Who needs take care of so many mice? - (Jul/13/2008 )

My project works on muscle from mice. I have been feeding mice, cleaning cages from Feburary. The number of mice cage increased from 1 to 30 now!!! I have to check every 2 or 3 days. The mice house is a long walk(20 minutes) away and I don't have a parking permit on campus. The pain is I may still need to deal with those mice for another 3 months.

I am a phd student and have a Research Assistantship now. I just wanted to know is it my responsibility to take care of so many mice for so long? There is a lab technician in my lab, but she was never been to mice house.

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Are you going to use most of the mice for your PhD project?

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May be it depends on the lab rules - what has tradition been. But, taking care of your own mice is recommendable.

I have been doing it from the start of my PhD - 2.5 years now. It's not just my mice but the mice everyone uses - mine and everyone elses. We have teams taking care of the mice and have divided the responsibilities. It is jst not only me. 3 teams of 3 people. My team has lots of cages - more than 100 / less than 200. It changes with how many gets emptied but again is restored. Other teams have their own number. It is shared responsibility.

But, mouse house is close by - 5 mins walk. We change cages 1 time a week and in between if needed and instructed specifically by the caretakers of the mouse-house for some reason who go through each cage everyday. It takes around 2h for me and is gets really hectic if there is only one back here in the lab while 2 have gone for some conference or are on leave.

We take it as a time to take a break from our lab and work together - as fun and we get to see how the mice have been doing ourselves.

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I'm with BBoy. This is your PhD wok - for these few years you should control every aspect of your research that you can.

Also - maybe look into those mice - 1 to 30? Spontaneous mouse generation?

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Yes, they are for my PhD project.
Thanks for all of your reply. I have never fed animals before(even not a dog). I think I learned the basic policy of this kind of work.

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U should also keep a dog then (at home) - U will love them.

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What i want to know is about fetal mice, so i need to check at least twice a week. I have fun at the beginning, especially to see those tiny baby mice. But i have no other people helping me, if the lab technician is not supposed to help me. when this job becomes a routine, i feel pain. but i will get through after learning it's my job from your guy's reply.

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Fetal mice? U mean the pregnant mice?

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You just don't understand it. There are many people who would envy your job.

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People ???

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