Amphetamine anorexia in cats: the effect of encouraging to ingestive behavior

The effect of encouraging to ingestive behavior was examined in cats pretreated with amphetamine (AMPH) in a dose sufficient for evoking anorexia (2 mg/kg). AMPH evoked complete refusing of spontaneous food ingestion in all animals. However, the cats could eat in even frantic manner when they were encouraged to ingestive behavior by moving the bowl with food around the place where the animal was sitting in the experimental cage. This result reveals that so called "anorexic syndrome" does not consist simply in a loss of appetite. It may be temporarily suppressed by some additional external stimuli which enable to channel the animal's behavior to the ingestive one.