ABSTRACT
Mouse stereotypies come in many shapes and forms such as bar-mouthing, jumping, route-tracing, and flipping. Barbering and ulcerative dermatitis are two other types of behaviors, from the malfunctional category of abnormal behaviors, that are detrimental to a mouse’s welfare. Another abnormal behavior category is maladaptive behavior. Mouse pups give off ultrasonic distress calls when they are separated from the nest and conspecifics. The practicality of enrichments is often a limiting aspect to the improvement of mouse environments. Another practically implemented enrichment is a physical shelter. Reducing the mouse’s emotional reactivity to handling most likely minimizes physiological and behavioral changes associated with stress during these tasks, which could mask the true experimental effect. It is possible that manufacturer-led research on cage design and complexity, from a mouse’s perspective, could substantially aid in devising practical features that would enable enhancement and practical implementation of increased cage complexity on a large scale.
