Caloric Restricted Colony

In the caloric restricted colony, rats are $12.00 per month of age and mice are $6.00 per month of age. These prices apply to both caloric-restricted (CR) and ad libitum (AL) controls from this colony. Both CR and AL are individually housed. CR is initiated at 14 weeks of age at 10% restriction, increased to 25% restriction at 15 weeks, and to 40% restriction at 16 weeks where it is maintained throughout the life of the animal. CR/AL rats are sold only by age in months, i.e. 4 months or 24 months, not by weight or age in weeks. Survival curves, food intake curves and body weights of the NIA strains have been published (Turturro et al. (1999) Growth curves and survival characteristics of the animals used in the biomarkers of aging program. J. Gerontology 54A:B492-B501).

Feeding instructions will be provided with the caloric restricted animals. If you are ordering food, please indicate how long you will maintain the animals so that the contractor can calculate how much food you will need. When food is shipped by truck, there is a flat rate freight charge of $13.00 per type of food (AL or CR). Food shipped by air freight or common carrier is subject to prevailing rates of the carrier. NIH31/NIA Fortified (for CR feeding) is available in weighed pellets at 0.5 gram intervals from 2.5 grams to 5.0 grams, at $10.00/Kg. NIH31 (for AL feeding) is only available in random weight chunk formula, at $2.00/Kg. Formulation of the diets is available from the OBRRD.