Cage card generator

Method

Everything happens in your browser: the table, the CSV import, the preview and the print. Nothing is sent. Your cages stay in this tab and are gone when you close it.

The CCAC guidelines on mice do not list the fields of a cage card. They say a breeding cage card should include the litters’ date of birth and the projected weaning date (section 5.1), that standard nomenclature should identify the strain (4.2), that every breeding animal should be on a protocol (5), and that procedures and their dates should be on the cage card (10.11). The templates follow these passages.

Projected weaning = the birth date + the species’ weaning age in the Colony.care app: 21 days for the mouse, the earliest age The Jackson Laboratory and the CCAC (section 5.3.3, 21 to 28 days) give.

The cards sit on the sheet with 6.35 mm (¼ in) margins, which most printers need, and 2 mm between cards, where the cut marks run. A card is rotated 90° when that fits more on the sheet.

Limits

• The cage id, the count and sex, the owner, the study and the group come from common practice, not from the CCAC.
• Local requirements (your animal care committee, your facility) take precedence.
• The weaning age varies with the strain and the litter: check the pups before you wean.
• Print at actual size (100%), without fitting to the page, or the cards will not have their size.
• The QR code holds the cage id only: it opens nothing by itself.

Sources

• CCAC, “CCAC guidelines: Mice” (2019, revised 2022): sections 5.1 (litters’ date of birth and projected weaning date on breeding cage cards), 4.2 (nomenclature), 5 (protocol), 10.11 (procedures and their dates on the cage card) and 5.3.3 (weaning at 21 to 28 days).
• The Jackson Laboratory, “Colony Planning”: mouse weaning at about 21 days.
• Colony.care app defaults: the weaning age of each species.