Oral medication administration: Training monkeys to take juice (2004)

Crouthamel, B., Sackett, G.

Abstract

We are in the early stages of a project that will eventually require 48 young pigtailed macaques (Macaca nemestrina) to receive oral medication or a placebo daily for an eight-month period. .. In this article we discuss our experience in getting 19 infants to initially try the liquid and then to complete a training regimen to ensure that they will take the medication at the appropriate time. .. All animals are housed in individual cages. .. The medications being administered in this project are given in an apple-flavored syrup. This syrup is much thicker than the apple juice used in training. .. All of the animals who have had trouble taking the juice/syrup mixture, either with or without medications, take their dose if it is mixed with a flavored yogurt. Our young pigtail monkeys all find flavored yogurt to be highly palatable. ..It is likely that most singly-caged monkeys of any age can be trained to ingest a fixed dose of fluid using these, or similar, techniques. As in any operant learning situation, the primary variable underlying success will probably be finding a palatable fluid for each individual, and perhaps when necessary, identifying a prized item as reward for ingesting all of the fluid.