Tumbly: An Open-Source Home-Cage Device for Time-Restricted Feeding in Mice
- 1Washington University in St Louis
Abstract
Time-restricted feeding (TRF) is a common tool for studying metabolism, circadian rhythms, aging, and neurodegeneration. Here, we describe a new device called Tumbly, an automated device for performing TRF studies in mouse home-cages. Tumbly controls access to rodent diets at user-set times via a programmable servo-driven food hopper. Tumbly is also battery powered and compatible with multiple types of vivarium home-cages, due to a removable faceplate that can be customized to fit different cage dimensions without modification. Finally, Tumbly is open-source and affordable, with all design files available online, allowing researchers to build and customize it. As a validation test, we deployed Tumbly in two labs at separate institutions, one with singly housed mice (n = 6, within-subject) and one with group-housed mice (n = 22, between-group). We measured daily body weight and food intake. In both labs, mice on an 8-hour TRF schedule maintained their body weight and ate similar amounts of food compared to ad libitum feeding. Our quantified error rates were also low, with no device failures over >1000 hours of operation. We conclude that Tumbly provides a reliable, low-cost option for running TRF studies in mice.
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BibTeX
@misc{barrett2026tumbly,
title = {{Tumbly: An Open-Source Home-Cage Device for Time-Restricted Feeding in Mice}},
author = {M. Barrett and C. Chen and W. Li and M. Gaidica and A. Wagner and J. Wu and E. S. Musiek and A. Kravitz},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.64898/2026.10.19.760239},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.19.760239v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Tumbly: An Open-Source Home-Cage Device for Time-Restricted Feeding in Mice
AU - M. Barrett
AU - C. Chen
AU - W. Li
AU - M. Gaidica
AU - A. Wagner
AU - J. Wu
AU - E. S. Musiek
AU - A. Kravitz
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/19
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.10.19.760239
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.19.760239v1
AB - Time-restricted feeding (TRF) is a common tool for studying metabolism, circadian rhythms, aging, and neurodegeneration. Here, we describe a new device called Tumbly, an automated device for performing TRF studies in mouse home-cages. Tumbly controls access to rodent diets at user-set times via a programmable servo-driven food hopper. Tumbly is also battery powered and compatible with multiple types of vivarium home-cages, due to a removable faceplate that can be customized to fit different cage dimensions without modification. Finally, Tumbly is open-source and affordable, with all design files available online, allowing researchers to build and customize it. As a validation test, we deployed Tumbly in two labs at separate institutions, one with singly housed mice (n = 6, within-subject) and one with group-housed mice (n = 22, between-group). We measured daily body weight and food intake. In both labs, mice on an 8-hour TRF schedule maintained their body weight and ate similar amounts of food compared to ad libitum feeding. Our quantified error rates were also low, with no device failures over >1000 hours of operation. We conclude that Tumbly provides a reliable, low-cost option for running TRF studies in mice.
ER -