Behavioral study reveals nest egression and mature locomotion precede novel food consumption in developing rats, indicating early exploration is not driven by food cues.
Key Points
To test whether nest egression during rat development is motivated and facilitated by the presence of novel food outside the home cage.
Continuously tracked rat pup movement across a home cage and connected satellite cages using permanently implanted radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags.
Systematically manipulated novel food availability in satellite cages daily across early developmental stages to record locomotion patterns and feeding onset.
Nest egression began at postnatal day 12 (P12) and expanded in spatial range until P16, at which point pup locomotion abruptly transitioned to a mature pattern.
Mature locomotion patterns emerged prior to the onset of food consumption at P17; pups avoided food-bearing locations prior to P18, developing a preference for them only after consumption began.