Preferences of pre-weanling Long-Evans rats for anal excreta of adult males and females

Long-Evans hooded rat pups were reared with their dam alone, their dam and sire or their dam 12 hrs per day and their sire 12 hrs per day and tested for preferences for anal excreta from adult male and female rats when they were 18 to 20 days of age. In all rearing conditions the anal excreta of the rat's own dam was preferred to that of strange dams and the excreta of both own and strange dams was preferred to that of virgin females. Anal excreta from virgin females was preferred to no odor as was anal excreta of unmated males, strange sires and the rat's own sire. Only rats reared with their dam and sire preferred the odor of their own sire to that of other males. The results suggest that pre-weanling rats may attend to different dimensions of the odors of conspecifics, such as the species odor, maternal odor, and individual odor and that different rearing conditions may influence the odor dimension to which the rat attends.