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Influence of the mother in the development of flavored‐food preference in lambs
Author(s) -
SaintDizier H.,
Lévy F.,
Ferreira G.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.20197
Subject(s) - food preference , weaning , olfactory cues , preference , food intake , feeding behavior , zoology , food science , biology , olfaction , ecology , endocrinology , mathematics , statistics
The aim of the study was to determine the influence of the mother in the development of flavored‐food preference in lambs. First, we demonstrated that lambs that ate flavored food in the presence of their mothers before weaning ate more of this food 1 month after weaning than lambs that ate flavored food with other ewes or lambs exposed to nonflavored food with their mothers. Second, lambs that could only see their mothers eating the flavored food and had access to the food's olfactory cues before weaning, showed similar preference for flavored food 1 month after weaning to lambs that ate the flavored food with their mothers. However, lambs that were separated from their mothers while their mothers consumed flavored food did not reveal a preference for it. Overall these results suggest that development of food preference in lambs depends mainly on observation of the mother, provided there is also access to olfactory cues characterizing the food. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc Dev Psychobiol 49: 98–106, 2007