Maternal high-fat diet appears to disrupt several energy balance mechanisms in offspring. Here, female offspring from dams fed high fat (HF) did not significantly differ in body weight compared to those fed chow (CHOW), when weaned onto chow diet. Yet when presented with both chow and high fat diet, high fat intake was significantly higher in HF compared to CHOW offspring. To assess taste-based responsiveness, offspring (12 wks old) were tested in 30-min sessions (10-s trials) to a sucrose concentration series in a brief-access taste test. Compared to CHOW, the HF offspring initiated significantly fewer trials but did not significantly differ in the amount of concentration-dependent licking. Thus, rather than affect lick response (consummatory), maternal diet affects spout approach (appetitive) which may be attributed to motivation-related mechanisms. Consistent with this possibility, naltrexone, an opioid receptor antagonist, further reduced trial initiation, but not licking in both groups. With naltrexone administration, the group difference in trial initiation was no longer evident suggesting differences in endogenous opioid activity between the two groups. Relative expression of mu-opioid receptor in the ventral tegmental area was significantly lower in HF rats. When trial initiation was not required in one-bottle intake tests, no main effect of maternal diet on the intake of sucrose and corn oil emulsions was observed. Thus the maternal high fat diet induced difference in diet preference is not likely due to changes in the sensory orosensory component of the taste stimulus but may depend on alterations in satiety signals or absorptive mechanisms.