BarTender: A system for recording intakes and body weights in ingestive behavior experiments.

Area of Science:

• Animal behavior research
• Scientific instrumentation
• Data management

Background:

• Accurate measurement of ingestive behavior is crucial for understanding animal physiology and disease models.
• Traditional methods for collecting body weight and food/fluid consumption data can be time-consuming and prone to error.
• High-throughput screening in preclinical research requires efficient and reliable data acquisition systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and describe a semi-automated system for collecting ingestive behavior data.
• To improve the accuracy, speed, and throughput of rodent weight measurements.
• To integrate data collection, storage, and visualization for enhanced experimental workflow.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a system with barcode-labeled items (fluid bottles, food jars) scanned via a Macintosh application connected to a USB scale.
• Employed an iPad application with a Bluetooth scale for in-room rodent body weight collection.
• Implemented a cloud database for storing experimental metadata and automatically calculated summary statistics.
• Developed a web application for real-time data visualization and download.

Main Results:

• The system enables semi-automated collection of fluid bottle, food jar, and rodent body weights.
• Data are automatically processed, stored with metadata in a cloud database, and visualized via a web application.
• The described system significantly enhances the accuracy and speed of ingestive behavior experiments.

Conclusions:

• The developed semi-automated system offers a robust solution for ingestive behavior research.
• This technology facilitates higher throughput and more accurate data collection in animal studies.
• The integrated data management and visualization tools streamline the experimental process.