"Resource" exchange in the biparental California mouse (Peromyscus californicus): water transfer from pups to parents

Mammalian mothers provide water to their young via milk. Rodent mothers reclaim much of this water by licking the anogenital areas of their pups, stimulating reflexive urination, and consuming the pups' urine. Male rodents do not provide milk (hence water) to the young, but in some species male parents may nevertheless lick their pups. We determined the amount of water transfer from pups to mothers and fathers in the biparental California mouse, Peromyscus californicus, by injecting 5-, 10-, 20-, and 30-day-old pups with tritiated water and measuring the radioactive label in maternal and paternal plasma after 24 hr of interaction with their litter. On Days 5 and 10 mothers obtained more pup urine than did fathers. Parents consumed equivalent amounts of pup urine on Days 20 and 30. Mothers engaged in more pup anogenital licking than did fathers, which accounted for the difference in pup urine consumption. Salt appetite controls in part, pup anogenital licking in lactating rats (Gubernick & Alberts, 1983). Salt appetite was not implicated in the modulation of anogenital licking in the California mouse because the mice failed to display a salt appetite. Licking of young and urine consumption are not dependent solely on the bidirectional exchange of water between the dam and her offspring.