Ban the Bottle

I now believe it iss time to end the pracrice of using water bottles with lab animals. Automatic watering systems are a more efficient way to get water to mice, rats, hamsters, guinea pigs, etc. other products, such as water pacs, are also good replacements for bottles.

Bedding

About a year ago, my supervisor let me experiment with a different type of bedding for my mice. Normally, we use Sani-chips, a wood-based bedding, at our facility. I don't know the brand name of the stuff I experimented with, but it was like shredded cardboard. The results I got were interesting. The feces fell to the bottom of the cage, away from the mice, when using the shredded cardboard. It also absorbed the urine quite well. Overall, I liked this product better than the wood chips. Yet, the chips what we are currently using. My guess is that the chips are cheaper.

Water - The Great Debate

At this time, I am using bottles to provide water to my mice. This is the time-tested method of giving animals in a cage a drink. But is it the best way? I have worked for a company that used an automatic watering system. This provided H2O anytime the dogs I was breeding need it. It is less wasteful and more ergonomic for the technicians. Bottles always have water in them when we change them. That water is dumped out. That could be a problem here in the Southwest where water is a precious commodity. Also, as a tech, I have to lift cases of water bottles, causing stress on my muscles. An automatic system eliminates these problems by providing water on demand.

Bottles, however, do allow you to add test solutions or medicines to the drinking supply. That is why some companies aren't interested in updating to an automatic system. They also believe that cage flooding is a worse problem than with bottles.

This debate will help spur on those who design caging for researchers. (I hope).

Introduction

I am a Laboratory Animal Technician at a non-profit medical research facility in La Jolla, California. I work in a vivarium that breeds several strains of laboratory mice. I breed, wean, mate and take care of about 600 cages of mice. I was certified as a LAT on October 2nd, 2006. I have been in California since August 2004. Previously, I worked and lived in Michigan. I am a veteran of the U.S. Navy, where I served for 4 years as a hospital corpsman. I have a Bachelor of Arts degree from Western Michigan University.