Overview and Meaning

Normal behaviors are behavior patterns an individual animal uses for  survival and reproduction. They are those behaviors that are common to all laboratory mice, under conditions which allow a full range of behavior. There are two main categories of normal behavior: individual behaviors and social behaviors. The two subcategories for individual behaviors are inactive and active. The five subcategories for social behaviors include affiliative interactions, agonistic interactions, maternal behaviors, sexual behaviors and territorial behavior.

Individual behaviors are actions performed by only one mouse. They occur in any single or group housing situation. In comparison, social behaviors only occur in group-housed mice. These behaviors are more difficult to identify, because they consist of interactions between two or more mice within a home-cage environment.