Prevention of Coprophagy in the Rat

Abstract

A technique has been described for the total prevention of coprophagy in the rat. The procedure can be used with weanling rats where growth curves are being obtained, or with older rats in which excreta are being collected for metabolism studies. Measurement of the extent to which rats maintained on raised wire screens eat their feces indicates that 50 to 65% of the excreted feces are normally ingested. In the presence of a nutritional deficiency, fecal consumption may be even greater.