Abstract
Summary
A nutrition index (W1/3/L) was applied to six healthy cats subjected to a restricted diet for a period of 11-23 weeks. During this period, they were exposed each week for 3 hr to an ambient temperature of 5° with Tr measured at the end of each hour. Thermoregulation was considered critically impaired when the Tr fell to 35° or below. In the final test, in each of the six cats, the Tr fell to 35° or below, and in each the nutritional index fell below 0.27 while the mean body weight loss of the six animals was 49.8%. It is suggested that in experiments in which integrity of the thermoregulatory mechanism is vital, use of the nutritional index would eliminate one variable. It is also suggested that the index provides an estimate for the degree of obesity.
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