Mouse Taste Preference Tests: Influence of Drinking Spout Position

1Address all correspondence to: Michael G. Tordoff, Ph.D., Monell Chemical Senses Center, 3500 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19104-3308, USA, e-mail: [email protected] TORDOFF, M.G., AND BACHMANOV, A.A., Mouse taste preference tests: Influence of drinking spout position. Unpublished. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the results of two-bottle taste tests are influenced by cage layout, in particular, the position of the drinking spouts. To this end, we measured the 2 mM saccharin, 50 mM citric acid, 0.3 mM quinine hydrochloride, and 75 mM NaCl intakes and preferences of 129X1/SvJ (129) and C57BL/6J (B6) mice with various cage layouts. We found that the position of drinking spouts relative to the food (in a hopper or on the floor), the distance apart of the drinking spouts (2, 8, or 16 cm), or their relative orientation (horizontal or vertical) had no consistent effect on taste solution preferences. During tests with two bottles of water, the 129 (but not B6) mice demonstrated a left spout side preference when the spouts were close together (2 cm) but not when they were far apart (8 or 16 cm) or arranged vertically. These results suggest that drinking tube placement has little influence on the results of two-bottle tests, although placing the drinking tubes at least 8 cm apart reduces the spout side preferences displayed by some strains of mice.