title: The water/food consumption relationships of severely underfed immature rats.
abstract: To determine the water and food consumption relationships of immature rats during severe undernutrition, water and food consumption rates and ratios of 35 male albino rats underfed from birth and re-fed starting at 20, 30, 40 and 50 days of age (6 rats in each group) or not re-fed (11 rats) were estimated between the ages of 25 and 70 days and compared with those of 30 age-mate control rats. Severely underfed rats consumed water at rates near the maximum for their body size and out of proportion with the food consumed. The water/food consumption ratio (mean 2.09 +/- 0.07) was significantly higher than that of the control rats (mean 1.47 "0.01 (P less than 0.0012). During re-feeding, the food consumption rate increased more (62%) than the water consumption rate did (9%); and the water/food consumption ratio decreased to a level (1.40 +/- 0.04 not significantly different from that of the control rats. Thus, during periods of severe underfeeding and re-feeding, water and food consumption rates of immature rats may change fairly independently of each other, leading to variations in the water/food consumption relationships.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000833:Animals, Suckling; D004326:Drinking; D004435:Eating; D005502:Food; D005508:Food Deprivation / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats