Patterns of ano-genital licking mother rats exhibit toward prenatally stressed neonates.

The duration of ano-genital (AG) licking received by control and prenatally stressed male and female rat pups was compared under several testing conditions and ages. When tested with their own litters on day 2 postpartum. Sprague-Dawley dams stressed by exposure to intense light and restraint from days 14-21 of pregnancy spent as much time licking their pups as control dams. When tested with unfamiliar 8-9 day old pups both groups of mothers licked males more than females, but exhibited the same amount of licking toward males from control and prenatally stressed litters. When given simultaneous access to unfamiliar 11-12 day old control and prenatally stressed males, neither stressed nor control mothers displayed distinguishable patterns of licking. In adulthood a larger proportion of prenatally stressed than control males exhibited the female lordotic pattern, but a smaller percentage ejaculated. The data do not support previous suggestions that the abnormal sexual behavior patterns shown by prenatally stressed male rats are related to insufficient levels of AG stimulation received during neonatal ontogeny.