Hi all. Could you please help me on how to choose a female for a sexual preference experiment in mice? I have read that it should be a receptive, in estrous mouse, but I am not sure how to accurately detect that phase of the estrous. Would you have any recommendations?
Usually, you need to have small young mice (3-4 months old), they are usually very productive. As you know that rodents (mice, rats) not having bleeding, and the cycle can be determined by smear swap for the cycle. They have four phase according to microscopic examination (with or without nucleus.
Thank you for your response, however how would you recognise if they are in an estous phase or in a pro/met-estrous one? Or doesn't it matter? Thank you in advance.
When you will prepare the smear, you can have a look at the cells present in that smear that will be direct indicator of at which stage the female mouse is present at. You can see the cell morphology at different four stages on internet and then compare it to yours, for better understanding.
Ioannis,
It is possible to tell what stage a female mouse is at visually although you would need to find someone who has a lot of experience doing so.
See Article Mouse Estrous Cycle Identification Tool and Images
This would help you to limit the number of mice you need to swab for a more accurate result.
You can start with 8 week(2 month) old mice. When breeding it is preferable to pair the female with a male no later than 8 weeks.
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