Home orientation in nursling rats: the effects of rehabilitation following intergenerational malnutrition.

Rat pups with histories of intergenerational malnutrition were rehabilitated by cross-fostering at birth to well-nourished females. These pups weighed slightly less than well-nourished controls but significantly more than pups reared by malnourished females. Rehabilitated and control pups were both more active than malnourished pups reared by malnourished females. However, the percentage of nest returns by pups displaced to other parts of the cage was low among rehabilitated pups as compared with controls, but did not differ from that of pups with histories of intergenerational malnutrition reared by malnourished females. These data suggest that, although activity is a product of postnatal condition, home-orienting behavior is affected by a history of intergenerational malnutrition regardless of rehabilitation.