Assessing postpartum maternal care, alloparental behavior, and infanticide in mice: with notes on chemosensory influences.

Chemosensory signaling influences maternal care and other innate behaviors toward conspecific young animals in rodents. In this chapter, we describe basic protocols for assessment of postpartum maternal behavior and other pup-directed behaviors in laboratory mice. The specific aim of this protocol is to screen out the abnormal phenotypes in parenting of genetic mutant mice under the standard housing condition. The possible underlying mechanisms for a given abnormality in the mother-young interaction are briefly suggested as well.