295.

Foley WJ, Charles-Dominique P, Julien-Laferriere D. Nitrogen requirements of the didelphid marsupial Caluromys philander. J Comp. Physiol., B. 2000; 170(5-6):345-350. (CA) [The use of fruit-based diets by a small arboreal marsupial, the woolly opossum (Caluromys philander) was studied to elucidate the mechanisms used to compensate for a low dietary protein concn. The passage of a liq. phase digesta marker (Cr-EDTA) through the gut was significantly faster when animals were fed a diet contg. 0.45% N compared to that measured on a diet contg. 0.90% N. The size of the gut of the two groups was similar except that the cecum of animals fed 0.45% N was significantly larger than in those animals fed 0.90% N. Animals fed a diet of 0.45% N ate significantly more food than those fed higher levels of nitrogen but there was no significant difference in the dry matter digestibility of the diet. The maintenance nitrogen requirement of the animals was 176 mg dietary N or 146 mg truly digestible nitrogen per kg metabolic body mass, with low losses of non-dietary fecal nitrogen being notable. There was no significant difference between diets in any measured parameter of urea metab. and all animals recycled between 60% and 80% of the endogenously synthesized urea.]

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