Abstract: Caecotrophy is an important adaptive strategy to meet the nutrition needs in small mammalian herbivores. In the vole Microtus fortis, caecotrophy prevention may result in various physiological responses, including lowered food digestibility and reduced growth. In the present study, we compared voles that were prevented from caecotrophy to those of the control group with normal caecotrophy using 1 month and 12 months old individuals with regard to digestibility of dry matter, crude protein, and neutral detergent fiber, body weight, and daily food intake. Compared to the control groups, the dry matter digestibility of the treated 1-month and 12-months individuals decreased by 27.64 % and 7.89 %, respectively, and crude protein digestibility decreased by 21.39% and 12.68 %, respectively. The body weight of the treated individuals was significantly lower than the control individuals while the daily food intake was significantly higher. In addition, the treated 1-month individuals suffered more weight loss than 12-month individuals. Our results showed that caecotrophy prevention could cause reduced food digestibility and restrain weight growth in Microtus fortis as in other small mammalian herbivores, and that caecotrophy might be especially important for the young voles.

Key words: Caecotrophy, Digestibility, Growth, Microtus fortis

摘要： 食粪行为是植食性小型哺乳动物为满足其营养需求所采取的一种适应对策。实验室条件下，限制1月龄和12月龄东方田鼠摄食粪便，测定了限制食粪对食物消化率和体重生长的影响，旨在进一步揭示食粪行为在植食性小型哺乳动物的营养及消化对策中的作用。结果表明，限制食粪使1月龄和12月龄东方田鼠的干物质消化率分别下降27.64 %和7.89 %，粗蛋白消化率分别下降21.39 %和12.68 %；限制食粪可显著抑制东方田鼠的体重增长，且限制食粪对幼体体重的影响较成体明显。因此，研究结果充分验证了限制食粪可降低东方田鼠的食物消化率及抑制其体重生长的假设。

关键词: 东方田鼠, 食粪, 消化率, 体重生长