Control Diets

For many research projects, whether using one specialized diet or a series, a control diet is often required. Some researchers use a "generic" diet that is totally unrelated to the testing diets. Usually this is not a wise practice, because there will be host of variations between the control and the experimental diets, resulting in potentially erroneous data. When we develop custom diets, we will usually start from a "base" or "control" diet that provides sound "normal" nutrition for the subject animals. Then the particular variables of interest to your study are adjusted.

The control diet, in order to provide a valid normative base, should usually be a nutritionally-sound formula that is usual and customary for the species being studied.

Purified Control Diets

Purified control diets are as varied as the research using them.

Some typical control diets for rodents are:

TestDiet^® # 57I2 (a/k/a # 5800) – AIN-76 Diet (widely considered obsolete)

TestDiet^® # 58B0 (a/k/a # 5800-B) – AIN-76A Diet (replacement for AIN-76)

TestDiet^® # 57W5 (a/k/a # 5801-G – AIN-93G Diet for gestation, lactation, and growth

TestDiet^® # 58M1 (a/k/a # 5801-M – AIN-93M Diet for maintenance of mature animals

TestDiet^® # 5755 – Basal Diet

TestDiet^® # 5TW1 – a Purified Diet nutritionally comparable to LabDiet^® 5001 grain-based diet

TestDiet^® # 58G7 – TestDiet DIO 12% kcal fat

TestDiet^® # 58Y2 – van Heek DIO 10% kcal fat – This is the control diet developed by the original manufacturer of this series of diets. We do NOT recommend it; instead, we advise using a 12% kcal fat van Heek variation in order to provide a base that meets the minimal usual and customary nutritional requirements of laboratory rodents.

Grain-Based Control Diets

You may choose to use a grain-based LabDiet^® formula as the base for your experimental diets. In that case you would have two options;
1. Use the same standard LabDiet^® product as your control diet without regard to matching the batch with the testing diets ("off-the-shelf").

2. Have us manufacture pellets of control diet in exactly the same way we produce the experimental diets, using the same batch of standard LabDiet^® food. This way you would avoid absolutely any unknown variable between the control diet and testing diet(s), including water used in pelleting, packaging, and texture.