Sex ratio manipulation and decreased growth of male offspring of undernourished golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus)

You are what your mother eats: evidence for maternal preconception diet influencing foetal sex in humans

“…The difference in sex ratio between women in the highest and lowest tertiles of energy intake is approximately 10 times more than that reported between women with first and third births, and is comparable with differences found in classic experimental manipulations of maternal nutrition in animals (e.g. Sachdeva et al 1973;Labov et al 1986).…”

Premating and gestational effects of maternal nutrition on secondary sex ratio in house mice

“…Meikle and Drickamer (1986) did not find that premating females had higher fertility or fecundity (litter size). Increased food availability is usually associated with greater fertility and fecundity (Bronson, 1989), but reduced food intake, followed by abundant food just before mating is often used to increase fertility and fecundity in the production of some domestic animals (Beltranena et al, 1991 (Labov et al, 1986). The relatively low mass of adult males born to food-deprived mothers reduces the probability that they will establish and maintain a territory (Vessey, 1967;Krackow, 1993), and they may therefore have rela¬ tively low reproductive potential (Wolff, 1985).…”

“…Females of many rodents give birth to a lower proportion of males if they are maintained on a low fat (Rivers and Crawford, 1974) or low calorie diet (Labov et al, 1986;Wright et al, 1988), rather than fed ad libitum. For example, Wright et al (1988) reported that albino female house mice fed only 65% of the food mass they consumed when food was available ad libitum produced a much lower proportion of males and fewer offspring than did females fed ad libitum.…”

“…Meikle and Drickamer (1986) argued that large fluctuations in food avail¬ ability may occur for species like house mice (Jakobson, 1981;Ward, 1981;Bronson, 1985). Rather Meikle and Drickamer (1986 (Labov et al, 1986;Huck et al, 1988;Krackow, 1993).…”

Costs of Franklin’s ground squirrel (Poliocitellusfranklinii) ectoparasitism reveal adaptive sex allocation

“…Field research providing supplementary food for Virginia opossums (Didelphis virginiana Kerr, 1792) demonstrated that females are capable of manipulating offspring sex ratio in response to experimentally increased body condition (Austad and Sunquist 1986). Both D r a f t 5 laboratory and field studies have confirmed that females bias the allocation of resources to offspring sex according to dam quality (Labov et al 1986;Meikle et al 1993;Moses et al 1995;Ryan et al 2012Ryan et al , 2014. Inconsistencies in the direction of such biases, however, highlight the complexity of potential trade-offs among body condition, litter size and litter sex ratio in polytocous species.…”