Stimulus Control of Feeding Behavior in the Grasshopper Mouse

Abstract and Summary

This study examined the stimulus control of feeding in the carnivorous grasshopper mouse, Onychomys leucogaster. Quantitative analysis of the actions involved in feeding showed that overall feeding behaviors of lab-reared and field-caught mice resembled one another but that the sequence of specific actions was variable. Responses by mice to cotton swabs dipped in solutions showed that after eating several crickets, the presence of prey odor more readily elicited a feeding response. The odor and moisture cues associated with exposed viscera were shown by the use of modified prey to strongly affect the orientation of feeding. Using modified prey without exposed viscera, tactile cues associated with the head and thorax proved to be important guides in the feeding response. Feeding orientation towards the head was independent of that towards the thorax. Together these data showed that the feeding sequence resembled a reaction chain and that much of the stereotypy of the mouse's feeding response resulted from the position and alignment of the cues that orient the feeding response.