EFFECT OF FEED RESTRICTION AND MANAGEMENT ON THE BEHAVIOUR AND PERFORMANCE OF FEMALE RATS AND PUPS.

EMEASH, H; SALEH, ELHAM

doi:10.21608/vmjg.1995.375683

EFFECT OF FEED RESTRICTION AND MANAGEMENT ON THE BEHAVIOUR AND PERFORMANCE OF FEMALE RATS AND PUPS.

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

H EMEASH ¹
ELHAM SALEH ²

¹ Department of Hygiene and Animal Ethologey, Fac. Vet. Med.,Beni Suef , Cairo Univ., Egypt.

² Department of Nutrition and deficiency Diseases, Fac. Vet. Med. Beni Suef, Cairo Univ., Egypt.

10.21608/vmjg.1995.375683

Abstract

The present work was undertaken to study the effect of mating directly after parturition and feed restriction 50% of adlibitium) on the performance and behavioural patterns of both rat dams and pups. Twenty-four adult female Wistar rats were divded into three groups each of 8 rats reared for 2 pregnancies and 2 lactation periods. During the first gestation, all the dams were normally treated and data recorded. After parturition mating was performed at the end of the nursing period which extended for three weeks. In the second gestation period the three groups were exposed to different treatments, where group I was normally treated, group II fed ad libilum but mated directly after birth (one stress factor). While the dams of group III were fed on 50% of theadlibitum level in addition to mating directly after birth (two stress factors). The results of the first gestation revealed no significant difference among the three groups in respect to all the measured parameters while rodents. Since food shortage might be a common during the second gestation the direct mating alone (group II) or the feed-restriction and direct mating (group III) lead to reduction in the litter size and pups' weight development and increased mortalities in the recorded behavioural patterns the effect extended to reduce the active nursing.

Main Subjects