Accurately measuring activity and feeding is frequently important in laboratory animal research, whether for welfare-monitoring or experimental recording. Quantification commonly involves manual pellet-weighing; however, this can physically disturb animals and cannot continuously assess both the amount and pattern of feeding. Improved means of food-intake measurement have been developed yet are often costly and incompatible with cage configurations. This motivated the development and validation of the SnackerTracker—a cost-effective, open-source, and user-friendly measurement system which continuously records food-intake, food-seeking activity, and ambient light conditions in the home-cages of small laboratory animals.

The SnackerTracker consists of four 3D-printable components, each of which are provided here as .stl files. They were originally rendered in Ultimaker Cura and printed using the Ultimaker S3 system. Detailed print specifications are provided as an extended data file in the corresponding Figshare repository and can be customised for use with other printers.

Additional references and resources are as follows:

Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/records/14633000

GitHub: https://github.com/marhmue/SnackerTracker-Code---Core

Figshare (collection, with the files below contained within this collection): https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.7622126.v1

Figshare (reporting guidelines): https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.28407746

Figshare (extended data): https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.28407689

Figshare (underlying data): https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.28191125

Figshare (video overview and user guidance): https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.28189793

Figshare (linked code, identical to what is provided in GitHub and Zenodo): https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.28189805.v1

Protocols.io (detailed construction and operation instructions): https://dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.rm7vzke8rvx1/v1

Arduino Project Hub (construction details): https://projecthub.arduino.cc/marissamueller/snackertracker-d86bf3