How do you teach your rat tricks?

Question

I want to teach my rat ho w to do some tricks.

Does anyone know how they learn best...

Answer 1

I don't have a pet rat, but I spent an entire semester in college teaching lab rats to run a maze and push a lever.  Google "operant conditioning" or "Pavlov" and there should be a pretty simple explanation of the whole process.

Training a rat involves their behavior resulting in a reward - i.e. a treat.  If the rat performs the desired action, it is immediately rewarded (every time) with a treat until the rat has learned that the action results in the treat.  This may take repeating the action 10,20 even 50 times depending on how quickly the rat makes that connection.

Eventually, when the desired behavior is achieved, you can try removing the treat every time the rat performs the trick.  It may take the rat repeating the trick two or three times in a row before it gets the treat.  This is considered reinforcement and can help solidify the desired behavior.

For mazes and such, the rats are actually capable of remembering where to turn to reach the treat, and will run the maze quicker with practice.  

Look up Pavlov and start with a couple of simple tricks.  Depending on how much time and energy you have, you can really train your animal to do some interesting stuff.

Answer 2

They learn best with an insentive. If you offer them a treat, they will do what it takes to get to the treat. I've had pet rats since I was in 4th grade. In 6th, my science fair project was a rat maze. With cheese and different treats at one end, they trained themselves very quickly to find the treat. They even got past things that I put in their way to throw them off. Rats eye sight isn't very good. So, smell is their main sense. Keep their poor eye sight in mind when choosing what tricks to train them. I'm curious what tricks you are planning to train him? That may be helpful in answering your question also. But as most all pets, they need to have motivation, and be rewarded for accomplishing what you want. You can even potty train rats. When they are out of their cage, if they go to the bathroom, then immediatly put them back in their cage. Eventually, they will train themselves to hold their potty till they are in their cage.  

Answer 3

hae i teached my little ratty lots of tricks i just used this website

http://www.ratsratsrats.com/rat_training

it rely works

hope it helps ur ratty become a star lol