Female, Sprague-Dawley rats were given the opportunity to supplement their standard laboratory food with either chocolate cake mix batter or a mixture of fat and sugar.  After some days with the opportunity, the supplements were no longer supplied.  During this period, the females were injected with a single dose of estradiol valerate (0.38 mg/kg) or placebos.  The estradiol valerate produced a disturbance in the usual weight gain typical of young female rats for a period of about 4 days.  When females were again gaining weight as usual, they were again presented the supplements.  The estradiol-treated subjects took more of each kind of supplement than placebo-treated across a number of days following injections.  Estradiol levels in plasma were found to be elevated when measured periodically across 35 days after the single injection of estradiol valerate. Following the same procedures, 17 alpha-ethynylestradiol also enhanced appetite for the chocolate cake mix. The procedure of not pairing the initial effects of continuously high levels of circulating estradiol with presentation of palatable ingesta, but presenting the ingesta subsequently, produced enhanced appetites for the ingesta which also led to enhanced weight gains.  The procedure of separating the initial effects of estrogens from presentation of palatable food is a salient difference between the procedures that enhance intake of food and the usual procedures showing that estrogens reduce intakes of food.