SnackerTracker v1
Marissa Mueller, Selma Tir, Carina A. Pothecary, Elise Meijer, Laurence A. Brown, Keiran Foster, Vladyslav V. Vyazovskiy, Stuart N. Peirson, Zoltán Molnár
Abstract
Accurately measuring activity and feeding is frequently important in laboratory animal research, whether for welfare-monitoring or experimental recording. Quantification commonly involves manual pellet-weighing; however, this can physically disturb animals and cannot continuously assess both the amount and pattern of feeding. Improved means of food-intake measurement have been developed yet are often costly and incompatible with cage configurations. We therefore developed and validated the SnackerTracker—a cost-effective, open-source, and user-friendly measurement system which continuously records food-intake, food-seeking activity, and ambient light conditions in the home-cages of small laboratory animals. This protocol describes how to build and operate the SnackerTracker, including device initialisation, data collection, and analysis.