Meal patterns of dormice.

Meal patterns were studied in dormice (Glis glis) kept at an ambient temperature of 25 degrees C. At this temperature there is no prolonged hibernation and the periodicity of cycles of food intake and body weight is about 2 months. The data on meal patterns were related to the level of food intake during repeated observation periods. The most pronounced changes were in meal frequency, but there were also significant increases in meal size when the animals ate more. Postprandial correlations were low and insignificant in most animals. Nevertheless, there was a significant strengthening of these correlations at times the animals ate more. Rate of ingestion remained stable. The dormice ate 70% of their food in the dark phase of the LD 12:12 cycle. Meal size in the night and day were similar and remained so when the animals ate more; meal frequency increased in both the night and the day at these times. There was no evidence that long-term seasonally-related changes in feeding in hibernators depend on the same neuroendocrine and metabolic mechanisms that are involved in circadian feeding cycles.