Fatty acid digestion was studied in three dairy cows cannulated in the rumen, duodenum and ileum. Cows were fed encapsulated fat sources (vegetable oil, saturated fat and fish oil). A preperiod diet was fed with no added fat. In a graeco-latin design nine diets comprising three levels of each of the three fat sources were fed. The preperiod diet contained 230 g fatty acids (FA), whereas the three other fats were fed at about 550, 850 and 1150 g FA/day. The feed-ileùm true digestibility of total FA was 95, 47 and 86% for vegetable, saturated and fish fat, respectively. The true digestibility of FA was for all fat sources independent of fat level. The FA digestibility of C16:0 was higher than that of C18:0. The experiment supports the theory that unsaturated FA has a synergistic effect on the digestibility of saturated FA. Bile acid secretion was estimated to be 282–550 g/day, with the lowest secretion for fish fat diets. Secretion was independent of the amount of fat fed.