Nursing - Pig Nursing

Mouse Ethogram  >  Active Behaviors  >  General Activity  >  Maternal Behaviors  >  Nursing  >  Pig Nursing

Overview and Meaning

Mice are an altricial species. During the first few weeks of life they rely on their mother's milk as a source of food and as a way to learn about the food eaten by their mother. The amount of milk received can affect a pup's adult weight and aggressiveness. Therefore, weaning weight of male pups can have long term effects on their ability to become dominant adults (Latham & Mason, 2004). A dam will spend the bulk of her time in the nest on top of her pups to keep them warm and to allow them to nurse.

Description

The dam lies flat on her side with pups attached to her nipples. Also known as supine nursing. (Coutellier et al., 2008)

Classification

Contexts

Social

Variants

Pig Nursing is a variant of Nursing.


Nursing is part of

Maternal Behaviors

These include:

  1. Maternal Grooming
  2. Maternal Moving
  3. Nursing

 

Stanford Department of Comparative Medicine presents

A Comprehensive Ethogram of the Laboratory Mouse