Environmental enrichment: does it reduce barbering in mice? (1997)

DeLuca, A. M.

Abstract

One of the problems in maintaining group-housed mice is barbering one or more mice chewing (barbering) the fur and whiskers of other mice. A group of 300 mice of both sexes, which are being studied over their lifetime, were housed in a climate-controlled environment with night/day cycles. In order to alleviate barbering, their environmentwas enriched with toys and other objects at two different times. ..The toys were replaced every other week; at no time was the same toy used for more than 2 weeks. ...The extent of the barbering behavior was decreased by the enrichment program. If the environment was enriched as soon as the mice were gang-caged, barbering was kept at a minimum that is, only the smallest mice (less than 2 percent of the total number of animals) were barbered. If the enrichment was delayed for a month or more, barbering occurred to about 23 percent of the mice. Barbering in control mice (no enrichment) was about 60 percent. In these experiments, enrichment was most effective in reducing barbering when it was started when first housing the mice in group cages.