Designed for the observation of natural and realistic behaviors in mind, our highly customizable automated home cage system provides a safe, controlled environment with multiple utilities to ensure comfort and optimal conditions for successful and reproducible behavioural research for short, intermittent, or long-term periods.
Our automated cage system was created for the tracking and monitoring of multiple parameters which can include the following options:
- Food and water levels using pellet dispensers and lickometers
- Metabolic parameters such as CO2 and O2
- 24/7 video stream
- Video tracking behavioral analysis
- Optional ventilation systems for each cage
Our systems are scalable from a single cage to multiple cages with each cage being easy to assemble and de-assemble for easy cleaning. Additional accessories can be added to the Home Cage system
Please state the number of cages required in your quote request
Specifications
Mouse
|
Rat
|
| Default acrylic cage dimensions: 30 x 30 x 30 cm (Length x Width x Height) |
Default acrylic cage dimensions: 40 x 40 x 40 cm (Length x Width x Height) |
| Includes water bottle (plastic and stainless steel spout) and feeder |
Includes water bottle (plastic and stainless steel spout) and feeder |
| Acrylic or mesh lid |
Acrylic or mesh lid |
Custom Options
|
| Cage customizable dimensions available |
| Optional lickometer and/or pellet dispensers for water and food consumption analysis |
| Optional ventilation system with air inlet and outlet per cage |
| Optional environmental sensors for CO2 and O2 (consumption per unit time, accuracy 1ml), temperature, accuracy 0.1℃; humidity accuracy ±1% RH; air pressure, accuracy 0.075% |
| Optional: Height adjustable photo array tracking for animal location (X and Y coordinates format) and jumps |
| Optional: 24/7 monitoring |
| Optional: Camera and video tracking software and hardware for behavioral analysis |
Introduction
When rodent subjects are examined outside the comfort of their home cage, caution has to be taken that results and data concerning behavior and characteristics are accurate and reproducible. Multiple studies have found that assessing rodent behavior outside the subject’s home cage results in difficulties in replicating results (Rudeck et al., 2020) in part due to not representing the complexity of the subject’s behavior outside of the subject’s regular surroundings and creating additional behaviors such as anxiety and stress (Clement and Brockley, 1989). Other factors such as changes in light levels have been found to affect behaviors related to activity and food consumption (Acosta et al., 2020; Manouze et al., 2019). Our automated home cage was designed to combat this, allowing researchers to observe a subject’s natural behaviours in the comfort of their regular surroundings
The Maze Engineers automated home cage system is customized with your specific research needs in mind while creating a safe and comfortable living space for your animal model. Our automated home cage adheres to USA rodent enclosure regulations
The Automated Home Cage system is easy to assemble and de-assemble for easy cleaning. We recommend using gentle cleansers to clean the Home Cage such as unscented soap and water, 70% ethanol, or hydrochlorus water
Home Cage System
Composed of an easy-to-clean acrylic cage with an acrylic or mesh lid, water bottle, and feeder, the cage’s dimensions can be modified to ensure the number of rodents per cage are given enough space for comfortable living and interaction
A single ventilation system of air inlets and outlets on each cage ensures clean fresh air is pumped into each cage while stagnant air is removed. Customizable independent lighting adjustments (white light and infrared light) are available for circadian rhythm analysis
Each cage can be monitored for temperature, food and water levels, O2, and carbon monoxide
Multiple cage systems can be set up on our rack system (maximum 72 cages per rack). Each cage can include a video camera and mount to monitor each cache 24/7 capture and/ or analyze the animal activities and generate animal health alerts.
Additional accessories are available for our cage system include enrichment apparatus such as activity wheels
Monitoring Methods
Photo Arrays
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, 5 cm distance for mouse cages, 9 cm distance for rat cages
- 3 cm density for mouse cages, 5 cm density for rat cages
