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Oxytocin (Oxt) and the Oxt receptor (Oxtr) are implicated in the onset of maternal behavior in a variety of species. Recently, we developed two Oxtr knockout lines: a total body knockout (Oxtr–/–) and a conditional Oxtr knockout (Oxtr FB/FB) in which the Oxtr is lacking only in regions of the forebrain, allowing knockout females to potentially nurse and care for their biological offspring. In the current study, we assessed maternal behavior of postpartum Oxtr FB/FB females toward their own pups and maternal behavior of virgin Oxtr–/–females toward foster pups and compared knockouts of both lines to wildtype (Oxtr+/+) littermates. We found that both Oxtr–/–and Oxtr FB/FB females appear to have largely normal maternal behaviors. However, with first litters, approximately 40% of the Oxtr FB/FB knockout dams experienced high pup mortality, compared to fewer than 10% of the Oxtr+/+ dams. We then went on to test …