. 2023 Nov 9;18(11):e0294388. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294388

Table 1. Updated statistical results concerning the factors ‘housing’ and ‘handling’.

				Effects/ interactions			Post hoc test (Tukey)			Effect size (Cohen’s d)
	Test	Parameter	Statistical test	Housing	Handling	Housing x handling	Hand vs. forceps	Hand vs. tube	Forceps vs. tube	Housing	Hand vs. forceps	Hand vs. tube	Forceps vs. tube
Clinical parameters	Body weight	weight, week 8 (g)	ANOVA	^*p = 0.039, F = 4.43, df = 1	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	-0.57	-0.07	0.02	0.09
	Temperature difference	temperature difference, week 7 (°C)	ANOVA	^*p = 0.046, F = 4.14, df = 1	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	0.55	-0.49	-0.45	0.04
		temperature difference, week 8 (°C)		n.s.	^**p = 0.009, F = 4.99, df = 2	n.s.	^**p = 0.01	n.s.	p = 0.059	0.10	-0.82	-0.21	0.67
	Stress induced hyperthermia	temperature difference, week 8 (°C)	Chi-squared	n.s.	^*p = 0.028		^*p = 0.019	n.s.	^*p = 0.019
	Blood glucose	Blood glucose, week 8 (mmol/L)	ANOVA	n.s.	n.s.	^**p = 0.005, F = 6.5, df = 2	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	-0.13	0.33	0.36	0.09
	Fecal corticosterone metabolites	corticosterone, week 7 (pg/well)	ANOVA	^**p = 0.005, F = 8.98, df = 1	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	-1.00	0.20	-0.50	-0.56
		corticosterone, week 7 (ng/0.05 g feces)		^**p = 0.005, F = 8.98, df = 1	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	-1.00	0.20	-0.50	-0.56
		corticosterone, week 7–3 (pg/well)	ANOVA, repeated measurements	^**p = 0.002, F = 10.79, df = 1	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.
		corticosterone, week 7–3 (ng/0.05 g feces)		^**p = 0.002, F = 10.77, df = 1	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.
Behavioral analysis	BS of aggression-associated parameters	cages showing aggression, week 5–8, attack yes/no	Chi squared	/	^**p = 0.002		^**p = 0.004	n.s.	^*p = 0.02
	Nest-test	quality, week 3, 5 h scores	Mann-Whitney-U or Kruskal-Wallis	^*p = 0.025	n.s.		n.s.	n.s.	n.s.
		quality, week 4, 5 h scores		^**p = 0.01	n.s.		n.s.	n.s.	n.s.
		quality, week 6, 24 h scores		^**p = 0.01	n.s.		n.s.	n.s.	n.s.
		quality, week 8, 24 h scores		^*p = 0.044	p = 0.061		^*p = 0.033	n.s.	n.s.
		quality, week 3–8, 5 h scores		^*single: p < 0.001 ^*group: p < 0.001	^**hand: p < 0.001 ^forceps: p = 0.037 ^***tube: p = 0.001	^SH p = 0.011 SF: n.s. ^ST: p = 0.013 ^***GH: p = 0.001 GF: n.s. GT: p = 0.068
		quality, week 3–8, 24 h scores		^*single: p = 0.027; group: p = 0.102	hand: p = 0.32; forceps: p = 0.145; ^*tube: p = 0.049	SH: n.s. SF: n.s. ^*ST: p = 0.043; GH: n.s. GF: n.s. GT: n.s.
	Openfield	distance to walls 0–10 min (cm)	ANOVA	^**p = 0.006, F = 8.76, df = 1	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	-0.89	-0.15	0.54	0.69
		time in center 0–10 min (s)		^**p = 0.0011, F = 7.2, df = 1	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	0.93	0.12	-0.38	-0.56
	Social Novel-Object test	distance moved 0–5 min (cm)	ANOVA	n.s.	n.s.	^*p = 0.035, F = 3.75, df = 2	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	-0.02	0.15	0.51	0.39
		velocity 0–5 min (cm/sec)		n.s.	n.s.	^*p = 0.036	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	-0.05	0.15	0.50	0.37
		time in center 0–10 min (s)		^*p = 0.043, F = 4.4, df = 1	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	-0.70	0.15	-0.03	-0.15
	Light/dark box test	exit latency (s)	Mann-Whitney-U or Kruskal-Wallis	n.s.	^*p = 0.031		n.s.	^**p = 0.007	n.s.
		tail rattling (s)	Mann-Whitney-U or Kruskal-Wallis	^*p = 0.036	n.s.		n.s.	n.s.	n.s.
		aggressive bite (s)		^*p = 0.043	n.s.		n.s.	n.s.	n.s.
		attack (s)		^*p = 0.024	n.s.		n.s.	n.s.	n.s.
		fighting (s)		^*p = 0.016	n.s.		n.s.	^*p = 0.038	n.s.

n.s = no significance. Identification of overall effects of the factors ‘handling’ and ‘housing’ as well as interaction effects. Asterisks indicate the level of significance

(* p ≤ 0.05;

** p ≤ 0.1;

*** p ≤ 0.001). Data is split in ‘clinical parameters’ and ‘behavioral analysis’ for better overview. Non-parametric tested parameters are highlighted in grey. The effect size (Cohen’s d) was calculated for normal distributed data analyzed with ANOVA. Parameters not appearing in this table revealed non-significant results.