Core Modules
7
The drinking and feeding behavior
of the animals is registered with special drinking and feeding
sensors and the appropriated mounting devices. The standard configuration is the dual-sensor
system with one feeding and one drinking station.
The drinking stations consist of a vessel containing the liquid and a sensor for measuring the amount
of liquid removed through the drinking nipple.
A feeding station consists of a food dispenser suspended from a sensor. The dispenser can hold
different standard food pellets.
Access to the food is given via a round stainless steel wire basket. The animals can gnaw off pieces
of food through the steel bars in the same way as they do with the ordinary food cribs.
An upper and a lower limit for liquid or food removal can be entered in the "Setup" menu. Within these
limits, the amounts of liquid and feed removed will be registered. Measured values that lie outside
these limits, e.g., those caused by knocking the dispenser against the sensor or by the animal lifting
the dispenser, will not be taken into account.
Activity measurements via InfraMot sensors
can be done for rapidly and easily determining the
gross activity of mice, rats, and other small laboratory animals via an infrared sensor.
These sensors register the activity of one or more subjects by sensing the body heat image, i.e.
infrared radiation and its spatial displacement over time. In this way, movement within the cage can
be reliably determined. This even includes brief movement events of a few milliseconds duration only.
A
voluntary wheel
can be included in the system in order to obtain further activity parameters. The
voluntary wheel can be used to measure the spontaneous activity of the test animal. The number of
turns that the wheel makes clockwise or counterclockwise will be registered.
