ABSTRACT

Hypothesis 1: There is no significant difference on the growth rate of pups in the small and large
litters between the periods of birth and weaning.
Hypothesis 2: The weaning weight of the larger litters is averagely smaller compared to the
average weight of the smaller litters.
Hypothesis 3: The growth rate of males is higher than the growth rate of females between the
period of after weaning and puberty.
Hypothesis 4: The males weight is averagely bigger than the females weight at puberty.
INTRODUCTION
It has been known for long that the litter size greatly affects the body weight and the growth rate
of pups subjected to the litters in any given environment. There is a negative correlation between
the litter size and the birth body weight of most multiparous mammals (Crozier, 1935).
The research question i was investigating was why the body weight of larger litters has to always
be averagely smaller compared to the smaller litters of mice.
It is obviously predictable that factors like struggle for food i.e. the suckling may be a leading
factor to the decreased average body weight in the multiparous mammals but still more is
involved.
The average weight of rodents observed at the period of weaning is observed to be inversely
related to the litter number of a specific breed of animals between the weaning and birth period
(EPSTEIN, 1978) .the belief of the inverse relationship existing between the litters and the
number of mice led to the experiment of Widowson and McCance where they managed to

achieve under-nutrition for new born pups by giving female mice 16 to 18 newborns to suckle
them. (Widdowson, 1960).
The intriguing question thus remains if there are any other underlying factors that lead to a
decrease in the average body weight of mice in larger litters and the evidence of whether any
action can be taken to balance the effect off despite the number of pups in a litter is still a riddle
that requires a solution. However observing the other side it is not automatic that animals within
a smaller litter will all have large body weights, some remain as exclusions either due to physical
challenges or biological challenges and this may persist up to the period of weaning or even to
the period after puberty.

METHODS AND MATERIALS

The scientific experiment was carried out on 12 litters of mice that were housed on a fixed light
dark cycle and cared for according to American Association For Laboratory Animal Care
(AALAC) standards from birth to puberty(42 days) Prior to parturition the females were
naturally mated and separated into individual cages. The data collected included two types of
litters six litters contained a smaller group of 6 to 7 pups in each litter while the larger group
contained six litters of 15 -17 pups in each litter. The litter weights were recorded from day one
to day 42. From day 1 to day 21(birth to Weaning period ) all pups in a litter were weighed
together while after weaning (day 22 to day 42) the pups in the litters were separated and
weighed according to sexes(male or female). All pups from one litter are weaned together and
their body weights are measured before weaning. On day 42 all pups in each litter were weighed
according to their sex. CDI outbred mouse strain was used. The animals were fed a standard
commercial mouse diet

To investigate the effect of the decrease in body weight in larger litters (15-17) the graph charts
and the pie charts will be used to display the disparities between the body weight with the
number of pups in each litter.
The results are expressed as a comparison between the pups born in smaller litters (6-7 pups)
with pups born within larger litters (15-17 pups) and how their growth rates differ with each
other for the period between birth and weaning and weaning and the puberty period. The body
weight is the one used to calculate the approximate growth rate within each litter of pups.
The graphs are a plot of the litter size per day for against the average weight of the pups in the
litters. One graph takes care of the period between the birth of the pups to the weaning period
(1-21 days) while the other graph takes care of the period between after weaning and the puberty
period (22 -42 days).
RESULTS
Graphs
The figure1 below shows a plot between the age in days between day 1 and day 21 before
weaning of the litter against the average weight of each litter of pups and it is evident that the
largest litter size (damn 17) has a consistent lower average weight compared to the lowest litter
size (damn 6) which has the highest average weight.
The litter weight disparities in the different litter sizes may be associated with the
In each of the six attempts the following explanations may explain the above findings that seem
relevant .In the bigger litter sizes the number of pups is too large such that the chances of the
pups reaching the same nipples at each suckling period is elongated so that majority of nipples
may dry up, thereby leading to starvation of the litters to an extent exchanging the dams would

tend to undo the drying up probability but the pups would have to be mobile enough to find the
productive nipples in the mice mothers. (EPSTEIN, 1978)
In the smaller litters the number of pups is few enough hence the chances of the pups reaching
the nipples at each suckling period is shortened such that majority of nipples may not dry up
leading to the larger body weight of the pups that are in smaller litters.
Figure two, three and four are samples of data obtained after the weaning period and clearly
display the consistent larger body sizes of the pups within a smaller litter size but with exclusion
of the sexes. The sampling method just takes into account day 24, 22 and 21 and of the body
weights however there is a bigger correlation between the sampled data and the rest of the days
i.e. days 23,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40 and 42.
The observed results may be as an indication of the following conclusions made.
The litters with fewer number pups (6-7 pups) are exposed to better resources such as food
without much struggle due less competition from other pups, therefore in this situation the pups
will struggle less and also eat more comfortably This however is contrary to the pups within the
bigger litters as they may have to struggle for the available resources i.e. food and water and this
may mean that the probability that the food provided will be quickly depleted at the feeding
points. The pups may also be subjected to the rule of survival for the fittest due to large number
of pups struggling to obtain the food form the same feeding point.
Figure 5 graph shows that there is dominance of males having a larger body weight than the
female pups this may be as a result of reduced metabolism and their dominating habit during the
feeding periods.
Figure 6 shows a graph between the males and females body weight of the pups at puberty.
There is a strong correlation of male dominance however in all dams form dam 1 to dam 12.

DISCUSSION
In figure 1,2,3 and 4 the data presented for the weights of each litter against the number of days
between the birth and the weaning age and also between the weaning period and the puberty
period. All the three data chats indicate a common trend in the sense that the pups in the smaller
litters have a higher growth rate and a general bigger body weight than their counterparts in the
larger litters. This is well explained by (EPSTEIN, 1978) citing that there is an inverse
relationship between the average body weight of pups with the size of the litters of which they
are part of. The main explanation behind this would be the birth weight and the food available to
the litters in periods of both before and after weaning of the pups. There is a big correlation
between the birth weight and the average weight of each pup in a litter as the weight tends to be
smaller in larger litters and larger in smaller litters.
From figure 5 we can prove that hypothesis 3 is correct since there is a dominating effect of the
males pups inn terms of the body weight. The same applies to figure 6 which shows that the
males body-weight is still dominant over the females body weights in all litters that were under
investigation in our experiment.
This information proves my hypothesis that there will be a generally larger body weight for the
smaller litters. This applies to all animals not only the mice in litters but any living organism
exposed to better resources with few competition will likely tend to do better than an organism
exposed to the same resources but with greater competition.

Table of figures
Figure 1 A graph of litter size (days) against body weight.........................................7
Figure 2 A pie chart showing body weight of litters in day 24...................................8
Figure 3 A pie chart showing a pie chart of body weight on day 22...........................8
Figure 4 A pie chart showing body weight of litters on day 41...................................9
Figure 5 A graph showing dominance in males over the female litters after weaning
to puberty................................................................................................................. 10
Figure 6 A: Graph during the Puberty period of males and females.........................11

A graph of litter size (Days) Weight Size against

200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Dam # 1 n= 7

Dam # 2 n= 17

Dam # 5 n= 13

Dam # 6 n= 7

Dam # 8 n= 7

Dam # 9 n= 16

Dam # 3 n= 7

Dam # 4 n= 6
Dam # 7 n= 7

Dam # 10 n= 16

Dam # 12 n= 15

Figure 1 A graph of litter size (days) against body weight

Dam # 11 n= 16

24

Figure 2 A pie chart showing body weight of litters in day 24

22

Figure 3 A pie chart showing a pie chart of body weight on day 22

41

Figure 4 A pie chart showing body weight of litters on day 41

Chart Title
350

300

250

200

150

100

50

0
Age (days) F #4

F #7

F #3

F #5

F #6

F #2

F #5

F #5

F #7

F #6

Figure 5 A graph showing dominance in males over the female litters after weaning to puberty

F #7

F #7

Chart Title
12.00
10.00
8.00
6.00
4.00
2.00
0.00

6
M #8

10

F #7

Figure 6 A: Graph during the Puberty period of males and females

12

References
Crozier, E. E. (1935). Relationship Between Birth Weight and Litter Size. The Journal
of General Physiology, 9.
EPSTEIN, H. T. (1978). The Effect of Litter Size on Weight Gain in Mice. The Journal of
Nutrition, 4.
Widdowson, M. &. (1960). Some effects of accelerating growth. General Somatic
Development, 152.