Husbandry & Management

Shelter use in horses: Time spent indoors and factors of variation – Results from a one-year longitudinal study

Stabling is a common lifestyle for horses, yet numerous studies show that it negatively impacts their welfare, leading to behavioural and health issues. In this study, we aimed to determine how much time horses choose to spend inside their stalls...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Housing, Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Equine

Citation: Lansade, L., Lemarchand, J., Ruet, A. 2025. Shelter use in horses: Time spent indoors and factors of variation – Results from a one-year longitudinal study. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 290, 106699.

Investigation of food marking and contamination behaviors informs feeding practice in research colonies of laboratory opossums

The laboratory opossum, Monodelphis domestica, serves as a critical marsupial model in biomedical research. Proper feeding approaches are essential for promoting animal growth and wellbeing. In this study, we systematically evaluated food scattering and potential food contamination from feces across...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Other Animal

Citation: Lanier, A. L., Schemera, B., Rynders, P. E. et al. 2025. Investigation of food marking and contamination behaviors informs feeding practice in research colonies of laboratory opossums. Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science 64(1), 89–97.

Effect of novel high-fat diet feeding methods on food wastage, weight gain, hair coat grease accumulation, and scratching behavior in C57BL/6NCrl mice

Soft-pelleted, high-fat diets (HFD) are greasy and crumble easily leading to food wastage and hair coat grease accumulation when mice are fed using commercially available feeders. The ideal HFD feeder design should reduce food wastage, facilitate mouse weight gain, and...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Guy, A. R., Klores, M., Prestia, K. et al. 2025. Effect of novel high-fat diet feeding methods on food wastage, weight gain, hair coat grease accumulation, and scratching behavior in C57BL/6NCrl mice. Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science 64(1), 98–105.

Behavioral or nutritional drive: Which motivation affects rates of food grinding in CD1 mice?

Wire mouse feeders used in laboratory mouse cages typically hold enough food to feed 5 mice for two weeks. However, some mice gnaw the food provided into powder, which they do not ingest. The ground-up food fills the cage, resulting...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Abnormal/Problematic Behavior, Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Gaskill, B. N., Davis, H., Gosselin, R. P. et al. 2025. Behavioral or nutritional drive: Which motivation affects rates of food grinding in CD1 mice? Applied Animal Behaviour Science 284, 106533.

Analysis of individually ventilated cage (IVC) microenvironments during 21-d cage change frequency for mice using two different bedding types

The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals provides recommendations on sanitation frequencies for rodent caging equipment; however, it allows for performance standards to be used when extending this frequency for individually ventilated cage (IVC) caging. Our institution...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Felgenhauer, J. L., Copio, J. N., Suri, A. M. et al. 2025. Analysis of individually ventilated cage (IVC) microenvironments during 21-d cage change frequency for mice using two different bedding types. Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science 64(2), 259–265.

Light cycle phase effects on behavioral responses to stress exposure in rats

Animal models enable investigation of the impact of stress on emotional-behavioral performance to facilitate understanding of posttraumatic stress symptoms experienced in humans. Refinement of animal stress models could lead to a reduction in the number of subjects needed to detect...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Brown, C. E., Borrell, A. C., DeMar, J. C. et al. 2025. Light cycle phase effects on behavioral responses to stress exposure in rats. Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science 64(1), 64–75.

Behavioral differences of shelter dogs under fluorescent versus LED lighting

Fluorescent lighting is used in a wide variety of applications, most commonly because of its energy and heat saving capabilities. However, the flicker that accompanies fluorescent light can negatively impact humans and animals. Detrimental behavioral and physiological consequences have been...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Dog

Citation: Abrams, J., Wilson, K., Hegewald, J. et al. 2025. Behavioral differences of shelter dogs under fluorescent versus LED lighting. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 289, 106692.

Hide-and-seek: Examining hide preferences and behavior patterns of reptiles through 24-hour monitoring (2025)

Providing animals in zoos with private, out-of-view areas is a basic need for many species but has been rarely studied systematically. Recent research on reptiles has highlighted the welfare benefits of complex environments but, as these studies typically include private...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Environmental Enrichment, Housing, Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Lizard, Reptile, Snake

Citation: Wierzal, N., Seiler, S., Boehm, D. et al. 2025. Hide-and-seek: Examining hide preferences and behavior patterns of reptiles through 24-hour monitoring. Animal Behavior and Cognition 12(2), 243–257.

A cross-sectional study to investigate associations between flooring substrates and prevalence of limb and paw abnormalities of dogs housed in commercial breeding facilities (2025)

Understanding the impact of environmental and management factors on the health and behavior of dogs housed in commercial breeding (CB) facilities is critical to their welfare. The specific aims of the study were to assess (a) associations between combinations of...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Housing, Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Dog

Citation: Stella, J., Gomes, P., Shreyer, T. et al. 2025. A cross-sectional study to investigate associations between flooring substrates and prevalence of limb and paw abnormalities of dogs housed in commercial breeding facilities. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 12.

A guide for junior technicians: The importance of giving the correct amount of nesting in a mouse IVC and the benefits of an enriched cage (2025)

During our experience of working on the breeding floor of the University of Cambridge's Anne McLaren Building, we have recognised the importance of giving the correct amount of nesting and the benefits of additional enrichment.

Year Published: 2025Topics: Environmental Enrichment, Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Pitcher, L., Stringer, A. 2025. A guide for junior technicians: The importance of giving the correct amount of nesting in a mouse IVC and the benefits of an enriched cage. Animal Technology and Welfare 24(1), 65–66.