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Cage. --- Caging. --- Housing. --- Macaca. --- Observation. --- Primates. --- System. --- Welfare.

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Preference tests were used to assess a range of enrichment options for rats kept under standard New Zealand (and similar) caging conditions. The rats did not show significant preferences for most of the options, over an empty cage. The exceptions were shredded paper, a nesting box and a semi-enriched condition incorporating a range of modifications. These cage modifications are recommended for the enrichment of laboratory rats

Behaviour. --- Boxes. --- Cage. --- Cages. --- Caging. --- Enrichment. --- Housing. --- Kept. --- Laboratory rat. --- Laboratory rats. --- Laboratory. --- Paper. --- Preference test. --- Preference tests. --- Preference. --- Preferences. --- Rat. --- Rats. --- Test. --- Tests. --- Time.

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A previous study showed that laboratory rats preferred to dwell on a solid floor rather than a grid one, particularly when resting (Manser et al. 1995). The strength of this preference was investigated in an operant trial using a novel test apparatus, which consisted of a grid-floored cage and a solid-floored cage, joined via a central box containing a barrier whose weight was adjustable. Trials in which rats had to lift the barrier in order to explore the whole apparatus were alternated with those in which the rats were confined on the grid floor and then had to lift the barrier in order to reach the solid floor. The latter trials were carried out at the beginning of the Light period when the rats were seeking a resting place. In both trials, the weight of the barrier was progressively increased for each rat, until a maximum weight was found which it would Lift either to explore its environment (weight A) or to reach the solid floor (weight B). No significant differences were found between weights A and B, showing that rats would work as hard to reach a solid floor to rest on as they would to explore a novel environment. The apparatus used could, with some modifications, be appropriate for use in other operant studies in laboratory rats

Boxes. --- Cage. --- Environment. --- Floor. --- Laboratory rat,grid floors,caging,animal welfare,preference,strength of preference,animal behaviour,operant testing. --- Laboratory rat. --- Laboratory rats. --- Laboratory. --- Light. --- Motivation. --- Preference. --- Rat. --- Rats. --- Seeking. --- Strength of preference. --- Strength. --- Test. --- Weight. --- Work.

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Rats are a well-understood and widely used laboratory species that should be provided with environmentally enriched caging in line with modem animal welfare guidelines. This paper reviews which sources of enrichment are effective and should be prioritised, and how methods for providing enrichment might be selected using rats' preferences as a guide. Rats demonstrate high demand for social contact and prefer larger cages, and cages with shelters, nesting material and foraging devices. Rats also discriminate between different methods of providing a given type of enrichment. It is clear that rats should be provided with enrichments such as social contact and shelter, and, in fact, that these should probably be considered basic husbandry requirements rather than optional improvements. It is still difficult however, for animal caretakers to access proven, standardised methods for providing appropriately enriched caging, and the level of enrichment routinely provided to most rats in the laboratory appears to be low. Further research is required to assess the impact of enrichment upon research variables and to develop commercially viable enrichment products for rats in the laboratory

Access. --- Animal welfare. --- Animal-welfare. --- Animal. --- Behavior. --- Cage. --- Cages. --- Caging. --- Contact. --- Demand. --- Device. --- Discriminate. --- Enriched. --- Enrichment. --- Environment. --- Environmental enrichment. --- Experience. --- Foraging. --- Husbandry. --- Laboratory. --- Level. --- Method. --- Mice. --- Motivation. --- Nesting material. --- Nesting materials. --- Old. --- Paper. --- Preference. --- Preferences. --- Rat. --- Rats. --- Rattus norvegicus. --- Research. --- Review. --- Shelter. --- Shelters. --- Social contact. --- Social. --- Standardization. --- Time. --- Welfare.

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Dustbathing is one of the major behavioural systems of domestic fowl that is constrained by commercial caging systems. Although research conducted over the last 20 years has revealed a great deal about causation of dustbathing, attempts at measuring the importance to hens of having access to dustbathing substrate have proven difficult. Various economic techniques, operant conditioning and learning trials have been used to determine whether hens have a 'need' for dustbathing substrate or 'think' about dustbathing in the absence of substrate. In this study, we measured hens' willingness to work to obtain substrate for dustbathing using a vertically swinging door to which weights could be added. Hens were trained to push through the door to enter a goal box containing peat moss. The hens were subjected to two series of trials to compare the maximum weight that they would push to open the door when living in a cage and deprived of dustbathing substrate, with the maximum weight that they would push when living in a pen furnished with litter and a dustbath (non-deprived). Of the 10 hens that opened the door for access to peat moss, six hens pushed more weight when deprived, three hens pushed more weight when non-deprived and one hen pushed an equal amount of weight. Overall, the hens tended to push more weight (860 +/- 95.6 vs. 682.5 +/- 83.3 g; P < 0.10, one-tailed paired t-test) and tended to make more attempts to open the door (P < 0.10) when they were deprived than when they were non-deprived. Significantly more trials resulted in dustbathing when hens were deprived(P < 0.01) suggesting that following deprivation, the hens were, in fact, more motivated to dustbathe. The results of these trials indicate that although deprived hens may be more motivated to dustbathe, and that most hens may be willing to work to obtain a dusty substrate when they can see it, they are not necessarily willing to work harder when they are in a state of deprivation than when they have rec

Absence. --- Access. --- Animal-welfare. --- Behavior system. --- Behaviour. --- Boxes. --- Burmese red junglefowl. --- Cage size. --- Cage. --- Caging. --- Conditioning. --- Deprivation. --- Domestic fowl. --- Domestic-fowl. --- Dustbathing. --- Economic techniques. --- Experience. --- Fowl. --- Hen. --- Laying hens. --- Learning. --- Model. --- Motivation. --- Need. --- Needs. --- Operant conditioning. --- Operant. --- Pen. --- Performance. --- Pleasure. --- Poultry. --- Preferences. --- Priorities. --- Research. --- Suffering. --- System. --- Systems. --- Time. --- Weight. --- Work.