Depression is a common disease that affects human mental health in today’s society. The establishment of animal model of depression is of great significance to the study of depression. In recent years, people’s research on depression has gradually increased, and the modeling methods of depression animals have been gradually enriched. Due to the reasons of operation and cost, the modeling of depression in rodents is more common and mature. At present, the main animal models of depression include stress model, drug model, surgical model and genetic model. Each model has its own advantages and disadvantages. Appropriate methods can be selected according to the research purpose, so as to conduct in-depth research on depression. Recent studies have found that some brain signal pathways have become new targets for the treatment of depression. These signal pathways are closely related to depression, and the drugs acting on these targets have significant curative effects. Therefore, this paper reviewed the research progress of animal models and signal pathways of depression in recent years, so as to provide a theoretical basis for the study of the pathogenesis of depression.