Allo-Grooming - Vigorous

Vigorous allo-grooming is an affiliative interaction that strengthens social bonds among cagemates and assists the animal in obtaining information about food sources.

Vigorous allo-grooming is characterized by a more intense form of grooming between two or more mice. During this interaction, an actor pins and firmly grips the recipient. Similar to normal allo-grooming, the actor will mouth and lick the recipient, but grooming is usually more localized to the shoulder region, with a higher incidence of teeth hair pulling.

The easiest way to differentiate between normal and vigorous allo-grooming is by looking at the recipient's behavior. In normal allo-grooming, the recipient will usually be preoccupied with something else in the cage and may even move around while being groomed. However, during vigorous allo-grooming, a recipient will remain rigid and usually motionless.

Affiliative Interactions

Affiliative behaviors are social interactions that function to reinforce social bonds with a group or which are of mutual benefit to all animals involved in the interaction.

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