RTFED, an open-source versatile tool for home-cage monitoring of behaviour and fibre photometry recording in mice

Conventional approaches for studying feeding and reward-driven behaviours require frequent animal handling or relocation of animals to specialized chambers, inducing stress, confounding behavioural outcomes, and limiting continuous (24/7) data collection. In recent years, the Feeding Experimentation Device (FED3) has emerged as a major advance, offering programmable modes of operation, affordable costs, and flexibility for investigating a range of feeding and operant behaviours. However, certain limitations prevent researchers from fully harnessing the FED3's capabilities in a user-friendly manner.

Here, we present the Real-time and Remote FED3 (RTFED) developed for continuous and online home-cage monitoring of mice, video recording behaviours and fibre photometry recording.

Validation experiments confirm RTFED integrates well with FED3 to log and transmit behavioural events in real-time. It also incorporates event-triggered video capture through USB cameras, providing additional observational depth. Moreover, RTFED handles TTL signals to the fibre photometry system allowing precise behaviour-neural synchronization.

A key strength of RTFED is its easily customizable architecture, enabling researchers to tailor both software and hardware configurations to meet specific experimental objectives. This flexibility, together with features such as remote data logging and email notifications that allow timely adjustments and animal welfare monitoring based on behavioural observations, substantially reduces animal disturbance and researcher intervention and labour.

By offering a cost-effective and modifiable alternative to proprietary commercial solutions, RTFED broadens accessibility, heightens reproducibility, and deepens investigations into feeding and reward-driven behaviours in home-cage settings, ultimately improving the quality and translational relevance of behavioural research.