Daily Check Protocol‐ Non‐Ephys - BrendonWatsonLab/Digital-Homecage GitHub Wiki

Daily Check Protocol

There is a large amount of data collected daily from the boxes, and as such, the team will need to perform daily box checks to ensure the integrity of data. There are three types of check days: Normal, which this guide covers, Water Swap and Food Swap/Cage Change. These changes are done to ensure that mice’s consumption of either sugar water or fatty food (or vice versa) is done based on a preference, and not faulty machinery/ the mice just love to drink out of the left waterspout and not the right one. So, before we begin, we must do some computer work.

  1. Access the google drive, and load up these three webpages: Simeone Time log (This one is very important), Behavioral Box Software check, and the Behavioral Box Daily check.
  2. On the Simeone time log, enter todays date in the “Date in” section by using ctrl+semicolon, and then enter ctrl+shift+semicolon under the “Time in” section. This will input the exact time the check has begun. This is important as Simeone will need to exclude these times from the final recording data.
  3. Now that the time in is entered, we can begin the check.
  4. Open the Behavioral Box Daily and Software check files.
  5. Enter in the box you’re checking (labeled BB 01- BB 16), then check the light, making sure it is illuminated.
  6. The computer that you’re working on is BB-16. To access the other computers, there is a remote desktop connection page (which I will link to later). Access the box you’re checking through there and ensure the camera (Bandicam) and wheel (pho recording software) are recording correctly.
  7. Place a camera cover over the infrared camera as to not disturb HCS (home cage scan).
  8. Then check the volume of both sucrose and regular water and record it. Convention is that volumes are rounded to the nearest even decimal.
  9. Select that you topped off both waters, and if you needed a plunger to restart dispensing. Don’t worry about the swapping yet.
  10. The next section records the position of both water beam-breaks and food dispensers. Since we are not swapping, just record where the waters are. Sucrose is tagged with a strip of tape labeled “S”, and regular water is unlabeled. Fatty food is the lighter colored pellets, while regular are the darker brown pellets. (Position 1 is located as the system closest to the Lab Jack, and position 2 is located closer to the white diffuser.)
  11. Record the locations of food as well. We record this data to ensure that the locations match the ground truth.
  12. Food position isn’t switched.
  13. To check pellet responsiveness: Poke your finger through the top slot on the feeding mechanism. Keep note of how many pokes it took to cause food to drop through the chute into the cage. If no food drops after 5+ checks, enter 999 and move to troubleshooting.
  14. Then, check the two water beams (lower, smaller slot). If water is not dispensing, refer to troubleshooting.
  15. Record that food was topped off (NOTE: If food is overfilled, dispenser will not work. Try to fill up only halfway!), and any other problems.
  16. Sometimes, all 4 dispensers will fail. Don’t panic! Move to troubleshooting.
  17. Record the mouse weight by first turning the scale on and placing the weighing container, making sure that the number is zeroed. Then (CAREFULLY!) pinch the base of the mouse’s tail, lift it and lower it into the weighing container. Wait until the number stabilizes and record it.
  18. Sanitize hands with ethanol spray before returning to computer.
  19. No fur score, change wasn’t changed, and cage wasn’t moved. Make sure to ensure that camera cover remains on, and if cover falls, we record that as the cage being moved.
  20. Make sure to submit!
  21. When leaving the lab, make sure that you dispose of PPE, and enter in any procedures done into the “lab will care” log.