Two methods of sodium loading were used to counteract the body fluid dilution resulting from natriuresis and water drinking during sustained lateral ventricular infusions of carbachol (CBC) or angiotensin II (ANG II) in rats. It was expected that preventing dilution would also prevent the precipitous decline of both drinking and natriuresis during the later hours of CBC infusion. In the first study, rats having isotonic saline as the sole drinking fluid during CBC infusions drank less fluid and had only slightly higher plasma osmolality and sodium concentration than rats drinking water, which showed extreme dilution. In the second study, rats with only water to drink were given intravenous infusions of 0.15, 0.45, or 1.00 M NaCl solutions at 1.8 ml/h concurrently with the intraventricular infusions. Significant dilution of plasma was found at the two lower rates but not at 1.00 M NaCl in CBC-infused rats. Only the latter group showed both persistent drinking and natriuresis throughout the 4-h infusion period, and this was not because of elevated plasma osmolality. Infusions of ANG II generated less severe body fluid dilution and more persistent drinking in both experiments. The study demonstrates that body fluid dilution may control the offset of both drinking and natriuresis during sustained infusions of CBC and that the more persistent drinking to ANG II vs. CBC probably occurs because of a lesser natriuresis and consequent fluid dilution.