Ontogeny of preference for nutritive over nonnutritive suckling in albino rats.

Abstract

Preference for nutritive vs. nonnutritive suckling was investigated in 10- to 21-day-old albino rat pups in a spatial discrimination task. Pups preferred nutritive to nonnutritive suckling on their anesthetized mother at 17 and 21 days of age, but no preference was apparent in 10- and 12-day-old pups. Rearing in isolation from the mother during days 11-16 did not impair the development of preference for nutritive suckling in 17-day-old rats. The appetitive component of suckling of infant rats, like the consummatory component, appears to come under the direct control of nutritional factors at the start of the weaning period.