Differential nipple attachment by the neonatal rat

Abstract

By 12 hours of life, rat pups attach faster to females similar in lactational age to their own mothers than to females whose lactational ages differ. This attachment pattern correlates with morphological and possible olfactory differences in the nipples of the test mothers, demonstrating the existence of a synchrony between the mother rat and her young during the early postnatal hours. By 10 days of age the pup's deprivational status and its day-night cycle influence its attachment pattern to the different test mothers.