The welfare of the foster pups, and the wolves' natural behaviour, was monitored using a system of surveillance cameras.
The foster pups had a similar growth rate as their step siblings in the recipient litter, as well as their biological siblings in the source litter.
The dams were then placed back into their original home cage, which now contained the foster pups.
Sensitized or non-sensitized GFPtg females were mated and then their non-transgenic foster pups were challenged with purified Candida antigen.
However, when comparing a mutant mother nursing only two foster pups to a WT mother nursing six pups, there was no significant difference in pup body weight, right panel).
Growth curves generated from seven foster pups per mother showed that pups nursed by mutant mothers grew significantly slower compared with pups nursed by a WT mother, left panel).
When the test mouse had calmed down and remained at the nest, three wild-type foster pups (postnatal days 1 6) were placed in each corner of the cage except for the nest corner.
Postnatal undernutrition was induced by fostering pups at birth to naïve dams in large (n = 16) litters as opposed to small (n = 8) control litters.
Additionally, fostered pups were allowed to age to 4 months and were themselves mated with each other to examine lactating mammary glands from fostered females as well as small intestines from the resulting pups.
