部分啮齿类动物的幼仔能够识别母亲和巢垫物的气味，并作出偏好选择，而且这种偏好会随着幼仔的生长发育而发生变化。本文主要对金仓鼠幼仔在发育过程中是否具有对于巢垫料的偏好性、是否对母亲气味具有偏好性通过双向选择实验进行了初步探讨。研究发现，金仓鼠幼仔在15日龄开始表现出对于巢垫料气味的偏好性，而这种偏好性至30日龄时还存在。但幼鼠对于母亲阴道分泌物的气味并不表现偏好性，而幼鼠面对哺乳期母鼠和母亲的气味也并未表现偏好性。实验结果显示，金仓鼠幼仔出生至20日龄，并不显示对母亲气味的特异性偏好。

Rodent, like other mammals, are capable of discriminating between kin and non-kin by olfactory cues alone. Golden hamster pups ages 5 to 30 days were tested in three different experimental situations involving different olfactory stimuli. The results showd that golden hamster pups showed a marked preference for the odor of home-cage bedding over that of fresh bedding as early as 15 days of age. This preference wouldn’t decline until 30 days of age. And pups didn’t show olfactory preferences to their mother’s odor in certain non-animal odor comparisons until 30 days of age. In this experiment, pups couldn’t discriminate between the odors of an lactating female and their mother.