Social Housing & Companionship

Social-housing of cats and dogs; exercise for dogs

Permanent social housing of cats can be a safe arrangement under the condition that the primary enclosure is properly structured and the personnel committed to providing high-quality care. If all animals of a group are spayed or neutered, the social...

Year Published: 2007Topics: Environmental Enrichment, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Cat, Dog

Citation: LAREF [Laboratory Animal Refinement and Enrichment Forum] 2007. Social-housing of cats and dogs; exercise for dogs. In: Making Lives Easier for Animals in Research Labs: Discussions by the Laboratory Animal Refinement & Enrichment Forum. Baumans, V., Coke, C., Green, J., Moreau, E., Morton, D., Patterson-Kane, E., Reinhardt, A., Reinhardt, V., Van Loo, P. (eds), 106-110. Animal Welfare Institute, Washington, DC.

Individual housing – justifications

Studies in which I feel single-housing of rodents and rabbits is justified are those involving cannulatio, nutrition studies where we need to record intake/refusals,post-op animals after substantial surgery where the patient needs intensive nursin g.All single-caged animals must be housed...

Year Published: 2007Topics: Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Rabbit, Rodent

Citation: LAREF [Laboratory Animal Refinement and Enrichment Forum] 2007. Individual housing - justifications. In: Making Lives Easier for Animals in Research Labs: Discussions by the Laboratory Animal Refinement & Enrichment Forum. Baumans, V., Coke, C., Green, J., Moreau, E., Morton, D., Patterson-Kane, E., Reinhardt, A., Reinhardt, V., Van Loo, P. (eds), 29-30. Animal Welfare Institute, Washington, DC.

Making use of the stress buffering influence of a companion: Post-operative care

We have mice who are recovering from telemetry-implantation while being housed either alone or in pairs. With several years of experience with this surgery, we now are pretty sure that socially housed mice feel better than individually housed mice.I can...

Year Published: 2007Topics: Social Housing & Companionship, Surgery & Post-OpAnimal Type: Mouse, Rat, Rodent

Citation: LAREF [Laboratory Animal Refinement and Enrichment Forum] 2007. Making use of the stress buffering influence of a companion: Post-operative care. In: Making Lives Easier for Animals in Research Labs: Discussions by the Laboratory Animal Refinement & Enrichment Forum. Baumans, V., Coke, C., Green, J., Moreau, E., Morton, D., Patterson-Kane, E., Reinhardt, A., Reinhardt, V., Van Loo, P. (eds), 101. Animal Welfare Institute, Washington, DC.

Impact of ‘living apart together’ on postoperative recovery of mice compared with social and individual housing

We investigated whether housing two female mice in a cage, separated by a grid partition ('living apart together') counters the adverse effects of individual housing on postoperative recovery. Results indicated that socially housed mice appear to be less affected by...

Year Published: 2007Topics: Social Housing & Companionship, Surgery & Post-OpAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Van Loo, P. L. P., Kuin, N., Sommer, R. et al. 2007. Impact of 'living apart together' on postoperative recovery of mice compared with social and individual housing. Laboratory Animals 41(4), 441-455.

Consistency of vocal behavior during brief separations in common marmosets

Studies of the vocal behavior of captive nonhuman primates need to balance the requirement of maximizing the quality of the data collected with the desirability of minimizing the stress any procedures associated with data collection might impose on the subjects....

Year Published: 2007Topics: Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Macaque, Nonhuman Primate

Citation: Depeine, C. D., Bernhard, D. E., Newman, J. D. 2007. Consistency of vocal behavior during brief separations in common marmosets. American Journal of Primatology 69(S1), 107. (30th Meeting of the American Society of Primatologists Scientific Program, Abstract #156)

Behavioral management of deleterious aggression in rhesus macaques

New management strategies for detecting social instabilities and promoting social cohesion are needed to reduce aggression-based morbidity and mortality among captive groups of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). This study determined the utility of social network theory for deciphering patterns of...

Year Published: 2007Topics: Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Macaque, Nonhuman Primate

Citation: McCowen, B., Anderson, K., Heagerty, A. et al. 2007. Behavioral management of deleterious aggression in rhesus macaques. American Journal of Primatology 69(S1), 91. (30th Meeting of the American Society of Primatologists Scientific Program, Abstract #125)

Chapter 5.1. Pair Formation and Pair-Housing of Monkeys

The PI who does research with our pair-housed rhesus insists that cage companions be separated during the night and on weekends, so that they cannot fight and injure each other while nobody is around. I would love to keep the...

Year Published: 2007Topics: Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Macaque, Nonhuman Primate

Citation: LAREF [Laboratory Animal Refinement and Enrichment Forum] 2007. Chapter 5.1. Pair Formation and Pair-Housing of Monkeys. In: Making Lives Easier for Animals in Research Labs: Discussions by the Laboratory Animal Refinement & Enrichment Forum. Baumans, V., Coke, C., Green, J., Moreau, E., Morton, D., Patterson-Kane, E., Reinhardt, A., Reinhardt, V., Van Loo, P. (eds), 95-101. Animal Welfare Institute, Washington, DC.

Chapter 5.3.1. Post-Operative Care

It is my experience with rhesus macaques that it is advisable to pair-house an animal after surgery as soon as possible with his or her compatible companion. We do this especially with pairs, after one of them had cranial implant...

Year Published: 2007Topics: Social Housing & Companionship, Surgery & Post-OpAnimal Type: Macaque, Nonhuman Primate

Citation: LAREF [Laboratory Animal Refinement and Enrichment Forum] 2007. Chapter 5.3.1. Post-Operative Care. In: Making Lives Easier for Animals in Research Labs: Discussions by the Laboratory Animal Refinement & Enrichment Forum. Baumans, V., Coke, C., Green, J., Moreau, E., Morton, D., Patterson-Kane, E., Reinhardt, A., Reinhardt, V., Van Loo, P. (eds), 101-103. Animal Welfare Institute, Washington, DC.

Grooming in Barbary macaques: better to give than receive?

It is well established that grooming underpins sociality in group-living primates, and a number of studies have documented the stress-reducing effects of being groomed. In this study, we quantified grooming behaviour and physiological stress (assessed by faecal glucocorticoid analysis) in...

Year Published: 2007Topics: Natural Behavior, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Macaque, Nonhuman Primate

Citation: Shutt, K., MacLarnon, A., Heistermann, M. et al. 2007. Grooming in Barbary macaques: better to give than receive? Biology Letters 3(3), 231-233.

Pair-housing eliminates compulsive hair pulling: a case report

At a previous institution we had a cyno who suffered from severe hair pulling. He had removed practically all hair from his body; all that was left was a patch in the middle of his back that he could not...

Year Published: 2007Topics: Abnormal/Problematic Behavior, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Macaque, Nonhuman Primate

Citation: Minkel, R. 2007. Pair-housing eliminates compulsive hair pulling: a case report. Laboratory Animal Refinement and Enrichment Forum (electronic discussion group), September 27, 2007.