Abstract
The experiment was conducted in the protected grazing land at Rajkot with eight male goats of the Zalawadi breed (average body weight 14.3 ± 2.6 kg) to study feeding habits and grazing behavior. Goats spent 76.6% of observation time in grazing. Grazing goats showed a distinct diurnal pattern for selectivity of types of forage. During morning hours grasses were preferred more than 80%, followed by thorny bushes (18%), whereas in the evening bushes were preferred 69% and grasses 30%. Bite rate at different hours was not significantly different among plant species. Bite size varied significantly (P < 0.01) among grasses, bushy and other miscellaneous forage species. Herbage intake/day calculated for grazing animals was 0.23 kg/kg BW0.75. Of the total biomass consumed, 44% grasses, 52% thorny bushes and 4% were miscellaneous forbs.
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