An international team of researchers, led by Dr. Rex Mitchell at Flinders University, have shed light on the potentially harmful effects soft food diets can have on the skull of growing animals.

Each year, thousands of young animals across the world are rescued and rehabilitated by wildlife carers. The aim is to give these animals time to heal and grow until they are fit enough and old enough to be released.

"Some scientists have suggested that captive diets may have unintended, negative effects on skull development that could impact the successful reintroduction of animals into the wild," says Dr. Mitchell.

"We wanted to know how much growing up on a diet that doesn't need much biting can impact the ability of an animal to bite effectively in adulthood."

Fortunately, Dr. Mitchell and colleagues had a large collection of computed-tomography (CT) scans collected back in 2012 of rats that were fed different diets, from when they finished suckling all the way to adulthood. Using these scans, Rex created three-dimensional digital models of each rat skull and carried out computer-based 3D bite simulations to see which skulls were the weakest.