New York Blood Center – Laboratory Animal Research Service

Kathy Tang
Manager

We have been using Optimice cages for almost three years, and we would like to convert all of our animal rooms in the future. We decided to purchase this caging system for several reasons. We have a small amount of space available in our animal rooms, our HVAC is old, and we work with transgenic/barrier mice.

My staff and I prefer this caging system over the Thoren and static caging. The staff find themselves changing cages faster, easier to observe sick animals, new litters, water and food, and the cages are also easier to handle, and it is lighter.

We change cages on Monday and Tuesday, and in the past, the facility smell awful. On Monday morning, when I enter the Optimice rooms, I do not find the “mice smell” that are in the other mice rooms. It is also easier when we have to count the mice during census day and locate specific cages for service.