“…In general, the assessment of animal wellbeing is often based on physiological parameters such as body weight [ 4 , 5 , 6 ] or fecal corticosterone metabolites (FCMs) [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ]. In addition, clinical signs of distress [ 12 , 13 ]) or behavior such as nesting [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ] burrowing [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ] or wheel-running [ 22 , 23 ] are also often assessed as indicators for wellbeing of rodents. Although it is believed that a combination of different methods yields a more precise conclusion than relying on single parameters [ 24 , 25 , 26 ], these single parameters should ideally be sensitive enough on their own to discriminate between distressed and non-distressed animals.…”