On the use of the squirrel monkey in behavioral and pharmacological experiments.

KELLEHER et al. (1963) wrote a how-to guide for using squirrel monkeys in drug studies. They listed cage size, light cycle, food amounts, and the best way to give shots. No data were collected; the paper is a lab manual.

The authors found that squirrel monkeys stay healthy and work for food when you house them alone, feed 20 g of chow plus fruit, and inject drugs into the belly. These steps became the standard for later cocaine studies.

Gardner et al. (1976) used the same monkey setup to show that cocaine keeps monkeys pressing levers on fixed-ratio and fixed-interval schedules. Dykens et al. (1991) kept the model alive, showing that small ratios make tolerance grow fast while large ratios leave longer after-effects. Branch (2006) later argued that drug studies like these can sharpen ABA theory. The 1963 note is the quiet root that let the later cocaine branches grow.

If you run drug self-administration studies, this paper gives you a ready-made care sheet. Copy the cage specs, diet, and injection routine to cut setup time and keep monkeys healthy. The same husbandry tricks still appear in modern cocaine papers, so you know they work.