Depression is a common mental disease with a high prevalence, disability rate and recurrence rate. The pathobiology of depression is multifactorial and not yet completely understood. Animal models and behavioral tests of depression have become essential for developing antidepressant drugs. The core symptoms of depression in depressive rodent models, including anhedonia and despair behaviors, are evaluated by different types of behavioral tests, such as the sucrose preference test, novelty-suppressed feeding test, tail suspension test, forced swim test and others. In this review, the principles and method of behavioral tests for depression that are currently used for antidepressant discovery are discussed and assessed. Moreover, the commonly used animal models of depression are summarized. This review provides valuable information for selecting the appropriate modeling method and behavioral tests according to the purpose of the study. This review aims to serve as a reference for researchers to select common behavioral tests and animal depression models, which may be of great significance for the in-depth study of depression.