Energy requirements for maintenance and the effect of level of intake on the dynamic of body fat depots have been studied on 36 Blanca Celtiberica goats. The animals were individually housed and fed at six levels of feeding ranging from 31 to 75 g DM/kg LW^0.75/day of pelleted lucerne. Measurements were made of live weight, ultrasonic breastbone fat thickness at 4th sternebra and of in vivo digestibility of the diet.
A lineal relationship between liveweight change and digestible organic matter intake (MODI) was found. Requirements were then calculated being 28.8 g MODI kg LW^0.75/day for maintenance and 2.6 g MODI for 1 g gain, which in terms of metabolizable energy (ME) are equivalent to 432 kJ ME/ kg LW^0.75/day and 39 kJ ME/g gain, respectively. Fat thickness at 4th sternebra varied linearly from -1.14 to 1.40 mm with the established range of intakes and appeared associated with an estimated variation of body fat depots from -1.07 to 1.31 g/kg LW^0.75/day, respectively. Results obtained suggest that energy requirements for maintenance in Blanca Celtiberica goats are similar to those found for dairy goats in temperate areas and that fat thickness variation could be used as a parameter of body fat dynamic.