MouseGenetics Forum > Behavioral Testing Thread: "Rotarod - all mice falling off almost immediately, even WT" --- Post #1 by rotarod_newbie --- First time running rotarod on a new cohort and basically every mouse, including WT controls, is falling off within the first 10-15 seconds on test day. Latency to fall is way lower than what I've seen reported in papers using similar strains.

Standard approach that fixed this for us: run 3 training trials per day for 2-3 consecutive days before the actual test day, using the same rod speed/acceleration protocol you'll use for testing. By the end of the training period most mice (WT anyway) should be staying on for well over a minute consistently, and then test-day latency-to-fall numbers actually start reflecting real motor coordination differences between genotypes instead of just "did this mouse ever see a rotarod before." --- Post #4 by rotarod_newbie --- That makes a lot of sense, we jumped straight to testing without any training days. Adding 3 trials/day for 3 days before our real test day.