Influences of food type on food-carrying behavior in rats (Rattus norvegicus)

Abstract

It is known that rats tend to eat a smaller/lighter piece of food at the food source but carry a larger/heavier one to the nest for consumption. This could be interpreted well in terms of the trade-off or motivational conflict between "feeding" and "risk avoidance", because eating food immediately satisfies feeding motivation while carrying food has an advantage to avoid predatory risk by keeping time spent outside the nest shorter. In the present study, influences of incentive factors of feeding motivation on food-carrying behavior were evaluated using three different kinds of food that were identical in weight. There was no significant difference in food-carrying tendency among the three kinds of food, though a significant preference was indicated among the food. The results suggest that food-carrying behavior is not influenced by food types.