Circadian feeding and drinking patterns of genetically obese mice fed solid chow diet.

Feeding and drinking were recorded in male ob/ob mice and lean mice fed pelleted Purina Lab Chow No. 5001 with water to drink. The circadian patterns of eating and drinking of obese mice differed from those of lean mice, in both the proportional temporal distributions of feeding and of drinking behavior across the 24-hour day and in the absolute amounts consumed hourly. The pattern of increased food consumption by the obese mice was different than that underlying increased water consumption. When meal parameters were analyzed in terms of 'complete meals' of both feeding and drinking (the end of a meal defined as at least 12 consecutive minutes with no ingestion), obese and lean mice had the same number of meals and their periodicity was similar, but meal size was much greater in the obese mice. In the dark, both obese and lean mice showed strong postprandial correlations of meal size with time from the start of a meal to start of the next meal.