I would like to add a particular drug to my chow diet so mice can be exposed to a particular concentration of the drug for several months. I am unclear, however, how I go about supplementing the diet. Do I contract a chow diet distributor, or can I do this myself?
Hi Ashley,
We've used Research Diets before for specific nutrient control and drug administration
http://www.researchdiets.com/opensource-diets/custom-diets/test-compounds
Not sure if you can do it yourself though.
To some degree it depends on the drug - if addition of the drug effects mice in a way that they eat less (or more) of it, you will have difficulty controlling the amount if you opt for ad libitum feeding.
For good dosing, there is a slightly tedious way but it does work.
Grind normal food pellets into powder, place a known amount of it in a heavy ceramic food bowl (bottoms are larger so rodents cannot tip them over) in a metabolic cage with only one animal.
Monitor for a few days as to how much food each animal consumes/day.
Add the appropriate dose to only about half the amount of the food, which will ensure that they eat all of it. Once the food with drug is consumed, add powdered food without the drug. Repeat the cycle for the next day.
Metabolic cage will allow you to measure the amount of food animals spill while eating, as it collects in a separate container.
Tedious!
But other than the fact you have to pulverize the food (most animal care facilities already own a grinder) pellets and mix your drug with it, all the rest remains identical, provided you wish to have accuracy in dosing.
Have fun!
Hi Ash,
If you can put in the food - it should probably work as well in the drinking water. It is also a lot easier to monitor on a daily basis the consumption of liquid over pellets. We had the animals happily drink minocycline water and fluoxetine containing water for quite a while?
Hi Ashley,
I treated mice with doxycycline in the water, with some sweetener (Equal) to avoid any bitter taste. However, that did not require a particular concentration to be received by the animals. If you want a specific concentration or dose per animal, you may need to do oral gavage, where a round-end bent feeding needle is inserted to administer drug into the stomach.
Best luck with this!
Hi Ashley, you will probably be best to do it yourself.
In the past I have ordered powdered chow, mixed in the supplement and kept 'aliquots' in airtight bags in the freezer (due to the stability of my supplement). Depending how stable your drug is over time you may need to add fresh chow daily/weekly and make batches as you go along. It is also possible to have drug pre-mixed and sent depending on the details.
I'll PM you info on the powdered chow etc.
We use Harlan Teklad's commercial tamoxifen chow... I think they'll make chow with a drug you supply... ask them at [email protected]
Thank you everyone for your very helpful and thoughtful answers. We are planning to work with an LXR agonist, and I've only ever read about it administered in chow (not sure about drinking water but I can inquire @Rohan and @Mireia). It's great to know that I could potentially make my own with some powdered chow @Tausif and @Jodie, and I will also look into Harlan Tecklad and Research Diets to see if they can make a custom chow for a reasonable price @Carlos and @Jeremy!
Ashley M Fenn were you able to add your drug to the chow, if so, did you do any pharmacokinetics? I'm also adding a drug to chow, but I need to show changes in circulating levels over time.
Is it relevant that I answer to your query today after almost 2 yrs ? Any drug soluble or insoluble orally or intravenously can be administered using nano carbon technology what we have developed. These are non toxic , biocompatible ,and work just like lunch box where one can place any drug of his/her choice of any dose. After delivery inside the animal the carrier can be excreted. If some one interested can e-mail me.
Hi all,
I did a similar preliminary experiment by putting my target drug into grinded food pellets for mouse. I put it into a ceramic food bowl while at the same time I have another bowl with normal grinded food without the drug in the same cage. On the following day, I found that the mouse finished the normal food while leaving the one with the drug untouched. Obviously the mouse did not like the taste of the drug. However, I wonder whether I should simply give the food with the drug as the only food source, or I put some sweeteners (or sugars) to mask the unpleasant taste of the drug? I plan to give the drug for about half year and I worry if the sweeteners or sugars may cause any adverse side effects. I assume that I have to give the same amount of sweeteners to the control group.
Appreciated for any advice!
Philip
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