The effect of dietary protein content upon growth in a genetically heterogeneous population of mice.

The effect of different dietary protein contents (19.3%, 14.9%, 11.0% and 5.7%) on weight gain was investigated in a genetically heterogeneous population of mice. Significant difference in weight gain was found only in the early growth period and was due mainly to the reduced weight gain of mice fed the diet with the lowest protein content. Feeding the mice low protein diets during the growth period did not affect reproductive performance.