg 75 for alpacas for 2'd cut and autumn cut hay, respectively. In conclusion, quality and harvesting time of the hay affected daily DMI of South American camelids, which selected in favour of feed particles rich in CP and energy and low in NDFOM, especially when coarser autumn cut hay was offered.