Behavioural disorders
All behaviour which differs discernibly from the normal range of behavior of the species ist called behavioural disorder (behavioural anomaly).
Behavioral disorders can result from incorrect keeping, for example when size or structure of the enclosure don’t meet the demands of its inhabitants. A particularly clear example of this problem are animals in conventional laboratory husbandry of mice and rats, which have to exist in almost empty, too small cages. Experiments have shown that basic equipment such as a nontransparent house can reduce abnormalities noticeably.
The more demanding a species is and the more intelligent the animal, the greater is the risk of developing behavioural disorders because of mistakes made in keeping. For mouse keepers there is the possibility of „envirometal enrichment “, which means to provide more stimuli and opportunities to move and play for the mice, assumed the enclosure is big enough but lacks of furniture and playgrounds.
In some cases, behavioural disorders have a genetic background, as it can be noticed clearly with the so-called dancing mice.
Many behavioral problems could be easily avoided if the owner would read up on the needs of the species in advance. Since this is unfortunately not every pet owner does it to a sufficient extent there are often animals showing various behavioural abnormalities and disorders, presented in detail in this section.
Translation
Angelus Noctis
Proofreading
Jedediah
