Psychosomatic Medicine 36:311-320 (1974)
© 1974 American Psychosomatic Society

Maternal Deprivation in the Rat: Prevention of Mortality by Nonlactating Adults

¹ Thudichum Psychiatric Research Laboratory, Galesburg State Research Hospital, Galesburg, Illinois
² Research Animal Diagnostic Laboratory, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Missouri Columbia, Missouri

Address for reprint requests: S. Michael Plaut, PhD, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 645 West Redwood Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201

Rat litters were permanently deprived of their mother at age 13 days, and some were housed with a male or virgin female. Although over 90% of the adult-deprived pups died between 18 and 21 days of age, most mortality was prevented by the presence of a nonlactating adult. Survival could be attributed largely to the opportunity for tactual contact between pups and the adult, even though a significant amount of mortality could be prevented even by housing maternally deprived pups with a female from whom they were separated by a double wire screen. Postmortem examinations at 17 days disclosed that maternally deprived litters housed with and without adults did not differ in weight, skeletal growth, or presence of solid food in the stomach. Pups without adults retained more urine than those housed with adults. However, no renal damage was found, and direct stimulation of urination did not prevent mortality.