Feed wastage in laboratory mice, also known as chewing or grinding behavior, is problematic for program management and animal welfare. The destruction of pelleted feed without consumption produces a powder accumulation on the cage floor...
The addition of supplemental diets to laboratory animals, specifically rodents, is a common practice for the provision of additional nutritional support. We set out to investigate whether the use of commercially available supplemental diets during...
Drug administration in preclinical rodent models is essential for research and the development of novel therapies. Compassionate administration methods have been developed, but these are mostly incompatible with water-insoluble drugs such as tamoxifen or do...
Some mice demonstrate excessive food-grinding behaviors in which food pellets are broken down into crumbs (orts). This is considered abnormal behavior and is undesirable in a research environment, as it is thought to potentially be...
Mice often undergo painful procedures and surgeries as part of biomedical research protocols. Buprenorphine, a partial μ-opioid receptor agonist and κ receptor antagonist, is commonly used to alleviate the pain associated with such procedures. Due...
Blood collection is frequently used for neonatal and juvenile mice in toxicology, developmental, and immunology studies and is often a terminal procedure. However, the use of nonterminal blood collection techniques, including the submandibular and the...
Heat supplementation during surgery is a common practice; however, thermal support is not commonly used during anesthesia induction. Mice lose body temperature quickly, and air movement can exacerbate this, potentially putting mice at a thermal...
Improving the effectiveness of mating schemes for large-scale production of mice is an ongoing challenge in animal facilities. Continuous mating, which requires fewer breeding cages than intermittent mating, has traditionally been used to take advantage...
Laboratory mice are typically housed in “shoebox” cages with limited opportunities to engage in natural behaviour. Temporary access to environments with increased space and complexity (playpens) may improve mouse welfare. Previous work by our group...
Stereotypies are repetitive, unvarying, apparently purposeless behavioural patterns. They develop in animals kept in barren environments and are highly prevalent in laboratory mice (Mus musculus), yet their underlying mechanisms have remained elusive. In humans, stereotypies...