Mice were placed on water restriction 48 hours before the first behavioral training session, and given 1 hour ad libitum access to water in their home cage 24 hours before the first training session. Mice received 1 training session per day of duration 1.5 – 2 hours, and were trained 6 days per week with 1 hour ad libitum water access in their home cage on their day off. During behavioral training mice had access to dry chow in the testing apparatus as we found this increased the number of trials performed and amount of water consumed. On days when mice were trained they typically received all their water in the task (typically 0.5-1.25ml), but additional water was provided as required to maintain a body weight > 85% of their pre-restriction weight. Under this protocol, bodyweight typically dropped to ∼90% of pre-restriction level in the first week of training, then gradually increased over weeks to reach a steady state of ∼95%–105% pre-restriction body weight.
