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Review
. 2024 Jun 24;14(13):1865.
doi: 10.3390/ani14131865.

Food Grinding Behavior: A Review of Causality and Influential Factors

Hao Tang  1 , Wei-Wei Ge  1 , Wan-Hong Wei  1   2 , Sheng-Mei Yang  1 , Xin Dai  1
Affiliations
Review

Food Grinding Behavior: A Review of Causality and Influential Factors

Hao Tang et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

Food waste is a common issue arising from grinding of food by experimental animals, leading to excessive food scraps falling into cages. In the wild, animals grind food by gnawing vegetation and seeds, potentially damaging the ecological environment. However, limited ecology studies have focused on food grinding behavior since the last century, with even fewer on rodent food grinding, particularly recently. Although food grinding's function is partially understood, its biological purposes remain under-investigated and driving factors unclear. This review aims to explain potential causes of animal food grinding, identify influencing factors, and discuss contexts and limitations. Specifically, we emphasize recent progress on gut microbiota significance for food grinding. Moreover, we show abnormal food grinding is determined by degree of excess normal behavior, emphasizing food grinding is not meaningless. Findings from this review promote comprehensive research on the myriad factors, multifaceted roles, and intricate evolution underlying food grinding behavior, benefiting laboratory animal husbandry and ecological environment protection, and identifying potential physiological benefits yet undiscovered.

Keywords: causality; food grinding; functions; influential factors; rodent.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The potential causality of food grinding behavior.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The potential influential factors of food grinding behavior.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The potential neural and molecular mechanism underlying food grinding behavior.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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