Saccharin preference test

Rats were habituated to two bottles over 2 consecutive days. During this period, one bottle containing a sweet 0.1% saccharin solution and the other containing water, were placed in the rat’ s home cage. The location of the bottles was counterbalanced and was interchanged every 12 h. The following day at the peak of the animals’ active period (noon), the two bottles were re-introduced to the cage for a total of 2 h, with the locations of each bottle swapped after 1 h (test day 1). This same procedure was repeated the following day (test day 2). Preference for saccharin was determined by calculating the amount of saccharin consumed as a percentage of total liquid intake. Saccharin preference scores were averaged across both test days for each animal.