Abstract
In order to improve the welfare of laboratory mice, a number of different environmental enrichment strategies have been developed to provide opportunities for mice to engage in naturalistic behaviors. Providing sufficient cage bedding for mice to use as a burrowing substrate could be considered an environmental enrichment strategy, but few studies have considered the welfare aspects of cage bedding amount. The authors compared the preferences of group-housed female BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice for three different volumes of cage bedding (0.5 l, 1.5 l and 6 l). Mice of both strains but especially C57BL/6 mice showed strong preferences for cages with more bedding. The results highlight the importance of providing a sufficient amount of cage bedding to laboratory mice.
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Acknowledgements
Parts of the results were presented as a poster at the 12th FELASA/SECAL Congress held 10–13 June 2013 in Barcelona, Spain.
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Freymann, J., Tsai, PP., Stelzer, H. et al. The amount of cage bedding preferred by female BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice. Lab Anim 44, 17–22 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/laban.659
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/laban.659
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