Behaviour of golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) - Vetsuisse ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

stereotypic behaviour and can improve animal welfare (e.g. Ödberg, 1987 in bankvoles, Würbel et. al. 1998b in mice, Kuhnen 1999b in golden hamsters). The wellbeing of caged animals is affected by many factors (Bantin and Sanders, 1989).Weiss et al. (in Bantin and Sanders 1982) showed that rats prefer to live in bignarrow cages compared to big broad cages. Although our cages were much bigger,the shape of the cage could also be important for hamsters.The additional space on top of the wooden house was used by almost allhamsters in the two smallest cages. On the contrary only a few hamsters in thebigger cages used the elevated platform. Although duration and frequency were notsignificantly different, it suggests that hamsters in the two smallest cage sizes were inneed of additional space and did not use the roof of the house only because it wasan elevated platform.It was ensured that hamsters were distributed equally in the four cage sizesaccording to body weight at weaning. Due to different litter sizes in the three series, asignificant influence of series on body weights was observed. Possible reasons forthe higher weight gain in small cages could be lower energy consumption and/ormore food intake. The analysis of the condition, as well as autopsy results showedthat the higher weight gain was not due to more fat tissue. Faster running in bigcages, which uses more energy, would explain higher energy consumption in bigcages. Hamsters in smaller cages were thus able to spend more energy on growth.Hamsters were still growing throughout the project. With an advanced age excessiveenergy can not be used for growth anymore. Then the additional fat tissue couldbecome a problem in small cages. The lack of a running wheel or another activitywith high energy expenditure could impair the condition additionally. Therefore, cagesizes 1 and 2 seem to be too small.25
Autopsies of the three hamsters that died during the project revealed that all ofthem had severe hydrocephalus internus, but there had been no symptoms to drawattention to these hamsters (Edwards et al., 2005). Hydrocephalus as a main factornever had a significant effect on any analysis. Nevertheless, the effect ofhydrocephalus on the behavioural data is not completely clear. Projects on this topicare planed.26
Page 1 and 2: Institut für Genetik, Ernährung u
Page 3 and 4: Table of contentPage1 Zusammenfassu
Page 5 and 6: eingerichtet. Die Laufradaktivität
Page 7 and 8: 2 Behaviour of golden hamsters (Mes
Page 9 and 10: IntroductionHamsters are common lab
Page 11 and 12: MethodsAnimals and housing conditio
Page 13 and 14: weaningvideorecordingvideorecording
Page 15 and 16: ResultsBehaviourHamsters devoted mo
Page 17 and 18: Tab. 2 Post-hoc comparisons of runn
Page 19 and 20: GroomingAll hamsters were observed
Page 21 and 22: Open spaceUsage of open space was p
Page 23 and 24: Stress hormones and organsNeither s
Page 25 and 26: directed exploration, which, after
Page 27: top wire. Some hamsters used to cli
Page 31 and 32: ReferencesBantin G.C. and Sanders P
Page 33 and 34: Sherwin C.M., 1998. Voluntary wheel
Page 35 and 36: 3 CAN WE TELL HAMSTERS ARE STRESSED
Page 37 and 38: IntroductionConcentrations of gluco
Page 39 and 40: The experiments were approved by th
Page 41 and 42: ResultsMales had generally higher v
Page 43 and 44: Fig. 1 The concentration of cortiso
Page 45 and 46: ACTHLevels of ACTH were significant
Page 47 and 48: ACTH-Challenge TestIn the ACTH-chal
Page 49 and 50: negative feedback of cortisol: incr
Page 51 and 52: ConclusionsSince the stress respons
Page 53 and 54: Kuhnen, G., Werner, R. 1998. Plasma
Page 55 and 56: 4 AppendixApp. I Cage size 1 (right
Page 57 and 58: App. IV Behaviour catalogue. Descri
Page 59: 5 DanksagungenIch möchte allen dan

Behaviour of golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) - Vetsuisse ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?