Investigation of the functions of coprophagy in juvenile rats.
- 1 April 1979
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Psychological Association (APA) in Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology
- Vol. 93 (2), 295-305
- https://doi.org/10.1037/h0077551
Abstract
Possible functions of the ingestion of maternal anal excreta by juvenile rats were examined. No strong support was found for hypotheses suggesting that maternal excreta serves as a major transition diet from mother''s milk to solid food, that ingestion of maternal excreta influences pup diet selection at weaning, or that ingestion of maternal excreta is a necessary condition for inoculation of pups with enteric bacteria. Some support was found for the hypothesis that maternal excreta can serve as a short-term emergency food supply for rat pups after weaning. Pup ingestion of maternal anal excreta may not be a functionally meaningful unit of behavior in preweaning rats. Allocoprophagy may be one facet of a broader pattern of oral exploration in which functional significance resides.This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:
- Weaning and Growth of Artificially Rreared RatsScience, 1975
- Observations on the flora of the alimentary tract of animals and factors affecting its compositionThe Journal of Pathology and Bacteriology, 1965
- The ontogeny of behaviour in the albino ratAnimal Behaviour, 1964
- Alteration in Intestinal Microbial Flora of Rats with Tail Cups to Prevent CoprophagyExperimental Biology and Medicine, 1960