If we knew, we could probably use the knowledge in cage design so as to reduce ammonia concentration in the animal room. The importance to a mouse of having a sheltered nest cannot be overemphasized. Their smaller size must be conducive to heat loss at a greater rate than that for larger animals. The conventional mouse cage design does not allow for choice between warm and cool areas. The Cambridge Cage offers other choices for mice as well.
Mice are extremely sensitive to draughts.
As shown here, mice build nests in odd locations in the cage and in unusual ways in order to protect themselves from a draught hardly sensitive to my hands, but disclosed through taking temperature readings round the cage. All in all, the Cambridge Cage seems to meet the needs of mice in humane and innovative ways that most conventional cages do not seem to be able to accomplish. A psychological study of murine agonistic behavior in two inbred strains . Some thoughts on the laboratory cage design process. As an Assistant Geneticist in the Department of Genetics at the University of Cambridge, she taught undergraduates before she had a degree.