Influence of pellet size on rat's hoarding behavior

Abstract

The body weight threshold for hoarding behavior of rats is routinely used as a means to discern an animal's body weight regulation. We explored whether the size of food pellets would modify hoarding and the hoarding threshold. In Experiment 1, we offered the rats either large (ca. 5 g) or small (ca. 2 g) food pellets on alternate days while keeping their body weights within a narrow range when they were not in the hoarding sessions. The hoarding threshold was not influenced, by food size (312+/-32 g small and 298+/-13 g large pellets, N.S.). On the other hand, the relationship between hoarded food and body mass significantly differed between small and large pellets (ratio of 2.7). Because such a ratio was similar to that of the respective pellet weights, this suggests that the more the rat is deprived of food, the more willing it is, in a predetermined manner, to move about in search of food. Experiment 2 verified this hypothesis: instead of weighing the food hoarded, we counted the number of pellets hoarded. The slopes of the regression lines were similar in both cases, when the pellets were counted and when the hoarded food was weighed. Results showed no significant differences between these two approaches, suggesting that the weight of hoarded food is a good indicator of the number of trips from home to food in the hoarding experiment.