A comparison of two different methods for the measurement of drinking in the rat.
Drinkometers based on two different principles are described and compared. A capacitative design relied on the detection of a very small current through the animal as a means of recording contacts between the animal's tongue and the drinking spout. A photocell-based design relied on a beam across the front of the drinking spout being broken by the animal's tongue as a record of access to the spout. Both types of device were found to give a picture of the animal's behaviour similar to that obtained by a measure of the volume of fluid ingested. However the devices using a photocell were found to be less prone to error than the capacitative devices.
D000818:Animals; D004326:Drinking; D005010:Ethology / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D008838:Microcomputers; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic; D051381:Rats / Q000502:physiology*