Food availability and secondary sex ratio variation in wild and laboratory house mice (Mus musculus).

Female house mice deprived of food intermittently for 1 week before mating gave birth to fewer male young, but litters of females deprived of food for 2 weeks did not differ from control litters. Since mean weights of females did not differ between the two treatments, our results suggest that females were initially stressed by food deprivation, but recovered in the second week.