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An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of different lipid sources on the nutrient intake, digestibility and purine derivative excretion of lambs. Thirty-five 60-day-old, male, non-castrated Santa Ines lambs with an initial average body weight ( BW) of 13.00 ± 1.80 kg were used in a randomized complete block design with seven blocks and five treatments. The experimental treatments consisted of a control diet without supplemental lipids and four test diets with different lipid supplements, selected according to the degree of ruminal protection from hydrogenation: supplementation, being supplementation with whole cottonseed ( WC), supplementation with cashew nut meal ( CNM), supplementation with both cottonseed and cashew nut meal ( WC- CNM) and supplementation with calcium salts of long-chain fatty acids (Ca- LCFA). The lambs were slaughtered after reaching 28 kg average BW for each treatment. The ether extract intake ( EEI) was higher (p < 0.01) for the lipid supplemented compared to control diet lambs. Supplementation with WC decreased the digestibility of dry matter ( DM), organic matter ( OM), neutral detergent fibre ( NDF) and total carbohydrate ( TC) (p < 0.01), whereas supplementation with CNM, WC- CNM and Ca- LCFA reduced non-fibrous carbohydrate ( NFC) digestibility (p < 0.01). The ether extract ( EE) digestibility coefficient was higher with CNM, followed by Ca- LCFA and WC, when compared to WC- CNM and control diets. Nitrogen balance ( NB) was not influenced (p > 0.05) by the different lipid sources. A lower purine derivative ( PD) excretion and thus lower microbial protein supply ( MPS) was observed for animals supplemented with Ca- LCFA (p < 0.01) compared to the WC- CNM and control diets. In conclusion, WC, CNM and WC- CNM supplementation did not have negative effects on MPS, although negative effects have been observed on nutrient digestibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]