Custom Home Cage Monitoring System

Mouse

Default acrylic cage dimensions: 20 x 25 x 20 cm (Length x Width x Height) with acrylic or mesh lid

Customizable dimensions available

Includes water bottle (plastic and stainless steel spout) and feeder

Ventilation system with 50 air changes per hour

Environmental sensors for temperature (sensitivity 0.1°C); humidity (±5% RH at 20°C); gaseous by-products ammonia; carbon monoxide; methane and sulfur dioxide (minimum sensitivity of 2 ppm)

Camera mount

Optional: Photo array tracking

Optional: Camera and video tracking software and hardware for 24/7 monitoring

Easy assembly/de-assembly for cleaning

Rat

Cage dimensions: 32 x 40 x 32 cm(Length x Width x Height) with acrylic or mesh lid

Customizable dimensions available

Includes water bottle (plastic and stainless steel spout) and feeder

Ventilation system with 50 air changes per hour

Environmental sensors for temperature (sensitivity 0.1°C); humidity (±5% RH at 20°C); gaseous by-products ammonia; carbon monoxide; methane and sulfur dioxide (minimum sensitivity of 2 ppm)

Camera mount

Optional: Photo array tracking

Optional: Camera and video tracking software and hardware for 24/7 monitoring

Easy assembly/de-assembly for cleaning

Introduction

When assessing rodent behavior outside their familiar home cage, it’s crucial to ensure that the results are both accurate and reproducible. Research has shown that studying rodents away from their home environment can lead to inconsistent findings, as these conditions often fail to capture the full complexity of the rodents' natural behaviors and may induce stress and anxiety (Rudeck et al., 2020; Clement and Brockley, 1989). Additionally, environmental changes such as variations in light levels have been shown to impact behaviors related to activity and food intake (Acosta et al., 2020; Manouze et al., 2019). To address these challenges, our automated home cage system is designed to allow for the observation of rodent behavior within the comfort of their familiar surroundings, ensuring more reliable and representative results. The Maze Engineers automated home cage system is tailored to meet your specific research needs, providing a secure and comfortable habitat for your animal models. Our system complies with USA rodent enclosure regulations; for more details, please refer to our article. The Automated Home Cage system is designed for easy assembly and disassembly, making cleaning straightforward. We recommend using gentle cleaning agents such as unscented soap and water, 70% ethanol, or hydrochloric water for maintenance.

Home Cage System

Our cage system features an easily cleaned acrylic enclosure, complete with either an acrylic or mesh lid, a water bottle, and a feeder. The dimensions of the cage can be adjusted to accommodate the number of rodents, ensuring they have ample space for both comfort and social interaction. Various tagging options are available to individually identify each animal (see customization options below). Each cage is equipped with a single ventilation system, including air inlets and outlets, to ensure a continuous flow of fresh air while removing stale air. For circadian rhythm studies, the system offers customizable independent lighting settings, including both white and infrared light. We monitor each cage for essential parameters such as temperature, food and water levels, and the presence of gaseous by-products including ammonia, carbon monoxide, methane, and sulfur dioxide. Our rack system can accommodate multiple cages, with a maximum capacity of 72 cages per rack. Each rack includes a video tracking system with two controllers. A video camera employs the round Rubin method to move between cages, capturing and analyzing animal activity while generating health alerts. Timing for each cage is fully configurable. Additional accessories for our cage system include enrichment tools like activity wheels, sleep/wake analysis systems, racks, and tagging systems.

Monitoring Methods

Infrared photo arrays can be installed into each home cage to monitor the following parameters:

• Create customisable, per-cage, protocols and schedules based on individual rodent behaviours
• Motor and motion detection including location, locomotion, rodent identification, spatial preference, position distribution, zone entries and trajectory

Specifications:

• Two layers of beams, 5cm distance for mouse cages, 9cm distance for rat cages
• 3cm density for mouse cages, 5cm density for rat cages

Customizable to your research needs, our Conductor software integrates with video tracking packages to allow for the following:

• Create customisable, per-cage, protocols and schedules based on individual rodent behaviours
• Monitoring of rodent  functionalities and health alerts of each cage
• Web-based visualization of the monitoring information
• Automatic tracking of animals and analysis of animals’ behavior
•  Detect the animal health alerts and activities for Conduct Home Cage Software to display
• Web-based visualization of the monitoring information

Allowing the user to track the following:

• Motor and motion detection including location, locomotion, spatial preference, rodent identification, position distribution, zone entries and trajectory
• Fine motor and motion including grooming and facial expressions
• Analysis of behaviors including circadian rhythm, anxiety, depression, socialization, sniffing, burrowing, climbing, nestbuilding, birth etc.

Infrared photo arrays can be installed into each home cage to monitor the following parameters:

• Create customisable, per-cage, protocols and schedules based on individual rodent behaviours
• Motor and motion detection including location, locomotion, rodent identification, spatial preference, position distribution, zone entries and trajectory

Specifications:

• Two layers of beams, 5cm distance for mouse cages, 9cm distance for rat cages
• 3cm density for mouse cages, 5cm density for rat cages

Customizable to your research needs, our Conductor software integrates with video tracking packages to allow for the following:

• Create customisable, per-cage, protocols and schedules based on individual rodent behaviours
• Monitoring of rodent  functionalities and health alerts of each cage
• Web-based visualization of the monitoring information
• Automatic tracking of animals and analysis of animals’ behavior
•  Detect the animal health alerts and activities for Conduct Home Cage Software to display
• Web-based visualization of the monitoring information

Allowing the user to track the following:

• Motor and motion detection including location, locomotion, spatial preference, rodent identification, position distribution, zone entries and trajectory
• Fine motor and motion including grooming and facial expressions
• Analysis of behaviors including circadian rhythm, anxiety, depression, socialization, sniffing, burrowing, climbing, nestbuilding, birth etc.

Take advantage of Neuralynx, Ethovision Integration, SMS and Email integration with the Conductor Science Software. No I/O Boxes Required Learn More

Data Analysis

The following research fields  can be observed using the Automated Home Cage

• Longitudinal behavioral and phenotype assessment
• External appearance-related parameters
• Drug discovery/efficacy
• Metabolic disease
• Endocrine conditions and diseases
• Nutritional conditions and diseases
• Circadian rhythms behaviors

• Neurodevelopmental conditions and diseases
• Neurological conditions and diseases
• Other disease models
• Reproductive behaviors
• Psychological:
  • Depression/anxiety, activity
  • Social group behavior

Summary

The Automated Home Cage system allows for the following

• Precise control: The Automated Rodent Home Cages allows researchers to have precise control over the environment in which the rodents are kept. This can help to eliminate confounding variables and produce more reliable and accurate experimental results.
• Increased efficiency: The Automated Home Cage system can monitor and collect data on rodent behavior and physiological parameters continuously and non-invasively, allowing researchers to efficiently collect large amounts of data without disturbing the animals.
• Improved animal welfare: The Automated Home Cage can provide animals with a more natural and stimulating environment, which can lead to improved animal welfare compared to traditional cages. They can also help to reduce stress caused by handling and other environmental disruptions.
• Reduced human error: The Automated Home Cage can minimize human error in data collection and analysis, ensuring more consistent and accurate results.

References

Rudeck J, Vogl S, Banneke S, Schönfelder G, Lewejohann L. Repeatability analysis improves the reliability of behavioral data. PLoS One. 2020;15: e0230900. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0230900. Clement JG, Mills P, Brockway B. Use of telemetry to record body temperature and activity in mice. Journal of Pharmacological Methods. 1989;21: 129–40. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/0160-5402(89)90031-4 Acosta J, Bussi IL, Esquivel M, Höcht C, Golombek DA, Agostino PV. Circadian modulation of motivation in mice. Behav Brain Res. 2020;382: 112471. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2020.112471 Manouze H, Ghestem A, Poillerat V, Bennis M, Ba-M’hamed S, Benoliel JJ, et al. Effects of single cage housing on stress, cognitive, and seizure parameters in the rat and mouse pilocarpine models of epilepsy. eNeuro. 2019;6. doi: 10.1523/eneuro.0179-18.2019