It is only by seeing the resident there as well, that we can have some perception of the animal's reality. Someone with knowledge of ethology can tell, from seeing an inhabited cage just before it is due to be cleaned, a great deal about the individuals' well-being and their struggles to adapt the cage to their needs. We should all know some ethology. It is astonishing that books purporting to give guidance and standards in animal welfare show only perfectly clean, uninhabited cages. A too often neglected need that mice demonstrate is a need for tactile comfort.
Isolation is stressful for mice.
Even when large numbers of mice are stored together, they huddle and group beneath any shelter they can find. They do this even in warm rooms, which signifies a need for tactile comfort. Anthropomorphism can be a short-cut to understanding, and quite a legitimate scientific tool. Much of the data for this report has come from forty years of observing mice and corroborating both with the technicians lab in my department at Cambridge University and with many colleagues elsewhere. I have always admitted to a great deal of purely aesthetic pleasure in observing my mice.