Pellet information
Pellets used with FED3 should be 20mg in size. Smaller than this will likely not be detected by the pellet well, and larger may not fit through the dispensing mechanism. We have successfully used the 20mg pellets from the vendors below:
Sucrose pellets (Product 5TUT from TestDiet), create very little pellet dust and have few issues with jamming. These are the best choice for running FED3 with the lowest maintenance in reward based tasks. Pellets still should be checked regularly when running multi-day experiments.
Grain-based pellets (Product 5TUM from TestDiet) can be used with FED3, although these pellets crumble easily and can create dust which can interfere with the dispensing mechanism. If you are using grain-based pellets check for accumulation of dust and clean the dust out at least once a day to reduce potential jams.
Bio-Serv makes pellets with a higher content of fat. The HFD pellets (Product F07687 from Bio-Serv) have a similar consistency as the grain pellets. They also crumble easily but can be used with FED3 with regularly checking and cleaning to reduce dispensing issues. They are 27% HFD, which is the highest fat content that we have found in pellets.
