Water recycling in lactation.
During lactation, female rodents, dingoes, and kangaroos consume urine and feces excreted by the young. Studies with tritiated water as a tracer for native water showed that roughly one-third of the water secreted as milk was returned to the mother. The results are cogent to studies of water balance of lactation and to current methods used for estimating milk production.
D000818:Animals; D001345:Autoradiography; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D001834:Body Water / Q000378:metabolism; D002335:Carnivora; D003889:Desert Climate; D005243:Feces; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D007774:Lactation; D008394:Marsupialia; D011247:Pregnancy; D012377:Rodentia; D014316:Tritium; D014556:Urine; D014882:Water-Electrolyte Balance
D014316:Tritium