In April 2015 the newly installed 9.4T small animal MRI scanner from Bruker went operational. Compared to small animal imaging at the clinical 3T system the new high field system provides a much smaller magnet bore of 20cm (inner diameter). Including the necessary gradient system and a volume coil the usable diameter is 86mm, which makes the scanner primarily suitable for rats, mice ad tissue samples. The high field strength provides a higher sample magnetization and thereby a stronger MRI signal. At the same time the gradient system provides a much higher performance (660 mT/m or 1000 mT/m with gradient insert) compared to clinical systems with typically 40-80 mT/m. This gradient performance allows very high resolution imaging as well as fast imaging techniques like EPI, which are not applicable to mice on a clinical 3T Scanner. The dedicated small animal scanner opens access to the full wide range of sequences and MRI contrast mechanisms for small animals.