Diet Of Monkeys Research Articles

Evaluation of a polydipsia technique to induce alcohol consumption in monkeys.

The observation that the intermittent delivery of dry food pellets is accompanied by consumption of large quantities of water in the rat was first described by Falk in 1961 (4) and this phenomenon was subsequently termed psychogenic or schedule-induced polydipsia. Falk (4) reported that rats maintained at 80 per cent of their free feeding weight, would consume approximately one half of their total weight in water within a few hours when food pellets were presented intermittently. Variations of thirst explanations for this phenomena proved untenable since pre-session water loading did not eliminate polydipsic drinking (8) and dry food was neither necessary or sufficient for the induction of polydipsia. Intermittent delivery of small portions of a standard liquid monkey diet were equally effective in producing excessive drinking (7). Superstitious chaining, i.e. the adventitious reinforcement of drinking within the inter-pellet interval also fails to account for polydipsia (5,33). A number of factors have been identified that contribute to the magnitude of the effect such as an inter-pellet interval of more than 45 sec (6), small food portions (7) and weight reduction (8). However, Falk (9) has emphasized that reinforcement schedules do not elicit polydipsic drinking, but rather the behavior develops gradually and can be attenuated by weight increase even when response rates and food intake stay the same. The power of the procedure is illustrated by the fact that comparable levels of fluid ingestion are not achieved by other experimental manipulations such as water deprivation, heat stress or osmotic loading in rat (8). Falk describes schedule-induced polydipsia as a form of adjunctive behavior and concludes that no adequate physiological or behavioral explanation for the phenomena has yet been advanced (8,9).

Notes on the care, diet and feeding habits of Goeldi's monkey Callimico goeldii

Notes on the care, diet and feeding habits of Goeldi's monkey Callimico goeldii

Changes in carbohydrate metabolism of squirrel monkeys with chromium dietary supplementation.

SummaryAdult squirrel monkeys maintained on a commercial chow demonstrated an impaired carbohydrate metabolism as evaluated by diagnostic tolbutamide and glucose tolerance tests. The possibility that the diet was deficient in trivalent chromium was investigated. The diet of normal and impaired monkeys was supplemented by the addition of trivalent and divalent chromium to the drinking water. The trivalent chromium supplementation produced an improvement in the tolbutamide and glucose tolerance responses of impaired monkeys when the drinking water was maintained at neutral pH but not at mildly acid pH. Normal monkeys supplemented with divalent chromium resulted in the appearance of impaired responses to tolbutamide and glucose tolerance tests.

Control of schedule-induced polydipsia: type, size, and spacing of meals.

Rats were given daily 1-min variable-interval sessions for several types of food delivered in various amounts per reinforcement and the concurrent, schedule-induced polydipsia was measured. Dry, solid food was neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for the development of polydipsia. Small portions of liquid Standard Monkey Diet produced polydipsia, but 45-mg dextrose or sucrose pellets did not. Within the range studied, smaller portions of both solid and liquid foods produced more drinking than larger portions per reinforcement. Two-min variable-interval sessions produced a greater polydipsic response than 1-min variable-interval, even though the number of 45-mg Noyes pellets allowed per session was held constant. Polydipsia was greatly attenuated on these schedules when the number of pellets remained constant, but were delivered two at a time. Within the ranges studied, the concurrent polydipsic response was increased by decreasing the rate of food acquisition, either by using smaller portions of food per reinforcement or by increasing the interreinforcement time.

Complete squirrel monkey diet in tablet form.

Complete squirrel monkey diet in tablet form.

Feeding of irradiated peaches and whole and peeled oranges to monkeys

Summary Inclusion of irradiated peaches, whole oranges, or peeled oranges in the diet of monkeys over a two-year period had no effect on the hematologic picture, growth, microscopic pathology or mortality. Inclusion of orange peel in the diet of monkeys did not increase intraocular pressure.

Hypocholesteremic effect of phenoxybenzamine (dibenzyline), an adrenergic blocking agent. Experimental studies with monkeys and human volunteers.

The effect of an orally effective adrenergic blocking agent, Dibenzyline, on serum cholesterol levels was studied in human subjects and in monkeys on high-fat diets. In addition, the effect of the phenoxyethyl analogue of Dibenzyline, G-D 131, was also investigated in monkeys. The studies showed that the increase in serum cholesterol level brought about by a high-fat diet in monkeys could be considerably reduced by supplementation with Dibenzyline. This hypocholesteremic action was also observed with the analogue of Dibenzyline, G-D 131, which does not possess the adrenergic blocking property. It appears, therefore, that the hypocholesteremic action of Dibenzyline is independent of its adrenergic blocking activity. When a high-fat diet which also contained a high amount of cholesterol was used, Dibenzyline retarded the increase in serum cholesterol of monkeys for a considerable length of time. Administration of Dibenzyline, 10 mg. daily for 11 days, brought about a fall in serum cholesterol in two of the three human subjects and arrested the further increase in serum cholesterol in the third subject on a high-butterfat diet. All the subjects showed increased fecal elimination of cholic and dihydroxycholanic acids during the Dibenzyline-supplemented period, suggesting that the hypocholesteremic effect of the drug is at least partly mediated through increased elimination of cholesterol as bile acids.