Moustra Documentation
Step-by-step guides for running a mouse colony in Moustra — from first cage to advanced reporting.
Quickstart
Your first 30 minutes on Moustra
Follow these six steps to go from empty lab to a tracked colony. Each takes 2-5 minutes.
Learning paths
Structured walkthroughs grouped by what you're trying to do.
Editing your colony
Add cages, record matings, log litters, genotype, and update animal records.
Navigation
Work with the cage grid, rack view, family tree, IACUC protocol pages, and dashboard.
Advanced
CSV import with AI column mapping, Slack integration, cage card printing, cost tracking, and reports.
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Quick Edit Cell
Edit values directly in any data grid: double-click an editable cell and Moustra shows the right input (text, number, date, or dropdown). Press Enter to save or Escape to cancel.
How to Create a New Animal
Step-by-step instructions for adding a new animal, including key fields and tips.
How to Use the Cage Grid
See all the cages in a rack in a visual, spatial layout that mirrors your physical rack — check occupancy and animal counts and spot empty slots at a glance.
How to Add a New Strain
This guide will walk you through the process of creating a new strain entry in Moustra.
How to View the Family Tree
Visualize an animal's lineage and offspring to understand genetic relationships and plan breeding pairs.
How to Print Cage Cards
Print cage labels with animal tags, strain, and IACUC information for physical cage identification.
How to Add Breeding Animals
This guide will walk you through the process of creating multiple breeding animals at once in Moustra.
How to Set Up IACUC Protocols
Create IACUC protocols with species limits so Moustra tracks approved animal usage and prevents exceeding caps.
How to Connect Slack
Receive real-time notifications in Slack for litters, weans, and colony milestones without logging into Moustra.
How to Add a New Cage
This guide will walk you through the process of creating a new cage in Moustra.
How to Configure Daily Reports
Set up automated email summaries of colony activity delivered each morning to your team.
How to Use the Rack View
Visualize your vivarium as an interactive rack layout to spot empty slots, check occupancy, and drag cages between racks.
How to End Cages
This guide will walk you through the process of ending a cage in Moustra to mark it as no longer in active use.
How to Invite Team Members
Add colleagues to your Moustra organization, assign roles, and control what each person can see or edit.
How to Use the Plug Events Page
Read, filter, update, and export plug events from the Plug Events page so you can track every timed mating from observation through harvest.
How to End Animals
This guide will walk you through the process of ending animals in Moustra, including how to select the end type, reason, and date.
How to Set Up Plug Tracking
Record plug observations, anchor the embryonic day clock at E0.5, and target a harvest day for embryo collection in Moustra.
How to Use the Mobile App
Run colony work from your phone — log in, browse or scan cages, add or end animals at the bench, and check the dashboard on the go.
How to Add a Mating
This guide will walk you through the process of setting up a new mating in Moustra.
How to Use Cheese AI
Ask plain-English questions about your colony and get answers from your live Moustra data through the built-in Cheese AI assistant.
How to Track IACUC Protocol Amendments
Log every IACUC protocol amendment in Moustra, attach approval letters, and keep a clean audit trail of approved changes per protocol.
How to Add a Litter
This guide will walk you through the process of creating a new litter entry in Moustra.
How to Customize Cage Card Templates
Customize cage card templates in Moustra to match your institution's required fields, physical card size, and printing setup.
How to Track Wean and Tail Sample Reminders
See upcoming wean and tail sample due dates as events on Moustra's calendar.
How to Migrate Your Data
This guide will walk you through the process of importing your existing colony data into Moustra using the data migration tool.
How to Export Colony Data to Excel
Export any list view in Moustra — Animals, Cages, Matings, and more — to an Excel spreadsheet for analysis, backups, or institutional reporting, filtered and column-scoped exactly the way you see it.
How to Genotype Animals
Assign and update the genotypes of your animals after lab results come in.
How to View Weekly Reports
Open the automatic weekly colony summaries Moustra generates for your lab — population, cage cost and utilization, breeding, and team activity — from the Reports tab under Insights.
How to Wean a Litter
Move every pup in a litter into its own cage and end the litter in a single step.
How to Transfer Animals Between Cages
Move one or more animals from their current cage into another cage without losing their history or tags.
How to Configure Default Wean and Tail Sample Ages
Set lab-wide and per-strain defaults for when new pups are weaned and when their genotyping sample is due.
How to Disband a Mating
End a breeding pair or trio in Moustra by disbanding the mating, which stops new auto-litters and records when and why it ended.
How to Create a Study
Set up a new research study in Moustra to organize animals, groups, measurements, and treatments under one protocol.
How to Manage Genes and Alleles
Define the genes and alleles your lab works with so genotype entry stays fast, consistent, and accurate across every animal record.
How to Add Animals to a Study
Use the Cohort Builder to filter your colony, preview matching animals, and add them to a study, then exclude any that should not count.
How to Bulk-Create Animals
Add many animals at once by specifying cage, strain, source, IACUC protocol, quantity, and sex breakdown — Moustra creates the records and assigns tags automatically.
How to Set Up Study Groups, Treatments, and Timeline
Organize a study into cohorts, assign animals, log treatments, schedule timeline time-points, and record measurements — all from the study detail tabs.
How to Revive an Animal
Restore an ended animal back to active status if it was marked ended by mistake.
How to Randomize and Blind a Study
Randomly assign study animals into treatment groups and generate blinded IDs so observers can record data without knowing each animal's group.
How to End a Litter
Mark a litter as ended without weaning the pups — useful when a litter was created by mistake or didn't survive.
How to View Study Reports and Export Data
View a study's summary report and export its animals, groups, measurements, and summary data as CSV files.
How to Mark an Animal as Weaned
Record a single animal's wean date and optionally move it to a new cage from the animal detail page.
How to Collect and Manage Samples
Define a reusable takedown schema, collect tissue samples from animals against it, then track, edit, and archive those samples.
How to Mark a Tail Sample as Done
Record that the genotyping tail or ear biopsy has been completed so the reminder clears.
Plans, Billing & Subscriptions
Moustra offers subscription plans sized for different labs and needs. This guide explains the available tiers, what each unlocks, and how to view your current plan, usage, and billing.
How to Use the Animal Actions Menu
Quick reference for the actions on an animal's Edit page — mark weaned, mark tail sample done, end, revive, and delete.
Roles, Permissions & Data Ownership
Moustra lets you record your position in the lab and tracks who owns each animal and cage. This guide covers selecting your position, how ownership works, and how ownership drives notifications and coordination.
Security, Privacy & Providing Feedback
Moustra takes data security seriously and isolates each lab's data. This guide explains the platform's security and privacy practices and how to send the team feedback, bug reports, and feature requests.
Data Grids: Filtering, Date Formats & Electronic IDs
Moustra's data grids include quick header filters, consistent date handling, and optional Electronic IDs for easy reference. This guide covers filtering rows with header filters, the date formats Moustra recognizes and displays, and enabling EIDs for tracking.
Understanding Animal Records: Maturity, Received Date & Multiple Dams
Several animal record concepts affect breeding automation and record accuracy. This guide explains how Moustra determines maturity, how the received date tracks arrivals, and how multiple dams are recorded for fostering scenarios.
Settings & Onboarding Extras
Beyond core setup, Moustra offers lab customizations and learning aids. This guide covers customizing end types and reasons, adding notes to records, using guided tours, and managing lab settings and users from the mobile app.