An official website of the United States government.

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

National Agricultural Library
U.S. Department of Agriculture
  1. Home
  2. Animal Health and Welfare
  3. Animal Handling

Animal Handling

Animal handling describes how people respond to and interact with animals within the animal's environment. Proper handling techniques can reduce animal pain and distress and improve animal welfare. Animal handling methods require training, skill, and behavioral knowledge of the species you are working with. Find resources that include training videos, guidelines, and peer-reviewed publications on animal handling. 

Rat Tickling

What is Rat Tickling?

Rat tickling is a technique that mimics how rats playfully socialize with each other. Rat tickling reduces fearful reactions to humans and improves their welfare among other benefits. 

Image
Rat laying on its back and human tickling its stomach.

Resources

Rat Handling Literature in PubAg

See all 33 results
  1. A happier rat pack: The impacts of tickling pet store rats on human-animal inte…
  2. Relationships between play and responses to tickling in male juvenile rats
  3. Tickling during adolescence alters fear-related and cognitive behaviors in rats…
  4. Practical rat tickling: Determining an efficient and effective dosage of hetero…

Mouse Handling

New Mouse Handling Methods

Research shows that new mouse handling techniques such as tunnel handling and cupping (shown below) are less stressful compared to the traditional method of picking a mouse up by the tail. Additionally, when restraining a mouse it's better to scruff them using three fingers rather than two. 

Image
Person holding a white mouse.

Resources

Mouse Handling Literature in PubMed

See all 32 results
  1. Assessment of Mouse Handling Techniques During Cage Changing
  2. Tunnel use facilitates handling of ICR mice and decreases experimental variation
  3. Reducing mouse anxiety during handling: effect of experience with handling tunn…

Literature for Animal Handling, Restraint, and Capture

Below are results from a literature search on animal handling, restraint, and capture. If you want to find literature on these topics for a certain species, you can build upon this search string by including animal search terms. For example, edit the search and include "(dog OR dogs OR canines OR "canis familiaris")" to find information on handling and restraint of dogs. To learn more about building search strings, visit AWIC's alternatives literature searching page or if you need help finding information, contact us. 

PubAg

See all 772 results
  1. A safe method of handling rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta)
  2. Safe handling and restraint of pet rabbits
  3. Developing an ethic for the handling, restraint, and discipline of companion an…
  4. Variation in stereotypic behavior related to restraint in circus elephants
  5. Review of capture-recapture methods applicable to noninvasive genetic sampling

Page Content Curated By

Animal Welfare Information Center (AWIC)