Book 33, Question 32
What is weaning?
Weaning is the time when a baby mammal slowly changes from drinking milk to eating other food.
Mothers may start to nurse less often, and babies begin to nibble leaves, seeds, or bits of food. Some mammals wean in weeks, and others take years. Weaning gives the young time to get used to new foods and grow strong enough to find their own.
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Quick answers
What is weaning?
At some point, a mother weans her young, who must then feed independently to survive.
Source: National Institutes of Health
More fun facts
- Emergence of the first permanent molar and age of weaning are closely related measures of the time to raise young to independent feeding.
- The young of toothed mammals must have teeth to reach feeding independence.
- Weaning takes place with an entire deciduous dentition, closest in time to emergence of the first permanent molars and well before second molars emerge.
- Placental mammals bridge early rapid growth with a set of small, temporary, ‘deciduous’ or ‘milk’ teeth.
- The orangutan stands as the most divergent mammal in this regard across known species in nine orders, with extremely late weaning in relation to offspring development and tooth emergence.
Sources: National Institutes of Health
Questions kids ask
Do young mammals need teeth before they wean?
The young of toothed mammals cannot reach feeding independence without a functioning dentition.
Source: National Institutes of Health