Mother's milk: A medium for transmission of cues reflecting the flavor of mother's diet

Reported that 24 nursling rat pups poisoned following ingestion of 1/2-cc of milk from a female rat eating a diet different from that of their own mother showed an aversion to that female's diet during weaning. A 2nd experiment showed that pups fed 31/2-cc meals of milk from a female rat and which were not poisoned showed a slightly increased preference for that female's diet at weaning. Results are interpreted as offering additional evidence that (a) a mother's milk contains gustatory cues reflecting the flavor of her diet and (b) these cues are sufficient to influence dietary preference at weaning.