title: The effects of changes in housing on feeding and wheel running.
abstract: The experiments explored the effects on feeding when rats were moved between individual and paired housing. In Experiment 1, rats moved to paired housing showed a 3-day suppression in feeding (initially 23%) compared to chronically individual- or pair-housed rats. In Experiment 2, half of the rats from the two control groups of Experiment 1 were moved between individual and paired housing on alternate days. Only the rats moved to paired housing showed a feeding suppression (initially 40%), but the nature of the suppression differed from Experiment 1: it appeared that only one rat of each pair showed a feeding suppression. Experiment 3 examined simultaneous introduction of running wheels and moves to paired housing. The feeding suppression induced by the move to paired housing was more immediate and shorter lived than the wheel-induced suppression. Unlike wheel access, paired housing produced only a temporary suppression of body weight. These experiments suggest that the relatively simple manipulation of moving rats from individual to paired housing results in a temporary stress-induced decrease in feeding.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: O'Connor
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Eikelboom
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001066:Appetite; D001835:Body Weight; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012931:Social Environment; D013649:Taste