Drewett R F, Kendrick K M, Sanders D J, Trew A M
Dev Psychobiol. 1982 Jan;15(1):25-32. doi: 10.1002/dev.420150106.
Three experiments are reported on the feeding behavior of suckling rabbits ("kittens"). In the 1st the latency with which the kittens attached to the nipple, and then left the nipple, was determined. Attachment was very rapid and wholly reliable: on the 80 tests the nipple was seized in every case in under 9 sec, and on 67 of these in less than 3 sec. The kittens also invariably left the nipple within the next minute. If the kittens were 5 or 10 days old speed of attachment was unaffected by the presence or absence of saliva on the nipple, but 15- and 20-day-old kittens seized the sucked nipples more rapidly than the unsucked nipples. In a 2nd experiment with 12-day-old kittens, washing the nipple with solvents did not affect speed of attachment; nor did saliva. The results show that suckling rabbits, in contrast to rat pups, are not heavily dependent on saliva cues. In the 3rd experiment both attachment latency and milk intake were shown to be affected by an internal stimulus, a gastric load of.9% saline, 5 g/25 g body weight: attachment latency was significantly increased and milk intake reduced by 75%.
报告了三项关于哺乳兔（“幼兔”）进食行为的实验。在第一个实验中，测定了幼兔附着在乳头以及随后离开乳头的潜伏期。附着非常迅速且完全可靠：在80次测试中，每次幼兔都能在9秒内咬住乳头，其中67次在3秒内就完成了。幼兔也总是会在接下来的一分钟内离开乳头。如果幼兔5天或10天大，乳头是否有唾液并不影响其附着速度，但15天和20天大的幼兔咬住被吸吮过的乳头比未被吸吮过的乳头更快。在第二个针对12天大幼兔的实验中，用溶剂清洗乳头不影响附着速度；唾液也不影响。结果表明，与幼鼠不同，哺乳兔对唾液线索的依赖程度不高。在第三个实验中，附着潜伏期和乳汁摄入量都受到一种内部刺激的影响，即每25克体重摄入5克0.9%的盐水形成的胃内负荷：附着潜伏期显著增加，乳汁摄入量减少了75%。
