Effects Of Food Characteristics And Individual Learning On The Behavior Of Choosing Novel Foods Of Norway Rats(Rattus Norvegicus)

This study was conducted to shed some light on the effect of food characteristics and individual learning on the food selection in first generation of laboratory bred Norway rats. Testing was done by using a cafeteria-type preference test and the following results were obtained:1) The reaction of different individuals to food preference test was different. The eating time of young Norway rats was significant higher than that of sub-adult ones. The frequency of eating behavior and eating time of females were significant higher than those of males.2) The food intake, eating frequency and eating time of novel foods showed no significant differences between young and sub-adult males. The eating behavior of young, sub-adult, and adult females beside adult males of corn and millet were significant more than bean and soybean. Also, the selection coefficient of millet was the highest.3) There was no relationship between selection coefficient and crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, but the selection coefficient had a significant linear positive correlation with total sugar content of novel foods. The selection coefficient of corn and millet were higher for their high total sugar contents and the selection coefficient of bean, soybean, potato and peanut were lower for their low total sugar contents.4) The eating frequency of white novel food was significantly higher than that of the red novel foods of young female of Norway Rats. But other groups of Norway rat had non-significant difference in-between. 5) The food intake, eating frequency and eating time were not affected by different food shapes. But the eating frequency and eating time of small size food was significantly higher than middle and large size ones.6) The amount of food intake of five different foods was significantly differ between different groups of Norway rat. As the highest selection coefficient the food intake of millet for lhrs group for young males, sub-adult males and adult females Norway rat were significant higher than other foods, and there was also a significant difference between poultry fattener and potato. The food intake of the3hrs and6hrs groups of Norway rats showed significant difference between the highest and lowest selection coefficient.From the fore mentioned findings it could be concluded that the selection coefficient had a significant linear positive correlation with total sugar contents of novel foods and there was no relationship between selection coefficient and crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber. Food size had significant effects on diet selection of Norway Rats, but food shape and food color were not significantly affect food preference in Norway Rats. The degree of preference of small size was significantly higher than middle and large size. The reaction of both sexes of Norway rats of different ages to novel foods is different and the reaction to novel foods is consistent with scalar expectancy theory. Individual learning had significant effect on food selection of Norway Rats and the learning effect of six-consecutive-day short learning (1hr) was more remarkable than3hr group and6hr groups.