Mother's milk and adult presence: Two factors determining initial dietary selection by weanling rats

Reports 3 experiments with (a) 10 female hooded rats and their litters (reduced to 6 pups/litter); (b) 1 male and 4 female wild rats (Rattus norvegicus) and 2 litters (6 pups/litter) born to colony members; and (c) 6 litters of wild and 4 litters of hooded rat pups. Results indicate that adult Ss were capable of influencing their pups' choice of diet during weaning in 2 ways: (a) cues transmitted from a mother to her pups during the nursing period were sufficient to determine the dietary preference of the young at weaning, and (b) the presence of adult Ss at a feeding site was sufficient to determine the choice of feeding site by the pups independent of cues transmitted during the nursing period.