Rat

Germinating a novel idea to rodent heat support

An external heat source is frequently used to help rodents maintain optimal body temperature. The current gold standard for providing heat support to laboratory rodents is circulating warm water blankets. However, these come with certain drawbacks, including cost, the need...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Husbandry & Management, Surgery & Post-OpAnimal Type: Mouse, Rat, Rodent

Citation: Glaspell, S., Welch Jernigan, R. 2025. Germinating a novel idea to rodent heat support. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 13(3) (May/June), 23-24.

Juvenile male rats form preferences based on strain when playing in groups but not in pairs

Like many young mammals, juvenile rats engage in rough-and-tumble play. Play occurs naturally both in wild and laboratory rats, making it a suitable, ethologically relevant behavior to investigate. In the laboratory, rats are typically housed and tested in dyads, despite...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Ham, J. R., Jaiswal, D., Waner-Mariquito, R. et al. 2025. Juvenile male rats form preferences based on strain when playing in groups but not in pairs. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 19.

Housing in a large open cage did not affect the phenotypic traits of obese male Zucker fa/fa rats when compared to IVC-housed rats, but improved the rats’ well-being

The housing of laboratory rats in cages with dimensions according to international standards for research animals can hardly be regarded as a stimulating environment, even when fulfilling the minimum requirements for environmental enrichment. Little is known about whether changes in...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Disease/Experimental Model, HousingAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Gudbrandsen, O. A. 2025. Housing in a large open cage did not affect the phenotypic traits of obese male Zucker fa/fa rats when compared to IVC-housed rats, but improved the rats’ well-being. Animals 15(18), 2687.

Environmental enrichment for laboratory rats and mice: Endocrine, physiological, and behavioral benefits of meeting rodents’ biological needs

Standard housing for laboratory rodents is characterized by cages that do not always provide an adequate environment to meet the animal’s behavioral needs. When animals are reared under impoverished conditions, negative states such as boredom and distress might arise. Environmental...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Environmental EnrichmentAnimal Type: Mouse, Rat, Rodent

Citation: Domínguez-Oliva, A., Hernández-Avalos, I., Bueno-Nava, A. et al. 2025. Environmental enrichment for laboratory rats and mice: Endocrine, physiological, and behavioral benefits of meeting rodents’ biological needs. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 12.

Rat boredom-like behaviour in a monotonous versus a varied foraging task: Effects of sensory variation

Evidence increasingly reveals that non-human animals in monotonous situations can show boredom-like states, distinctively manifesting as increases in both arousal-seeking, restless behaviour and low arousal, drowsy behaviour. However, task related boredom has been little investigated in animals, but could have...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Environmental EnrichmentAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Burn, C. C., Ng, K. H. T., Parker, M. O. 2025. Rat boredom-like behaviour in a monotonous versus a varied foraging task: Effects of sensory variation. Animal Cognition 28(1), 57.

Evaluation of the effects of enlarged housing on social play and reward seeking in rats

The legal minimum dimensions for laboratory rat housing prevent rats from fully performing their behavioural repertoire. In the regular cages, rats cannot run, climb, or even stand upright. The need to house rats in larger cages has been recognized internationally...

Year Published: 2025Topics: HousingAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Achterberg, E. J. M., Baars, A.-M. J. M., van Hal, D. A. et al. 2025. Evaluation of the effects of enlarged housing on social play and reward seeking in rats. Animals 15(18), 2757.

Development of a sifting cage change method for rats to improve welfare

Normally during a cage change a small handful of dirty bedding is placed into the clean cage but I felt this was not enough to comfort the rats. After trialling a few methods I finally came up with a sieve...

Year Published: 2020Topics: Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Henderson, S. 2020. Development of a sifting cage change method for rats to improve welfare. Animal Technology and Welfare 19(2), 145–148.

A sweet change to the needle

Our Named Veterinary Surgeon (NVS) suggested providing post-operative pain relief in flavoured jelly to avoid the use of needles. We made up batches of non-medicated jelly to try them with first. We provided this nonmedicated jelly for three days before...

Year Published: 2020Topics: Drug/Substance AdministrationAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Forrest, G., Sattar, A. et al. 2020. A sweet change to the needle. Animal Technology and Welfare 19(1), 73–75.

Environmental enrichment for a small colony of rats.

Our facility predominantly houses mice with a small number of rats used for brain cancer studies. Due to limited space and resource for equipment, we came up with some easy and cost effective ways to improve enrichment for the rat...

Year Published: 2020Topics: Environmental Enrichment, Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Mouse, Rat, Rodent

Citation: Blackburn, N., Cronshaw, G., & Mitchell, M. (2020). Environmental enrichment for a small colony of rats. Animal Technology and Welfare, 19(2), 158.

From Fish to Mice to Monkeys in Research: Challenges and Opportunities for Mental Well-being

This chapter focuses mainly on animals in medical research. Many, especially the smaller species such as rat, mice, and zebrafish, may be seen only a few minutes a day by their human caregivers. Most laboratory animals are kept in confinement...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Abnormal/Problematic Behavior, Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Environmental Enrichment, Handling, Housing, Human-Animal Interaction, Husbandry & Management, Natural Behavior, Regulations & Ethical Review, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: All/General, Fish, Macaque, Marmoset, Mouse, Nonhuman Primate, Rat, Rodent, Zebrafish

Citation: Serageldine, C. E., Robinson-Junker, A., Alvino, G. et al. 2025. From Fish to Mice to Monkeys in Research: Challenges and Opportunities for Mental Well-being. In Mental Health and Well-being in Animals (pp. 308–322).