How can you effectively train your pet rat. What are the best techniques for teaching rats tricks. Which easy tricks can rats learn quickly. Why are rats considered intelligent pets. How do you create an optimal environment for rat training.
Understanding Rat Intelligence and Trainability
Rats are widely recognized for their remarkable intelligence and trainability, making them excellent pets for those interested in animal training. Debbie Ducommun, a renowned authority on rat care and training, provides valuable insights into the cognitive abilities of these fascinating creatures. According to Ducommun, “the average rat is as smart as the average dog,” although she believes that “the smartest rats are not as smart as the smartest dogs.” This comparison highlights the impressive mental capabilities of rats and their potential for learning complex behaviors.
The intelligence of rats is often compared to that of humans, particularly in terms of problem-solving abilities and social cognition. Their capacity to learn and adapt to new situations makes them ideal subjects for training exercises. Rats have been used in various scientific studies due to their cognitive similarities to humans, further emphasizing their intellectual prowess.
Key Factors in Rat Intelligence
- Problem-solving skills
- Social cognition
- Adaptability to new environments
- Memory retention
- Ability to learn from observation
Are rats capable of learning complex tricks? Yes, with proper training techniques and patience, rats can master a wide range of tricks, from simple commands to more elaborate routines. Their food-driven nature makes them highly responsive to positive reinforcement, allowing trainers to shape their behavior effectively.
Setting Up the Ideal Training Environment
Creating an optimal environment for rat training is crucial for success. A well-designed living space not only ensures the comfort and well-being of your pet rat but also facilitates effective training sessions. Ducommun emphasizes the importance of providing a spacious and stimulating habitat that allows rats to express their natural behaviors while also serving as a suitable training area.
Essential Elements of a Rat-Friendly Habitat
- Spacious cage or enclosure
- Multiple levels and platforms
- Hiding spots and nesting areas
- Variety of toys and enrichment items
- Designated training area within the enclosure
How large should a rat’s living space be? A general rule of thumb is to provide at least 2 cubic feet of space per rat, with larger enclosures being preferable. This allows for ample room to move, explore, and engage in training activities.
Incorporating a designated training area within the rat’s habitat can help create a consistent and familiar environment for learning. This area should be free from distractions and easily accessible for both the rat and the trainer.
Getting to Know Your Rat: Assessing Personality and Preferences
Before embarking on a training regimen, it’s essential to understand your rat’s unique personality and preferences. Each rat has its own distinct character traits, likes, and dislikes, which can significantly influence the training process. Observing your rat’s behavior and interactions can provide valuable insights into their individual quirks and tendencies.
Factors to Consider When Assessing Your Rat’s Personality
- Activity level and energy
- Social behavior with humans and other rats
- Food preferences and motivation
- Response to different stimuli (sounds, textures, etc.)
- Natural curiosity and exploratory behavior
Can a rat’s personality affect its trainability? Absolutely. Some rats may be more food-motivated and eager to please, making them quick learners, while others might require more patience and creativity in training approaches. Understanding these individual differences allows trainers to tailor their methods to suit each rat’s unique needs and learning style.
Basic Training Techniques for Pet Rats
Mastering fundamental training techniques is crucial for successfully teaching tricks to your pet rat. These methods form the foundation upon which more complex behaviors can be built. Ducommun’s expertise shines through in her detailed explanations of various training approaches, with a particular emphasis on positive reinforcement.
Key Training Techniques for Rats
- Clicker training
- Target training
- Luring
- Shaping
- Chaining behaviors
Clicker training, a method highly recommended by Ducommun, involves using a small device that makes a distinct clicking sound to mark desired behaviors. This technique allows for precise timing in reinforcing correct actions, making it particularly effective for rat training.
How does clicker training work with rats? When the rat performs a desired behavior, the trainer immediately clicks the device and follows up with a treat. Over time, the rat associates the click with a reward, allowing the trainer to communicate exactly which action is being reinforced.
Easy Tricks to Teach Your Pet Rat
Once you’ve established a strong foundation in basic training techniques, you can begin teaching your rat simple tricks. These easy-to-learn behaviors not only provide mental stimulation for your pet but also strengthen the bond between rat and owner. Ducommun outlines a progression of tricks, starting with the most straightforward and gradually increasing in complexity.
Beginner-Level Tricks for Rats
- Coming when called
- Standing up on command
- Spinning in a circle
- Jumping through a hoop
- Fetching a small object
How long does it typically take for a rat to learn a new trick? The learning speed can vary depending on the individual rat and the complexity of the trick. However, with consistent training sessions of 5-10 minutes per day, many rats can master simple tricks within a week or two.
To teach a rat to come when called, start by associating their name with a treat. Say the rat’s name and immediately offer a small piece of food. Repeat this process several times, gradually increasing the distance between you and the rat. Soon, your pet will learn to associate their name with a positive experience and come running when called.
Advanced Training: Complex Tricks and Behaviors
As your rat becomes more proficient in basic tricks, you can progress to more complex behaviors. These advanced tricks not only showcase your rat’s intelligence but also provide a greater challenge for both pet and owner. Ducommun’s book delves into various sophisticated training exercises, including some that mimic experiments typically associated with laboratory rats.
Examples of Advanced Tricks for Rats
- Navigating mazes
- Solving simple puzzles
- Basketball (pushing a small ball into a hoop)
- Agility courses
- Discriminating between different objects or symbols
Can rats really learn to navigate complex mazes? Yes, rats have an excellent spatial memory and can quickly learn to navigate mazes, especially when motivated by food rewards. This ability has been extensively studied in laboratory settings and can be adapted for home training as an engaging and challenging activity for pet rats.
To teach a rat to navigate a simple maze, start with a straightforward path and gradually increase complexity. Place a favorite treat at the end of the maze as motivation. With practice, your rat will learn to efficiently navigate even intricate mazes, demonstrating their problem-solving skills and memory capabilities.
Overcoming Common Training Challenges
While rat training can be a rewarding experience, it’s not without its challenges. Understanding and addressing common obstacles can help ensure a smooth and enjoyable training process for both you and your pet. Ducommun’s expertise provides valuable insights into troubleshooting various training issues that may arise.
Frequent Challenges in Rat Training
- Lack of motivation or interest
- Short attention span
- Fear or anxiety
- Inconsistent performance of learned behaviors
- Distractions in the training environment
How can you maintain your rat’s interest during training sessions? Keeping training sessions short (5-10 minutes) and engaging is key. Vary the tricks and rewards to prevent boredom, and always end on a positive note with a behavior your rat can easily perform.
If your rat seems disinterested or unmotivated, reassess the rewards you’re using. Some rats may prefer certain treats over others, or may be more motivated by praise and attention than food rewards. Experiment with different incentives to find what works best for your individual pet.
Enhancing the Bond Through Training
Training your pet rat goes beyond teaching tricks; it’s an excellent way to strengthen the bond between you and your furry companion. The process of working together towards a common goal fosters trust, communication, and mutual understanding. Ducommun emphasizes the importance of this relationship-building aspect of rat training throughout her book.
Benefits of Rat Training for the Human-Animal Bond
- Increased trust and comfort with handling
- Improved communication between rat and owner
- Enhanced understanding of your rat’s body language and cues
- Greater engagement and interaction in daily life
- Shared sense of accomplishment and fun
Does training affect a rat’s overall behavior and temperament? Yes, regular training sessions can have a positive impact on a rat’s overall behavior. Trained rats often become more confident, sociable, and less prone to stress or anxiety. The mental stimulation provided by training can also help prevent boredom-related behavioral issues.
To further enhance your bond through training, incorporate gentle handling and positive reinforcement throughout your daily interactions with your rat. This consistent approach helps create a positive association with human contact and strengthens your relationship beyond formal training sessions.
In conclusion, rat training is a fascinating and rewarding endeavor that showcases the remarkable intelligence and adaptability of these small but mighty creatures. By following the expert guidance of authorities like Debbie Ducommun and applying patience and consistency, pet owners can unlock the full potential of their rat companions. Whether you’re teaching simple tricks or complex behaviors, the journey of rat training offers endless opportunities for learning, bonding, and mutual growth between human and animal.
Tricks and Games for Rat Fun and Fitness by Debbie Ducommun
4.5 stars
If at any point I would like to get into raising and training animals of a certain kind, the idea of raising and training rats interests me the most. It will not be for some time and I will need to be in the right situation to do so (and be less sensitive to odors), but one can always think… and learn… and read up on the subject. If I were to ever get a rodent, rats would be the only one I would consider.
I bought several books on the topic of rats, rat raising, and rat training, an
4.5 stars
If at any point I would like to get into raising and training animals of a certain kind, the idea of raising and training rats interests me the most. It will not be for some time and I will need to be in the right situation to do so (and be less sensitive to odors), but one can always think… and learn… and read up on the subject. If I were to ever get a rodent, rats would be the only one I would consider.
I bought several books on the topic of rats, rat raising, and rat training, and one of the great authorities on the topic of rats is the late, great Debbie Ducommon. Ducommon has appeared on various outlets talking about rats and showing her rats to hosts and viewers and has written about rats in a few books. I also own her book, “Rats: Practical Advice from the Expert,” which I probably should have read first to get a general overview on rat care, but I went for this book that gives you a general idea of what to expect when having a rat as a pet, but rightfully concentrates on training rats, starting with setting up the environment and getting an idea as to what your rat is like, then easier basic tricks, before advancing to more complicated and even science fair-esque tricks, like the intellectual tricks often associated with lab rats and mazes.
Debbie Ducommon just about answers every question or concern that one may have when it comes to having rats as pets and as you are reading this book, you feel like you definitely want to have one as a pet or learn more about the endless possibilities that one may have with owning rats, even if it just requires changes in rat raising techniques.
Rats have also been admired for how close they are mentally to humans, though Ducommon does say that she believes that, “the average rat is as smart as the average dog,” but that she does not think that “the smartest rats are as smart as the smartest dogs” (as per page 19). Ducommon also does a great job letting readers know that anything (within reason) is possible when it comes to what rats can do as long as they are properly trained.
The groundwork to this book is laid out perfectly, for I would have the basics right at hand to preparing to train rats if I were to ever own them. Rereading certain parts would be helpful, though, especially when it comes to certain tricks. The later parts to this book warrant greater examination and would be more helpful when providing a more hands-on experience. The pictures of rats in this book are perfectly dispersed and make the experience of learning about them all the more pleasant. Some of these photos include Ducommon herself training her rats to do certain tricks.
The basic thing to know, though, is that rats are food driven and their incentive is getting their treat.
The mechanics of the training in this book also provided me with opportunities to think beyond the book and come up with potential methods of my own, especially when it comes to tying treats to training and designating what should be associated with basic care (general food) and what should be associated with training rewards (such as a favorite treat), in addition to knowing where it is they should relieve themselves.
This book was definitely helpful and I would strongly recommend to those that want to learn more about training rats. Debbie Ducommon has proven to be an authority on the topic of rats, rat raising, and rat training, in addition to having an enthusiastic and friendly disposition.
Meet my (clicker trained) pet rats
Flower
Annie
Rats make great pets! They are cute and cuddly, but also super smart. Mine are always up to some sort of mischief and I love watching their antics.
Rats are also great apartment pets, as they do not require much space when compared to a cat or dog and they don’t need a backyard or walks.
Rats are very intelligent and can be great fun to train. A rat can learn a great variety of tricks and, once the rat gets the hang of training, you’ll find that the rat picks up on new tricks pretty fast. I use clicker training when training my rats, which works great. If you’re not familiar with clicker training, please check out my article What is clicker training?
Spoiled rotten?
My four pet rats frequently appear on my blog. The girls live in their very own “rat mansion,” a large bird cage with plenty of play toys and fun hiding spots. When not in their cage, they enjoy spending a few hours a day in their rat play area.
An old bird cage makes a great rat cage. Plenty of room for four rats!
The girls love spending time in their play area!
Can you spot all four of them?
Life’s fun if you’re a rat! (A few favorite posts from my blog)
My rats frequently appear on my blog.
Here are links to some of my favorite rat-related blog posts.
Amy’s elevator – using positive training to make the world a safer place for my rats
Amy goes exploring – a cute video of Amy, my most adventurous rat!
Amy’s big jump! (video) – Rats can jump VERY far!
Rattie enrichment: Dinnertime puzzles – my rats often have to work for their dinner
Three new rats – photos from when I adopted Izzy, Amy, and Chloe
(Note: If you are thinking about getting pet rats, please consider adopting!)
Pet rats add life – more information about why rats make great pets
Rats on the move – a cute photo showing the incredible power of rat teeth
How to get started with rat clicker training
I actually had a lot of trouble when I first started clicker training my rat Georgie. She taught me a lot about setting up the ideal training environment so that an animal can learn. Check out the links below for more information about how to begin clicker training with your rat, as well as ideas and instructions for a variety of tricks.
What is clicker training? – A basic introduction to clicker training
Getting Started with clicker training – Tips for setting up training sessions and teaching the clicker
Rat clicker training success! – Georgie demonstrates that she’s learned the meaning of the click
Videos of rat clicker training and rat trick training
The video below shows the steps that were used to teach Georgie one of her first tricks, going through a tunnel. Successful training involves teaching each trick in small steps so that the animal understands what you want. This is the process known as shaping behavior.
Here are links to more videos of rat tricks, as well as additional information about rat training. Rats are very smart and really enjoy learning new tricks!
Flower learns to duck through the tunnel
Amy and the bucket trick
Amy learns to come when called
Amy learns to use an iPad
Amy learns to go around a brick
Chloe’s first rat agility course
Georgie learns to spin
Georgie learns to jump
Georgie works on learning to fetch
Constant stimuli: A rat training report
Just for fun: Lab rats learning about Pink Floyd – You won’t want to miss this!
Mice can be trained, too!
I also currently have 2 neutered male mice, Oscar and Dickens.
They were “feeder mice” who were meant to be snake food. Both were initially very skeptical about people and wanted nothing to do with me! The three videos below show some of the initial mouse training that I did with Oscar and Dickens, as well as with Jack and Houdini, two other mice who have since passed. The one bad thing about keeping mice as pets is that they usually only live about a year.
Mouse socialization training – Working with shy mice in a bathtub
Houdini learns to step up – Shows the steps I used to teach Houdini to get on my hand
More fun with mouse training – Dickens works on walking onto my hand
Other rat-related sites worth visiting
Joinrats – Lots of great info about rat care, behavior, training, and enrichment
Mainely Rat Rescue Store – Buy some rat hammocks and help out a great rescue organization
Rat Fan Club – Lots of good info about how to properly care for your pet rats
What should pet rats eat? – This page provides a great list of good foods to feed your rats, as well as a list of foods your pet rat should not eat.
TRUST TRAINING | myratfriends
Every rat is different! Each one has a unique personality and because of this, each rat will bond to their owner in different ways and at different times. Be patient and never give up on your rats!
It can take months before a rat is 100% comfortable with you. Even rats that come from breeders that promise well socialized babies will need to trust you at their own pace. Keep in mind that these rats have never met you before, and as prey animals, they need to keep their guard up to feel safe.
It’s important to maintain a routine with your rats!
Stick to a routine during trust training as it makes the process go much quicker. Your rats will know what to expect and won’t be taken by surprise, which may lead to nervous or aggressive behavior. A routine makes it easier for everyone – you and your rats!
How long will trust training take?
It truly depends on the personality of the rat. I’ve had rats trust me the moment I picked them up but others took 3 months.
Some rats, especially rats that have been mistreated in the past, may take longer.
Do I have to trust train every single day?
The answer is yes although that may not be realistically possible for you. Try to dedicate some time for trust training – even if that means giving your rat 10 minutes of your time. Your rat will learn what to expect from you if you maintain a routine. If you break the routine, your rat may get confused.
What if my rat bites out of fear?
It’s uncommon for rats to bite, but they will bite out of pain or fear. If a rat has been abused or neglected in its previous home, they will be weary and fearful of new humans. You can wear a glove to avoid injury. My trust training guide is mostly for new rats, not neglected rats – although much of the steps remain the same.
What are realistic trust goals?
Decide what you expect from your rat. Then decide if those goals are realistic. It is not realistic to expect a docile rat that will lay in your hands and cuddle UNLESS that is the rat’s personality.
Good goals are to have a rat that comes to you willingly, isn’t fearful of being picked up, and will take treats from your hands. Other goals include the ability to flip your rat on their back for short periods of time, and to play chase with your hand and have your rat interact back.
Bonding Pouch
1. Choose a bonding pouch!
The pouch should be comfortable for your rat, provide a warm & safe place to hide, and allow your rat to breathe. You can choose your sweatshirt pocket, make a sack out of fleece, use a bonding pouch, or a bonding scarf.
Take a peek at some options below
2. Get comfy!
Allow your rat to get comfy in their new bonding pouch. This may involve leaving it in their cage so that they can check it out when they want! The goal is to have a pouch that symbolizes comfort for your rat. You’ll want something that you don’t wash often & something that won’t get ruined with poop or pee.
The goal is to have a pouch that smells like both your rat and yourself!
3. Bonding time!
Place your rat inside of the pouch or sweatshirt pocket. Wear it on yourself. That’s it! You can talk to your rat, lightly stroke them inside or outside of the pouch, or sit there quietly. Do what feels right. Your rat will get used to your voice, smell, and other sounds around the house.
Eat Treats
1. Finger Foods!
Entice your rat with their favorite treats. When your rat comes to you, give them a snack as a reward. They will begin to associate you with all things yummy and good! Good foods to try are peas, hard boiled egg, and baby puff cereal. Check out the Food & Treats page for a list of good foods and a list of bad foods for rats.
2. Spoon Feed!
If your rats won’t come to you for treats, it may be good to try spoon feeding. While your rat is in their cage, hold a spoon of baby food for them to lick.
This will allow them to get close to you without getting too close.
Free Roam
1. Bedtime!
Clear your bed of everything that rats could use to hide in or under (pillows, blankets, stuffed animals, etc). Place your rats on the bed and lay down with them. You can get on your hands and knees to create an archway with your body. By creating shapes and open spaces with your body, you are giving your rats safe place to hide. They will naturally escape the open space of the bed and will seek you for security and comfort!
2. Young, and Wild, and Free!
Free roam time is important as it encourages independence and builds confidence! Take your rats out every single day (for at least an hour). Let them out in a rat safe room, on a bed, or on a couch. The bathtub works too! Use boxes and tubes to create a fun playground for them! Once your rats are confident to explore new areas by themselves, they’ll be more confident and more likely to trust you!
Helpful Ideas
Don’t chase your rats after free roam
If your rats are skittish or nervous, they probably won’t be comfortable coming to your hands.
When it’s time to put your rats away, do NOT chase them. Try offering a treat inside of their bonding pouch, and allow them to crawl inside.
Use the bonding pouch to capture your rats
In case you didn’t read the first tip, I’m going to put it here again because it’s important!
After free roam time, instead of chasing and trapping your rats to put them away, use their bonding pouch! They already feel comfortable and safe in the bonding pouch, so chances are they’ll willingly climb inside. Toss a favorite treat in the pouch as more incentive.
Use the bonding pouch or a box for transportation
This tip is especially important for rats that fear humans.
If your rat won’t come to you, place their bonding pouch or a box with a hole, into their cage and allow them to climb inside naturally. Let them out for free roam. Use the same box or bonding pouch when you put them away. They will soon associate the pouch or box as a method of transportation.
Use a word or treats to call your rats after play time
I quickly taught my rats to come to me after free roam by calling out “Peas!”. They all race over and climb up my legs, eager to go back into their cage to eat some peas. Since I give them some peas in the morning and at night, this makes it very easy for me to collect all 7 of them. I also shake a baby puff cereal can (their favorite treat), and they all come running. This is very convenient when it comes time to putting them away.
Don’t force your rat to do anything
This is very important! Don’t force your rat to cuddle and don’t trap your rat in your hands. By forcing your rats to do things that make them nervous, your trust training may be erased.
Don’t trap your rat in your hands
This isn’t a good way to transport your rats. Instead, let them crawl onto your arms, shoulders, and chest. They will feel much more comfortable. If you need to control them better, use the bonding pouch.
Never give up on your rats!
Some rats will trust you immediately, while others will take months. Continue trust training until your rat trusts you. Don’t allow your rat to live in fear of you. It will be rewarding for both of you!
9780793806515: The Complete Guide to Rat Training – AbeBooks
The Complete Guide to Rat Training teaches you how to have fun and enhance the relationship you share with your pet rat. The step-by-step format thoroughly and concisely covers a variety of training topics, including positive reinforcement, clicker training, basic and advanced trick training, and how to set up games and science projects.
The authoritative text explains how to read rat behavior and body language so you can understand your rat and learn the similarities between rats and humans.
“synopsis” may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Debbie Ducommun has a B.A. degree in animal behavior and over 18 years of experience working in the animal care industry with a background in training, nutrition, and health care.
Known as “The Rat Lady,” Debbie is internationally recognized as an expert on domestic rats. She lives in Chico, CA with her husband, Larry, and a varying number of pet rats.
“About this title” may belong to another edition of this title.
The Complete Guide to Rat Training: Tricks and Games for Rat Fun and Fitness by Debbie Ducommun: new (2008)
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Published by Brand: TFH Publications, Inc., 2008
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Condition: new
Soft cover
Bibliographic Details
Title: The Complete Guide to Rat Training: Tricks .
..
Publisher: Brand: TFH Publications, Inc.
Publication Date: 2008
Binding: Soft cover
Book Condition: new
Edition: 3rd Edition
About this title
Synopsis:
The Complete Guide to Rat Training teaches you how to have fun and enhance the relationship you share with your pet rat. The step-by-step format thoroughly and concisely covers a variety of training topics, including positive reinforcement, clicker training, basic and advanced trick training, and how to set up games and science projects. The authoritative text explains how to read rat behavior and body language so you can understand your rat and learn the similarities between rats and humans.
About the Author:
Debbie Ducommun has a B.A. degree in animal behavior and over 18 years of experience working in the animal care industry with a background in training, nutrition, and health care. Known as “The Rat Lady,” Debbie is internationally recognized as an expert on domestic rats. She lives in Chico, CA with her husband, Larry, and a varying number of pet rats.
“About this title” may belong to another edition of this title.
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A Neuroengineer’s Guide on Training Rats to Play Doom | by Viktor Tóth | Mindsoft
Before elaborating on the how, let me briefly clarify the undertaking and the necessary hardware and software components that enable automated training of animals on complex tasks.
Project description
Train rodents to play Doom II with full cerebral control. In a VR environment, teach rats or mice to kill demons and find the exit point by decoding their motor intent and translating it into in-game actions.
I would not expect anyone, especially those from the field of neuroscience, to believe that such an arduous experiment is manageable, unless it can be realized as the result of recent scientific and technological advancements.
Project requirements
Chronic implants of a (high bandwidth) neural decoding and stimulation device, an AI agent proficient in playing Doom, a rodent-VR environment and semi-sophisticated learning models that enable decoding (easy problem) and stimulation (hard problem) of the rodent motor cortex to induce desired behavior dictated by the AI.
The big picture: AI instructs the stimulation model to induce brain activity that is associated with the right action (e.
g. fire the shotgun), the brain state is decoded and the stimulation model receives a feedback on how close the stimulated action is to the one intended by the agent. The decoded action vector is translated into in-game actions. Game state is pulled from Doom and passed to the reward scheme, which portions the positive feedback for the rodent in the form of sucrose water.
Training rodents on any task involves manual supervision. As an example, in the dead simple, well-established Morris water maze task, a human assistant is required to be present to save and show the rodent a slightly submerged platform in the water tank if the subject is unable to locate it. Designing a more complicated spatial memory trial (like playing Doom) may enrich the experiment protocol to an unreasonable extent, which in turn invites failure.
The core idea is the following: automate the process by which the animal is steered towards the desired actions and follow up with automated rewards to solidify such behavior.
Train a reinforcement learning (RL) model to perform the given task, and stimulate the animal if stuck to induce behavior identical to the AI’s. Reward may be given from e.g. a programmed water spout, while stimulation has to be bioelectronic and cerebral to scale well with task complexity and behavioral diversity expected from the rodents (e.g. movement, opening doors, shooting).
Outline
In the following I intend to prove the viability of this research project, outline an experimental design and dive into the following:
- rodent VR experimental setups,
- perceptual and cognitive limitations of rodents,
- behavioral actions to associate with in-game actions,
- brain interfacing hardware requirements,
- decoding and stimulation modeling,
- and training RL agents on Doom.
Teaching rodents to play Doom is not just a cool one-off venture that may lead to rat Twitch streamers or e-sport teams. For one, it introduces an experimental paradigm that allows for complex spatial memory and behavioral animal experiments to be conducted without overwhelming the experimentalist.
Moreover, it is a proof-of-concept for the employed hardware and software (decoding, stimulation): the experiment bootstraps the subject from physical behavioral actions to develop a neural interface to perform arbitrarily intricate behavior in a virtual environment, which eventually leads to higher bandwidth, low latency communication between meat and machine. The stimulation component in combination with the AI coach enables accelerated learning, which framework in essence is translational to humans.
Bootstrapping from established behavioral actions to neural interfaces. Don’t ask the user to explicitly train the decoding model by performing dull tasks; rather, learn to associate brain signals to actions implicitly in the background, and always try to predict ahead what the user intends to do, from muscle movements to abstract actions. (The chip is just an illustration, not FDA approved yet.)
Goal-directed learning in VR could set us up on the path of building neural interfaces to our already existing devices, tools and mediums of communication.
Both rats and mice have been entertained in VR environments plenty of times [1–9]. Experiments often constrain the animal to run on a 1D corridor, but some allow movements on a 2D plane [1–5].
Rodent VR: top [7], rear view [10] illustrations and a commercial setup.
The usual setup is the following: the rodent is positioned with its head or body fixed on top of an air-cushioned spherical ball in front of a wide curved screen that should cover as much of the visual field as possible [1]. Rotation of the ball is captured by optical sensors gutted out from computer mice. Rotation signals are translated into movements in the virtual world. A water tube and optional air puffs may be arranged facing the rodent to deliver rewards and punishments respectively.
In some settings the animal is allowed to move around without its head fixed [2]. Body-fixation allows the rodent to turn its head around, which requires a wider azimuth and elevation screen coverage. Other experiments [3, 37] let the animal move and rotate freely, but they are way too complicated and a dead-end in the evolution of VR environments if you ask me.
To exploit the auditory finesse of rodents, we should place stereo speakers in front, which works for both the head- and body-fixation setups.
Body-fixation is preferable over head-fixation as it introduces less stress. Illustration taken from [2].
Previous VR environments used an air-supported ball to track movements. In our case, the animal takes action in the virtual world by movement intent only. Regardless, the ball should be present at least in initial training sessions to synchronously record neural and movement activity right inside the experimental environment, which recordings may be used to train the neural intent decoding learning model.
Visual acuity
Arguing from first principles, we need to establish the capabilities of rodents to visually perceive and segment key entities in the game, demons and levers for instance, as their presence demands different behavioral response: e.g. demons are shot from the distance, levers or buttons are interfaced from up close.
Visual acuity in rodents is assessed by measuring the ability of spatial frequency discrimination given a contrast level [11], i.e. the highest number of lines the animal can differentiate in 1 degree of its visual field. Rats at best can do around 1 cycle/degree (2 lines in 1°), while mice cap at 0.5 [12] at maximum contrast. Training rats over mice has other advantages, including the fact that the rat model is just way more established in behavioral research and compare in learning performance at least on par with mice [13]. From this point on, I carry the rat model forward in my argumentation for the sake of simplicity.
Rats are dichromats (have red-green colorblindness) and have overall fainter color vision than humans do [14]. Practically, rats are colorblind and we should not rely on color vision when determining their ability to perceive entities in Doom.
To emulate the amount of information rats could visually extract from a scene, first a dichromat filter was applied on an in-game screenshot, then the color intensity was reduced by a factor of 5 to match (very handwavy) the disparity between human and rat cone to rode ratio [14], and finally Gaussian noise was added so spatial frequencies above 1 cycle/degree (cpd) got attenuated more than 95% given a 90° field of view.
Doom II is rendered with classic, low-res graphics, which fits the low spatial frequency discrimination ability of rats. Below is a video imitating what a rat would see playing the first level (MAP01) of Doom II. The horizontal field of view is set to the default 90°, but in the actual experiment the rat’s visual field should be covered as much as possible [15]: ideally 300° horizontal and 80° vertical [2], though tighter coverage have worked too before [5].
Rodents are quite sensitive to auditory cues, which should further aid them in locating demons with auxiliary environmental noise and music eliminated.
Spatial learning
Let me make this short: the area of a rat’s home can range up to 0.183 km² with lengths up to 311 m [1]. In their natural habitat, they traverse complex environments daily with ease. As a conservative comparison, take a look at a well-established, relatively complex lab maze and a VR maze, side-by-side with the first map of Doom II:
Compilation of rodent mazes: the Hampton court maze has been used extensively in behavioral studies, one of Thurley’s VR maze [16] with a branching structure, and MAP01 from Doom II.
Green rooms in MAP01 are accessible without uncovering secrets or pushing buttons. Red arrows indicate the shortest path from start to finish, which really shows how little spatial navigation is necessary to complete the level. Although rats are needed to be trained on simpler maps first, successfully finishing MAP01 should be the first major milestone of the proposed project.
I think it is established: the spatial intricacy of MAP01 is comparable to mazes used previously in rodent experiments and is far simpler than the territory of a rat’s natural habitat.
To build a neural interface on top of Doom, we need to decode intent of 2D movement and an additional behavior associated to the act of shooting. Both should be fairly accessible from the motor cortex and should not interfere with each other.
Movement
Decode locomotion speed and acceleration, combined with yaw velocity and acceleration. It has been done by fitting simple linear regression [17]: Muzzu et al. trained mice to traverse a virtual corridor allowing horizontal rotation (yaw), while recording from a 32-channel electrode array implanted in the cerebellum — not the cortex, though cortical decodings of rats have been done too in non-virtual environments, e.
g. [18].
To train the decoder, behavioral and neural activity are needed to be registered simultaneously. Movement can be recorded in a free-roaming setup using either a top-view camera or a piezo pad [19]. In VR, the movements of the rat can be derived from the angular displacement of the spherical treadmill.
The aim of this research project is to build a complete neural interface to Doom. First, we need to bootstrap from actual behavioral actions, like walking on the treadmill, to initiate movements in-game. Primates have been shown to adapt and control an actuator by neural activity alone [20]. As far as I know, this form of adaptation is yet to be shown in rodents, but could be initiated by slowly diverging the control from treadmill displacements to corresponding neural activity and even provide appropriate proprioception by stimulating sensory areas to emulate sensory byproducts of movement.
Shooting
Let’s break down the act of shooting a demon from the rat’s perspective with its surrounding stimuli and successive reward in context.
The animal would not understand that shooting is an act of killing. It would probably associate the presence of a demon as a source of reward (e.g. sucrose water) and ‘shooting’ as a mean to milk that reward cow. The shot hits and thus delivers reward if the demon is at the center; one hit from the pump-action shotgun floors the imp from most distances the rat can visually cover. Punishments may be delivered in the form of reduced reward or an air puff in the rat’s face, so the subject doesn’t become comfortable of being attacked by the enemy.
Pump-action meets imp.
If the ratio of rewards and punishments is balanced and doesn’t lead to highly risk-averse behavior, the rat should learn to actively gun down demons, while avoiding being hit by them. Rats been pulling levers for decades to earn treats and stop being electroshocked, there’s nothing new here; except that we would prefer them not to shoot mindlessly at everything, which could be discouraged by a tiny air puff of punishment following missed shots.
If punishment by air puffs is out question for reasons of reward scheme complexity, the traditional way of withdrawing reward can be applied: if the rat misbehaves shooting aimlessly, turn a bright led on to signal failure, and revoke the sugary water it would receive in the successive kill(s).
We still need to cover the behavioral action that the rat has to perform (or intend to perform) to shoot. Such an action should be distinguishable from walking, thus we can’t rely on leg grasping or pulling a lever, which is the go-to trained discrete behavior for rodents in experiments. Associating biting with gunning is one option: bites are simple, fast and regular just like shots need to be. Bites are egocentrically local to the visual feedback (mouth is close to the shotgun), and they should be easy to decode being a frequent behavior. Although biting is not as easy to capture in a free-roaming scenario, it’s plausible in the virtual setup by face recordings — note, we need simultaneous recordings of neural activity and the action in question to be able to train a decoding model.
Another option is nodding or rearing: raising then dropping the head to it’s original elevation. Rat posture including head positioning has been decoded [21]. The locality of the visual feedback is even more true than for biting, and nodding (neck joint movement) can be recorded both in free-roaming and VR conditions. However, a body-fixation VR setup is required to allow for nodding, and there’s a potential source of false positive detections: the rat just looking around. To avoid false positives, a nod could be classified as the raise and the drop of the head only when looking straight ahead. Overall, nods are preferable to bites, as they are easier to detect in both free-roaming and VR settings and they have been successfully decoded from the rat motor cortex.
Hardware interface
Electrodes need to be implanted chronically to allow reliable recording and stimulation for the span of weeks to months, due to the extensive training procedure involved in the proposed experiment.
A wireless interface is not a must, but should simplify the experimental protocol and setup.
As mentioned, movement decoding has been done using 32-channel electrode arrays [21], involuntary rearing has been semi-accurately stimulated using a single well-placed electrode in the subthalamic nucleus [22].
The behavioral repertoire can be expanded within the same setup of rodents playing first-person (shooter) games. We may be able to build more abstract, auxiliary neural interfaces by predicting intended in-game actions from proprioception-reinforced neural activity [23] speeding up the rate of rat-to-machine communication resulting is fast-paced gameplays. The beauty of it all is that most of the work committed in this project is translational: if the developed decoding and stimulation solutions, in the form of learning models, manage to externalize brain states into in-game actions for rats, they should work on the same principles for humans. I’m not talking about transfer learning of course, I mean the transfer of model architectures.
We are not that far from AIs training us in sandbox environments, accelerating learning through brain stimulation; or just from bonding with our pet hamsters over coop gaming.
Decoding models
Decoding of neural activity into behavioral actions like muscle movements is usually performed to reconstruct just a couple degrees of freedom — for instance, primates reaching for objects [24], or rodents running on corridors [4]. Kinematics such as movement velocity and acceleration, or positional and angular information of the limb in motion are often in focus. Although modeling approaches vary, only a handful of models have stood the test of time.
Traditionally, neuroscientists like to fit tuning curves on each recorded neuron, which explicitly outlines the preference of the neuron, which preference is demonstrated as a higher accompanying firing rate, for e.g. a movement direction. As was done in the work of Kennedy and Schwartz [25], tuning curves and firing rates of multiple neurons can be combined to derive a more accurate, less uncertain estimate of arm movement direction.
Explicit directional tuning does not scale well with increasing degrees of freedom: try to decode a hand puppet’s range of motions by breaking it down into elemental 1D movements and then reconstruct it.
As an exotic example, Kloosterman et al. argued for skipping spike detection and decode rat position straight from spike waveform features, including peak amplitude and spike width, modeling spikes as spatial temporal Poisson processes, evaluating stochastic rates of spiking activity from the Poisson process, which is then used to derive the posterior distribution on rat position, all this from hippocampal recordings [26]. They present valid criticism of traditional spike detection algorithms and how misclassification of spikes — their presence or to which unit they belong — may lead to silent decoding errors.
Muzzu et al. fits simple linear regression to decode movement speed in a VR environment [4] taking spiking bins of 5 ms width, pre-smoothed by a Gaussian filter (σ=50 ms).
In the studies I review here, spiking rates are time-binned between 5 and 64 ms. While long bins result in decoding delays, short ones introduce high variance and renders the signal very sparse at the extreme. One may cheat a little to report a small bin size and apply Gaussian smoothing on the spike counts, which may also aid the assumption of normality that follows the linear models often employed in decoding [24].
Kalman and Wiener filters are the usual suspects when it comes to neural decoding. They can incorporate spiking rates, model and propagate uncertainty over time, though with the assumptions of normally distributed spiking rates and of linearity in their transition function. Unscented Kalman filters partly overcome the issue of linearity by allowing explicit, albeit not learnt, inclusion of nonlinearity [27]. Others have cooked up models like the one named recurrent exponential family harmonium (rEFH), which can model spiking rates as Poisson, and allow ‘arbitrary’ nonlinear interactions in their huge binary latent state [24].
But then again, are spiking rates really Poisson distributed? Not really. It is also hard to untangle the underlying assumptions and just believe that the hidden dynamics can cover all kinds of nonlinearities with no drawbacks on sample efficiency or generalizability.
Barroso and others compared Wiener filters to recurrent neural networks (LSTM) in the task of decoding rat locomotion, including limb and knee angles, both models incorporating 500 ms long history of 50 ms long spike bins for each prediction [28]. Glaser et al. implemented and matched the performance of 10 kinds of decoding models [29], including Kalman, Wiener filters and an LSTM architecture, taking 700 ms long spiking rate history. Both studies concluded that LSTM networks beat everything else in decoding accuracy.
Are recurrent neural networks the way to go in the long run? If I had to bet, I’d say yes. NNs still lack the appreciation in the neural decoding field and considered more of a hack. Nevertheless, deep learning models are well-researched, accessible and very flexible.
We just need to embed the appropriate inductive bias into the network that reflects the geometry of the electrode array and the likely connectivity of the recorded neurons. I’m working on one at the moment, will publish it soon. Regardless, decoding can be done with linear models; I am not so sure about stimulation though.
So far I have glossed over the mechanism of training rats to perform timely behavioral actions in VR, i.e. shooting demons and traversing the map. The latter has been researched: rats have been taught to perform goal-directed movements in virtual environments relying on visual cues and spatial learning; exploration is in their veins. However, we can’t expect the animal to perform a behavioral action, such as a bite or a nod, at the right moment facing a demon, to initiate a shot, and do that consistently over and over again so it can link the subsequent positive reward to the context and to the action performed in said context. It is a rare event to happen at random and that is what fundamentally makes this project challenging.
Unless, we can nudge the animal in an automated manner to perform the action associated with shooting at the appropriate time. Brain stimulation as a nudging instrument scales well with the complexity of the desired behavioral action, while querying a reinforcement learning AI about the optimal action scales well with the complexity of the virtual setting.
Artificial Doom Slayer
Reinforcement learning AIs have been trained on playing Doom [30, 31] and bots devoid of machine learning had been developed long before the Atari RL craze. To incorporate an RL agent as the animal’s coach, just follow the gameplay of the rat, keep feeding the AI the context, i.e. the sequence of images and decisions the rat sees and makes, and at points when the animal seems to be stuck, query the AI about the next best step and brain-stim the rat to perform it. Doom is open source for decades now, so there is no technical limitation in writing an API to access latent game states, such as the position of the player, enemies, map layout, etc.
AutoDOOM bot in action.
In our stripped down version of Doom (MAP01 with a pump-action shotgun), the AI could inform the rat in which direction to move and whether to shoot. It’s possible and likely desirable to teach movement in the virtual environment without applying brain stimulation at first. The right movement can be simply demonstrated by forcibly rotating the spherical treadmill using some wheels and servomotors — as done in [5] though manually. It’s one of the charms of this research project that it can be implemented with complexities introduced in small increments, always having a plan B for the ambitious components.
In case the exploration of the map is already taken care of by the combination of the innate behavior of the rat and rotating a ball under its feet, then it only needs to be brain stimulated to shoot when necessary. Strictly speaking, such limited assistance can be accomplished by a simple game mod that uses latent game state information to locate nearby enemies, derive yaw movements to turn towards the demons then signal to shoot.
Such a solution would not scale to more complex action sequences and would have to be hardcoded, though it would probably be more predictable and preferable at first.
Nevertheless, later on RL agents may be used to guide animals in more complex settings where weapons have to be swapped, levers pulled, keycards and items like the rad suit need to be picked up. Guiding the subject with AIs trained on different reward schemes can be another interesting avenue of research: train a more pacific or a Rip&Tear-esque rat by issuing different amounts of reward for killing demons.
RL agent playing deathmatch relying purely on visual pixel-level information.
Matching the reward scheme of the RL agent and the rat (administration of sucrose water) is likely beneficial to deliver consistent guidance, which if followed, results in positive feedback for the animal. Testing reward schemes in-silico on RL agents first could further help in knocking out schemes that might lead the rat to local minima; e.
g. shooting endlessly without an enemy in sight may be remedied by a small but ever increasing punishment (air puff in the face) as the consecutive missed shots pile up.
Reward designs are difficult to get right, especially when combining rewards and punishments [32], with varying patterns of performance [33], and it could be a serious time-sink if misjudged. For instance, we don’t want the rat to get discouraged from shooting because of initial negative rewards. As we have a complete recording of the rat’s actions in VR, we may employ an adaptive reward scheme that increases or decreases the amplitude of the delivered reward or punishment to encourage behavior that the particular animal lacks, though the efficacy of this solution is very much uncertain.
Stimulation modeling
Brain stimulation is hard. First, we should stick to inducing relatively simple and fast behavioral actions, such that the stimulation sequence remains short; hence the proposed biting or nodding.
While decoding brain states is essentially a supervised learning or fitting problem, stimulation is a reinforcement learning or control problem. Control theory mostly deals with systems that can be described in differential equations, i.e. we need a mathematical model of how stimulation sequences influence the outcome, which is the behavioral action. That’s just not possible: the ever shifting nonlinear dynamical interactions between millions of neurons cannot be modeled analytically.
Reinforcement learning methods overcome said constraint by optimizing a policy on rewards that are detached from the system under control and can be defined externally. So let’s say we need to stimulate the rat to nod. The stimulation model would select the right set of electrodes and stimulation parameters (amplitude, frequency, waveform, etc.) by taking the current neural state of the animal as input. The rat’s head movement is tracked and if it nods, we assign a positive reward to the stimulation sequence leading up to the nod and update our policy to prefer such stimulations.
AI nudging the animal to turn left and shoot. The involuntary turn is enforced by a servo motor and a wheel, while the shot (nod) is suggested by the AI and imposed by the stimulation model. The decoder detects the neural correlates of the nod, which is translated to an in-game shot. The successful shot is rewarded with sugar water to reinforce the preceding behavior.
When the decoding model reaches a reliable level of accuracy, we may come full circle and judge the outcome of the stimulation by using the behavioral state predictions of the decoder. The decoding model could record downstream, subsequent neural activity, and if it detects a nod, then the stimulation is deemed to be successful. Getting the feedback from the decoder is not as trivial, as stimulation artifacts may pollute the recorded signal, which artifacts have to be removed by either time-multiplexing stimulation and decoding, or by modeling the electrode-to-electrode stimulation artifacts and explicitly remove them [34, 35].
Stimulation models are to be trained in both free roam and VR environments: apply short stimulation sequences at random times, record the behavioral and neural activity, and reward the stim model if the induced physical response is similar to the desired one, and/or if downstream neural activity corresponds to the activity associated with the desired behavior.
I‘ve done some literature review and consulted some of my rodent experimentalist friends to lay out an appropriate training procedure for the proposed experiment.
Thirst is a huge motivator. To build motivation in rodents, water deprivation period is employed starting a couple days (5 days in [8]) before the experiments begin. Without water restriction rats can be motivated with sucrose water or even with regular water if the otherwise available water is unpalatable, e.g. water with citric acid [36]. However, water restricted rats, when given the choice to attend trials, tend to have higher trial rates, which shows a higher inclination to perform [36].
Body weight is measured daily and usually kept between 80–95% [5, 8, 17] of the original weight in the water deprivation paradigm. Water rewards can be as small as 20 μl [36], while Young et al. gave 100 μl of chocolate milk each time their mice approached the correct visual target in VR [5]. Rats can maintain health on 12–13 ml of daily water intake and are satiated at 20–24 ml. At reward sizes of 20 μl, rats should at least be thirsty for 600 instances of rewards a day, if their exclusive source of liquid is supplied during training.
Rodents are first acclimated to the virtual environment with their body or head fixed standing on the ball and getting use to slurping water from a software triggered solenoid valve. The acclimation period can range from 2 days [5, 17] to a couple weeks [15]. The screen may be left turned off [5, 17] or on [8] for the duration of this period. Rodents can be motivated to try and move forward on the ball with small water rewards [17].
Training sessions are run once or twice a day.
Session length depends on the specifics of the performed experiment, but it usually does not exceed an hour: studies report 10 [15], 30 [5], 45 [8] or 50 minutes [17]. After a few training sessions (3 days in [5]) the experimenter should be able to tell the animal’s capacity or willingness to operate the VR setup, and remove the unfit ones before electrode implantation to save resources.
My genius harness/hammock design adapted to let rats control the game by movement intent only. Fortunately, I’m not the first to fashion a harness for rodents [5, 15].
Map progression
Not to overwhelm the rats, they should be introduced to game mechanics in increments. Custom Doom maps should be built to introduce movement, doors, demons and their behavior (walking around, attacking), before graduating to a full-fledged MAP01 with enemies. It’s preferable to use the textures and the overall structure of MAP01 to design simpler versions of it with fewer distractions and objects at first.
Some randomization is necessary though, so the rats can generalize and are pressured to build an understanding of the virtual space they are projected into.
Maps of increasing complexity.
- Practice simple movement: corridor with a single right or left 90° turn taken from MAP01 leading to an exit door that opens to a small room with a button. Door is opened by the rat bumping into it, then it has to walk straight ahead and bump into the button too to finish the map. This task teaches movement and reinforces the exit door stimulus with rewards at arrival and when pushing the button.
- Practice turns and exploration of larger spaces: corridor with multiple random turns, leading to a rectangle room with an exit door placed randomly. Reward is given when the rat passes the corridor section, reaches the door and when the button is pressed, same as for the previous task. This map can be made more complex including more turns and even a dead-end (panel 2.
2 above). - Practice shooting: same maps as before but demons (imps) positioned randomly along the corridor or in the rectangle room. First, place them in the middle of the corridor so the rat can’t pass without shooting them, then in the room in front or around the exit door. At this stage, the imps can’t move or attack. Extra, juicy rewards shall follow the death of demons.
- Hitting moving targets: same map design and demon placement, but the demons move. At this point the rat should be thirsty for some kills.
- Hitting live demons: now demons can attack, and a hit taken results in either reduced subsequent rewards, or an air puff in the face.
- MAP01: the full-fledged entry Doom II map.
2 above).Pet Rat Care Guide 101: Rat Care in 9 Steps
Rats make great little pets – they’re sociable, intelligent and they will love to be your playmate. It can seem overwhelming at first, when you start researching about all the things you have to know to make your rats healthy and happy.
But don’t worry, it’s not that hard once all the new info settles in. Read this pet rat care guide, implement the tips, and your rats will have no reason to complain!
Some general info you need to know about rats is:
- Rats usually live 2-3 years, so if you’re still thinking about adopting rats, make sure you can care for them for the next couple of years.
- They are nocturnal animals which means they are most active during the night, so don’t be surprised if you hear them running around the cage while you’re trying to sleep.
- Each rat has a different personality, likes and dislikes so one rat can be better at learning your tricks, another one might be more sociable etc.
- Make sure all electrical wires and other potentially dangerous things or toxic plants that rats might chew on are out of reach.
- The ideal temperature for rats is between 65 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit, so if it’s a very hot day it is best to have your air conditioner running. Temperatures above 90 will be a nightmare for the rats and those above 100 can even be fatal so make sure not to place the cage under the direct sunlight.
Temperatures above 90 will be a nightmare for the rats and those above 100 can even be fatal so make sure not to place the cage under the direct sunlight.Rats need company
I can’t express this enough: you should get at least 2 or preferably more rats so they can keep each other company. As I mentioned above, rats are very sociable and they would feel extremely lonely, sad and bored without a companion rat. But make sure to get the same sex rats so you don’t end up with a bunch of baby rats running around.
What to feed your rats
Giving your rats high-quality food can help them live longer and happier lives.
When talking about the rat food, there are 2 options.
- you can purchase the rat food in the store
- or you can go with homemade food
A rat block or pellet, together with some fresh vegetables, fruits and some other fresh foods, will make a balanced diet for your rat.
Blocks or pellets will make sure that your rat eats all the seeds in them which ensures they get all the necessary nutrients.
Most rats have less favorite seeds, so if you offer them regular seed mixes, they might eat only their favorite seeds and leave the rest. You can try with seed mix, and if they eat it all and are not picky, then you can feed them to seed mixes.
When you’re buying rat food, make sure to choose high-quality specially formulated rat diet, because many cheap rat food products lack in nutrition.
If you want to go homemade, which I never tried so I can’t really advise, here is a great post about homemade rat food.
When you are switching to a new rat food, you might notice that your rat only takes a bite or two and then stops eating. You might think that they don’t like the food or that they are not hungry, but the reason is probably something else. As rats don’t have a gag reflex, if they ate something bad for them, it could kill them, so they can sometimes be careful with the new food. When they realize the new food is OK, they will eat the rest.
Choose healthy treats
If you want to spice up your rats’ diet by adding treats, make sure that the treats you offer are healthy and have nutritional value.
Rats love junk food just like us, but you should avoid those. When searching for healthy rat treats, make sure they are:
- sugar-free,
- organic
- low salt
- no artificial colors
Some of the things you can give your rats as treats are:
- pumpkin seeds – raw, unsalted
- large natural oats
- Cheerios organic and sugar-free
- brown rice
- cooked beans
- potato peels
- blackberries
- blueberries
- apples but without the seeds as seed are dangerous for the rats
- apricots
- banana
- chicken
- broccoli
- carrots
Take a look at this thorough list of the foods you rats can and cannot eat.
Making their living area comfortable
The best types of cages for rats
I’ve already written about the best types of rat cages so make sure to check that post too. But to explain here in short, here is what you should look after when getting a cage for your rats.
Bar spacing
- If you have baby rats, the bar spacing should be at least 1/2″ or less so that they can’t get out of the cage.
- If you have adult rats, the bar spacing should be at least 1″ so they can’t get through the bars.
Space
Rats love to have plenty of space to move around and play, so make sure to get a large enough cage. You can get a smaller cage if you have baby rats, but keep in mind that they will outgrow their cages in 3-4 months and they will need a new one. But the small cage will come in handy to put your rats in while you’re cleaning their large cage.
The minimum space in the cage per rat is 2 cubic feet per rat. So if you have 4 of them, their cage should be 8 cubic feet. You can take a look at this cage size calculator to see how large your rat cage should be.
Metal cage
I regularly see homemade rat cages on Pinterest that are made out of wooden closets or aquariums.
But those are very unhealthy for the rats. You should consider metal cage only because they provide good ventilation. Rats are prone to respiratory issues, and unsuitable cages such as those made of wood or glass don’t provide enough ventilation. Also, wood easily soaks up the rat urine so it is hard to disinfect wooden cage.
Wooden, glass and plastic cages keep the dust and ammonia from the urine which irritates rat’s respiratory system. So I highly recommend a metal cage, for your rats’ sake.
One other thing, try to avoid the cages with wire mesh flooring as this can cause your rat’s feet to swallow aka to get booblefoot. It is best if the cage has a full floor to walk on.
Where to place the cage
As rats are nocturnal and do most of their sleeping during the day, it is good to have your cage somewhere where it’s not very noisy and crowded.
If you have other pets, put the cage somewhere where your pets will not be able to snif around the cage. The rats will feel unsafe if there’s a cat or a dog around them.
Cleaning the cage
You can see my guide on cleaning the rat cage here, but in short, here is what you need to know about cage cleaning.
You need to do some essential cleaning activities on a daily basis and those would be:
- replacing the litter with poop in it
- replacing the bedding where the rats were peeing and pooping
- remove leftover food
- replace the water
- check if there is any cloth item that needs to be washed
On a weekly basis, you should:
Provide a hiding area
Rats like to have a private hiding place so you should put some kind of small rat house, a nest box or anything else where they can hide or go to sleep in their cage. There are many things you can buy as a hiding place for your rats or you can simply use a small cardboard box, an empty tissue box or similar.
This Kaytee Igloo Hideaway is a quite popular hiding place among rats and it looks pretty cool.
Rat bedding
Rat bedding is very important in keeping your rats happy and healthy.
Some bedding options are very dusty, unhealthy and not suitable to use as a bedding. Here is the list of good bedding choices and bad bedding choices.
Good rat bedding
Here are healthy bedding options that I recommend.
Paper pellet bedding
You can buy paper bedding in the store or use the shredded paper you have at home but it would be best to use the paper that has no ink on it, or if it has ink, then it should be non-toxic ink. You can’t go wrong with Carefresh Complete Pet Bedding which is very effective in odor-control and dust-free.
Aspen
Aspen, unlike cedar and pine that I listed as a bad bedding choice bellow, has no toxic aromatic compounds that would harm the rats and it is safe to use as a bedding.
Cloth bedding
Most popular cloth bedding choice is fleese but you can also use old clothes. If you use cloth bedding, you will have to wash it with un unscented and hypo-allergenic laundry detergent such as the one I mentioned above (All Mighty Pacs Laundry Detergent).
Whichever bedding you choose for your rats, you should make sure to change it often. When the rats pee around the cage, ammonia and fecal bacteria start to build up which can hurt your rat’s respiratory system, and not to mention it starts to smell really bad.
Not a good bedding choice
The following bedding choices have shown to be unhealthy for the rats.
Cedar and pine bedding
Some people like to use this bedding because it has a strong scent that covers the odors of rat’s urine, but according to research, the aromatic compaunds found in this bedding can have a negative impact on the liver of small animals. The strong scents can also harm rat’s raspiratory tract.
Dusty types of cat litter
Inhaling dusty litter on a daily basis would be unhealthy for your rats.
Entertaining your rats
Rats, like any other pet, need something to keep them entertained throughout the day. They will not be happy if they are kept in cage all the time and if the cage is empty, with nothing to play with.
Socializing
As I mentioned previously, first and most important thing rats need to keep them satisfied is other rat(s) to make them company. In addition to the rat company, they need your company too. Spend some time playing and bonding with your rats every day. I suggest you spend at least 10 minutes with them, 2 times a day.
Out of the cage time
Other than that, your rats will need some playtime outside of their cages. Put your rats out of the cage for at least an hour a day so they can explore the room, play with you and other rats, sniff around and have fun! But don’t forget to close the windows and doors, because rats are skillful little rodents, so it wouldn’t take long for them to find a way out.
Toys and accessories
To make their time in the cage more fun, you can use different toys and accessories. Some of the things your rats would enjoy are:
- Tunnels – rats usually love to hide in tunnels in the wild, so they will love this
- Climbing toys – rats love to climb
- Exercise wheels – 11 inches in diameter wheel should be fine for rats, this will provide some exercise inside the cage
- Chewing toys – great to wore down their forever growing teeth
- Foraging toys – this provides mental stimulation they would usually get in the wild while searching for food
- Hammocks
- Ramps
Some of these toys can be made at home, so you don’t have to spend much money to provide a great playtime for your rats.
Search for the treats
One great idea to keep your rats mentally stimulated and entertained while they’re out of the cage is hiding the treats around the room. This will involve all their senses as if they are in the wild while searching for food.
Training the rats
Rats are very intelligent and they learn fast so you will probably have no issues training them. I will not go into detail about the rat training here, but here are some of the things you might want to teach your rats:
I think you’ll best learn how to train your rats from the video so here is a useful rat training video that I love.
How to handle your pet rat
When you first get your new rats, it will take some time until they start trusting you and bonding with you. Don’t rush this and go slowly.
- First few days, let your rats alone so they can settle in their new home with no additional stress of being handled by an unfamiliar human being.
- After a few days, when the rats have got a bit used to their new home, you can start interacting with them. But you shouldn’t just go ahead and grab them because they still don’t know you and are probably scared of you. They will need some time to relax and realize you are not a threat. You can use treats to lure them out of the cage. Eating treats from your hand will be a positive experience for them which is the first step towards them seeing you as a good-guy, trusting you, and bonding with you.
- Now that your rats are comfortable enough to eat from your hand, you can try petting them. Let them smell your hand. Go slowly and keep your hand still so that sudden moves don’t scare them away. Rat use their teeth to explore things so it is possible your rat will nibble or bite you. You can show them that they shouldn’t do that by making “eep” noise – that is how rats usually tell each other when they don’t like something.
- When your rats are comfortable around your hands, you can gently pet them on the head, behind the ears or from the neck towards the back but avoid the area around the tail as it can be sensitive.
But you shouldn’t just go ahead and grab them because they still don’t know you and are probably scared of you. They will need some time to relax and realize you are not a threat. You can use treats to lure them out of the cage. Eating treats from your hand will be a positive experience for them which is the first step towards them seeing you as a good-guy, trusting you, and bonding with you.
When your rats get to know you and trust you, you can pick them up and handle without any fuss. Here is a good video of how to pick up and handle your new rats. It will be easier for you to understand if you see it with your own eyes instead of me explaining with words.
Common health issues
Rats are prone to some illnesses such as tumors, respiratory diseases, bublefoot, Abscesses… You should check your rat for lumps from time to time and even though a lump can be benign and it doesn’t necessarily mean it is a tumor, you should get your rat checked out by the vet to make sure everything is fine.
If you notice any warning signs such as a sudden change in behavior, weird skin conditions, staining around the eyes or nose, bald patches etc. you should go visit a vet.
Grooming
Contrary to the popular belief, rats are actually very clean animals that love to groom themselves.
They actually spend 30% of their wake time cleaning and grooming themselves. Since rats are such clean animals, there is no need to bathe them. Most rats don’t like water so bathing them would not be the most pleasant activity for them. If your rats get a bit smelly, you can use wet cotton pads to clean them up a bit.
Conclusion
I know this was a bunch of information coming at once. Let it settle in. You can come back tomorrow to check on it again and it will probably be much more clear to you.
I hope my guide helped you and have you all essential tips for pet rat care.
Let me know if you have any additional question in the comment!
Rat training
The training of decorative rats is a very interesting and exciting process that allows you to better study the habits of the pet and reveal its talents. With the right approach to classes, you will be surprised more than once by the sharp mind of your animal, its ability to quickly find solutions, activity and cheerfulness.
Happy owners of decorative rats around the world have successfully taught their pets a huge number of tricks that any circus arena will envy.On the Internet, you can easily find sites entirely devoted to training rats. With a visual step-by-step guide: text, graphic and video materials.
Overcoming difficult obstacles and mazes, solving intricate problems, standing on its hind legs, jumping through a hoop, rolling objects and washing on command – these are just basic tricks that can be taught to a talented animal. Watch your pet’s tendencies, use your imagination – and, perhaps, the two of you will invent completely new amazing tricks!
Many owners like to equip dollhouses for rats with miniature rooms and furniture, and instill in pets “human” behavior, such as resting on a crib.All this is achieved with the help of a powerful stimulus – goodies, which in this case can be put under the covers. Finding treats on a toy bed, the rat will experience positive associations and, accordingly, repeat his trick. And a little more about human behavior: many rats are happy to ride toy radio-controlled cars! Watching this action is one feast for the eyes.
But for training to be successful, a number of rules must be followed.
- Training should never become an obsession. It should be seen as a pleasant pastime with your pet, as a fun game for both, and not as exhausting training and difficult work.
- If the rat is tired and refuses to exercise, try again the next day.
- Any methods of punishment in relation to the rodent are unacceptable. Your pet will not understand what you want from him, and will only start to be afraid of you.
How to train a rat? Basic Principles
The following bases will help to train a rat at home:
– start training at an early age, but after the rat has fully adapted to the new home;
– before proceeding to training, establish contact with the rodent. Classes will be effective only if the rat trusts you and will not be afraid of you.She should get used to you;
– move from simple to complex. First teach your pet easy tricks and gradually increase their difficulty;
– be sure to take into account the natural inclinations, the level of intelligence and the individual characteristics of the rodent. Don’t ask for the impossible;
– try to come up with tricks based on the natural inclinations of the rodent, do not impose behavior that is not peculiar to it;
– regularly reward the rat for the performed tricks with a treat, strengthen the skills by repeating commands.
That’s all you need to know about in the early stages.
We will be glad if you share your successes with us and tell (or even better show in the video) what your pet can do. Join us in social networks!
How to teach a pet rat simple tricks
Probably, there is not a single person who would not know about the incredible intelligence of the rat, while many are sincerely surprised when they learn that the rat can be easily trained.This animal can be taught all sorts of tricks: jump over a ring, go through an obstacle course (agility), spin around you, walk on its hind legs, bring objects or, conversely, put them in certain places and do much more. And if you stylize the shells at the same time, you can get a whole show!
So how do you train rats? The most important thing is to be patient. In no case should the pain method of training be used. Firstly, it is inhumane, and secondly, you will never get the desired action from a rat by hurting it.The main rule is that for a quick result, the rat must be interested in the process. If the rat is not interested or you get rough with it, all your efforts will be in vain. The training method associated with conditioned and unconditioned reflexes discovered by Academician Ivan Pavlov is excellent for these animals. So the most important motivator for executing commands is affection and reward in the form of a treat. You can use shelled sunflower seeds, small pieces of boiled chicken, boiled rice, and even tiny pieces of cheese (reduced fat, no more than 17%).Cheese is contraindicated as food for rats, but as a treat for training, it is good for some animals.
The time of day for training is also very important. Classes with a rat should take place at a time when your animal is most active – this is the second half of the day. The animal should also be slightly hungry.
It is necessary to decide on a place for training. It should be familiar to the animal, so as not to cause a sense of danger and thus not interfere with training.Give the rat some time to get comfortable and sniff the props if you use them in the training process.
And another very important point – the rat you want to train must be healthy. Do not start training animals that are too young or old. The optimal age for starting such activities is from 1.5 months to 2 years.
The task of any training is to teach an animal to perform any desired action on a given signal.For example, for the rat to stand on its hind legs when the “up” command, spinning around itself during the “turn” command, etc. Therefore, the technique of any training comes down to three main points:
force the animal, one way or another, to make the desired movement;
to make this movement give the animal pleasure;
simultaneously give the desired signal.
If this can be done several times in the same form, then an association is formed in the animal.The main technique is gesticulation. But gesticulation should always be associated with a reward, which is a weasel and a delicacy. The most important thing is to be able to feel the time and moment when to give the rat a reward. Each time the movement of the animal caused by the reward and the command is fixed. And then the rat willingly repeats the memorized countless number of times.
And now, using an example, we will analyze the technique of training a rat.
Let’s learn the “turn” command. Place the rat in the designated training area (remember, it should be familiar to her).Clamp a treat between the index and thumb of your hand, but so that it is not visible in them, and the rat can understand by the smell that you have something tasty for her. Let the animal sniff your fingers and bite off the delicacy a little. Wait for the rat to chew the food. As soon as she swallows the delicacy and reaches for your fingers for the additive, you immediately begin to move your hand (only slowly) with the reward clamped in your fingers to the right, past the nose, around the rat, as if inviting her to follow the delicacy, i.e.That is, you make the rat turn around you with this movement. If she turns around and stops halfway, then do not give her a reward. And only when the rat turns in its place around itself, it receives a reward. Do not yawn, immediately give a treat at this moment and at the same time give the “turn” command. Each time you move your hand with a treat in front of the rat’s nose, you must say “turn”. First, the hand with the treat slowly leads the rat behind it, then faster and faster, and then only a quick movement is made by the hand with the treat over the rat, describing a small circle.The rat, thinking that the hand is still making a circle, turns and immediately receives the reward. Then, getting used to receiving a reward several times with the same movements, the animal, having heard the command, immediately makes a turn around itself. The rat gets so used to receiving its delicacy when turning that, even without seeing a quick movement of the hand to the right, but hearing the command, it spins by itself in order to quickly get the reward.
You should never put off until the next time without having achieved your goal from an animal.Without fixing the association, you cannot leave everything, otherwise the next time you have to push the animal to the desired action first.
When training, you need to understand the habits of the rat. Having studied the expression of the animal’s feelings, you can also know its mood during the lesson and be consistent with this. For example, fright and anxiety are expressed in the tension of the tail, which the rat holds parallel to the surface, without touching it, and fussiness. If the rat is fluffed up, thereby creating the impression of an increase in the animal’s volume, then it expresses dissatisfaction and even anger.If the rat lies down, closing its eyes, and completely ignores any action on your part, this is fatigue or lack of interest in what is happening.
Looks very impressive when a rat passes a lane with obstacle projectiles. It is very simple to teach the animal to go through agility. First, put out all the props and let the rat examine it, run around, climb on its own and even try it out. When you understand that the animal has become accustomed to space, you can begin training. Hold the treat between your fingers and draw the rat’s attention to it, then slowly move your hand towards the projectile.As soon as the rat touches it, immediately give a bite of the reward and wait for the rat to chew on the prey. Immediately after that, again bring the treat to the animal’s nose and move your hand along the projectile at such a speed that the rat reaches after it, but at the same time the treat is always at a distance of about 2 cm from the nose. If the rat went through the entire projectile and did it right, encourage it, give it the coveted piece. Repeat this once more in the opposite direction, and so on several times. The next step is also to train the rat to pass the next projectile.The third step is the passage of two shells at once, which the rat has already mastered. The animal receives a treat only when passing both obstacles at once. And so on, until the rat learns to go through the entire obstacle course at once. At rodent exhibitions, agility for rats with cups and prizes is often held. The winner is the rat that passes the obstacle course the fastest, and the winners pass all the shells in just a few seconds. At the same time, males with females compete and are awarded separately.
Similarly, the rat learns all tricks.As mentioned above, everything is limited only by your imagination. So be patient – and everything is in your hands.
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90,000 education and training to teams
Those who keep decorative rats at home often proudly demonstrate the achievements of their pets: rats and run along a tightrope, and jump over an obstacle, and deftly throw balls into rings, diving after them.It is interesting to watch mini-performances, and immediately there is a desire to train your own animal. How to train a rat at home? Is this realistic for a rat-lover novice?
How rat training begins
From the understanding that the rat is not trained at all in the generally accepted concept of “training”.
What is the difference? – Training (simplified) is the development and consolidation of the skills necessary for the animal to perform any task. The training necessarily includes the “carrot and stick principle”, in relation to the rat, only a method of motivation is possible – stimulating the animal to perform certain, well-known, natural actions for a piece of delicacy – reinforcement.
Such a method will be closer not to training, but to various ways of TRAINING a domestic animal to perform actions characteristic of it by its rat nature, receiving in return a delicacy and by mutual agreement of the parties.
Having understood this, you can move on.
Studying each other
To teach (train) a pet rat, you need to start with 2 things:
Name Training
The perception of sounds in a rat is very different from that of a human; the rat brain “hears” many sounds differently than a human would hear them.
Rat ears are most lovable by clicking and hissing sounds, without long vowel connections. For example, the name Abraham is unlikely to please her brain, but Sonya, Klaus, Anfisa, Charlik or Tsatsa may well fit.
If a combination of sounds is unpleasant for decorative rats, then they will simply ignore them. Perhaps due to this misunderstanding with the poorly chosen name, many believe that the rat cannot be taught to respond to its own nickname.
It is easy to accustom a rat to a name if the animal understands the name, and each approach to a certain set of sounds is accompanied by a “cute” tasty treat.
Call this name when:
- put food in;
- pick up;
- give something tasty;
- scratching the back and cheeks (rats’ favorite spots).
A rat with its sensitive hearing quickly memorizes the combination of sounds of its name, and if you called it Pusya today and Tiny tomorrow, then the little rat brain will be confused.
There must be one nickname! And it should be spoken out only with pleasant associations!
If something goes wrong with the name, get into the habit of tapping or snapping your fingers, clicking your tongue, or whistling softly.The rat will quickly get used to such an unusual (for you) nickname and will respond to it.
Obtaining a “vote of confidence”
Accustoming the animal to the hands is the first stage from which the upbringing of the rat and further training begins.
The second step will be the ability to leave the cage whenever the rat wants to. The second stage is difficult to accomplish without:
- hand domestication;
- name training.
When the glorious animal learns to easily run up to your call and return to the cage on its own, without coercion, you can begin to teach him to perform a number of simple tricks.
The rat must be absolutely tame!
Where to start?
From observation. Observe the pet and you will see that the rat naturally performs a number of different actions – natural habits that an inattentive person may well attribute to circus tricks obtained as a result of directed training:
- easily stands on its hind legs and can even run on them;
- runs on a vertical surface or on a rope up and down with his head;
- “cuts” circles with pleasure;
- carries small objects in his teeth;
- effortlessly jumps from one fulcrum to another over an open distance;
- manages to squeeze through any narrow object;
- demonstrates the wonders of acrobatics and even vaulting, sitting on your shoulder or head.
And this is an incomplete list of rat skills! It remains to consolidate these skills so that your animal can perform these tricks at your will. To do this, you need to train the rat.
Team Requirements
Teaching commands to a rat will take time and patience. On average, the animal remembers your requirements (necessarily backed up by delicacies and scratching!) For the 20th-200th time.
This does not mean that after repeating the task 200 times, the rat will perform it like a clock!
Perhaps she will refuse to do some tricks at all, or perhaps 5-7 repetitions will be enough for her to remember your requirements.
The neural connections in the rat brain and the central nervous system, which are responsible for the formation of memory and conditioned reflexes, are very different from similar connections in the brains of humans and other animals.
A trained rat is not at all a trained dog or a well-trained person – remember this, and be sure to take into account the individual characteristics of your pet!
A little advice for beginners:
- Will teach easier one young animal (cub) than two or three of the same age at the same time.
- The rat is an animal no less gregarious than a person and does not tolerate loneliness and closed spaces. The jogging wheel does not solve the problem of the required amount of movement at all.
- Needing live contact, a young rat will make contact easier and faster, choosing as his friends someone who is patient and affectionate – that is, you.
- And no loud shouts with a menacing intonation! – Only a gentle voice and patient waiting, when the animal “understands” that the repetition of the action is followed by a piece of delicacy, and then he himself will do the trick, begging for a treat.
Training Rules
Successful training depends not only on your patience, and the level of ability of the pet-pet.
It is necessary to raise a rat, adhering to the basic rules:
- In order for the rat to be interested in exercising, it must not be completely full or, conversely, very hungry.
- The place intended for training should be familiar to the animal.
No classes can be held in the cage! - Before starting, allow the animal to familiarize itself with the props (sniff, nibble, roll).
- When preparing a treat, keep in mind that the pieces should be “for one bite” so that the little rat does not have the temptation to steal the treat and thereby leave the “training area”.
- Cheese is not the best option for promotion, some of its types are generally contraindicated for rodents.
- The ideal time for lessons is in the afternoon. Time – 30 minutes (3-4 approach sessions).
Never force an animal to perform a trick using physical force (pushing it into a pipe, transferring it from stool to stool, clinging to a rope, etc.).etc.). - During class, do not touch the rat with your hands (the exception is praise and scratching), and even more so, do not hurt as a punishment for lack of interest.
- It is possible to complicate tricks and add new ones only if you fully master the previous one.
- Daily training begins with a repetition of the passed.
- The rat receives a treat exclusively during classes and for correct performance.
- The habit of getting a tidbit just like that will nullify all the rules of training.
- When training, use sound signals (click, whistle or approving “Yes!”).
Important! The signal is given exactly at the moment when the animal performs the action, and not when everything has already been done or not done at all. The treat, unlike the signal, is given upon completion of the action.
How to train a rat at home
Can a rat be taught to bring items or choose from many others?
Rats do an excellent job with all tasks – they themselves like spending time with the owner and performing various tasks.All tricks are given to them easily, thanks to their natural dexterity and ingenuity. White animals cope with tasks a little worse than colored ones due to weaker vision, but they can also teach how to bring a ball or some other object.
For this you need:
- a small ball with a tasty bait;
- sound signal that the rat learned well;
- An incentive treat that must be the same as the bait.
The bait should be out of reach for the animal, but the ball itself should be easily moved by the rat with the paws.
When the animal is interested in the ball, select it and immediately give the treat.
Complicate the task. Now the rat can get a treat only by rolling the ball (at least pushing it) in your direction. Do not forget to give a signal in time and immediately encourage it with a treat.
As soon as the animal realizes that you need to roll the ball towards you to get a tasty treat, slowly increase the distance between you and the ball.
Attention! The distance should not increase very gradually, literally by 10-15 cm!
When the rat will roll the ball towards you without any problems, you can surprise those present with the “selection of the object”.
To do this, mix many balls, one of which will contain a piece of delicacy, and invite the animal to find the “hidden” one. The rat can easily perform the usual trick.
Finally
When the main tutorial stages (tutorial – explanation, step-by-step instructions on the educational process) are completed, it is important not to forget that you cannot stop taste rewards.
They can be reduced, but not completely eliminated!
Rats have very developed food reactions and if the gustatory stimulation stops, the animals will be very reluctant to study, they may even stop obeying altogether – you will lose their trust.
Domestic rat training
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90,000 How to Train a Rat – PetShopTop
Rats can be easily trained to follow simple commands. Maybe you are training your rat right now, you just do not know about it yet … When we come to the cage and call the rat by name or click the clicker, we teach it to come to the cage door at the call.When the rat comes to the door, you reward it with a treat. This is the backbone of the basics, it won’t take long to master this skill.
You can also teach a rat some simple tricks.
Clicker training
The clicker is a powerful training tool suitable for almost all animals. But, if used incorrectly, it will be completely ineffective.
Clicker work is based on positive reinforcement of the desired action on the part of the animal.Thanks to this method, the animal is able to concentrate attention for a long time.
Rats do not understand human language, we can confuse them using different intonations and sounds, so the clicker method is best suited for training: it emits a clear sound that the rat will quickly learn to associate with reward. Conversations with the rat during “lessons” are generally best kept to a minimum, so as not to confuse the animal. Use the click of a clicker as a praise for the desired action, and completely ignore the misbehavior.
Never punish a rat!
Kiss
You can teach your rat to “kiss” by smearing yogurt or baby food on your cheek or hand. Let the rat lick food off your skin. The action must be repeated several times. After that, the rat will lick your hand or cheek all the time, hoping to find yogurt or baby purees there again.
Hand rat training
Before starting training, prepare a clicker and small favorite treats for your pet that he can quickly eat.Make sure that no one distracts you: there should be no toys or other animals around, just you and rats, an empty table or bed.
At first, the rat may be intimidated by the click of the clicker, but be patient: it will soon get used to this sound.
We teach to come to the call
Don’t say anything. When the rat starts to approach you, click the clicker. Give her a treat in a second, but not too much: you need to make her want another portion.
Most likely, after this, the rat will be next to you, hoping for a treat, so move to the other end of the table or bed and wait until it comes to you again. Click the clicker again and give the treat. Repeat the action several times. Then increase the spacing between the click and the treat slightly. The rest depends on how quickly your pet learns: you can take a break before he loses interest in the process and loses attention.
As you continue learning, the rat will begin to better and better understand what you want from it.At this point, you can start to alternate between Click + Treat and Simple Click (i.e. give treats less frequently). Otherwise, the rat will only work for food until it is full or until it gets tired of the process.
We teach the rat to “beg”
Move your hand with the treat over the rat’s nose to make it smell. Then, lift the treat directly over the animal’s head. The rat will automatically reach after it, standing on its hind legs, and then you need to click the clicker and treat it.Repeat the exercise several times so that your pet understands what is required of him. After a few rehearsals, it’s worth taking a break.
Start a new activity where you left off. Then gradually start alternating the click + treat with a simple click. But remember to always click the clicker when you get the desired result.
Training rats for agility
It is important to remember that when training you are simply using the natural instincts of the rat, but the point of training is that it should manifest them at your command.
For example, consider teaching a rat “slalom” – this is the name of a part of the agility track, when the animal must run around several posts standing one after another. Let the rat out onto the track. When she runs up to the posts, click the clicker and give her a treat. Repeat the process several times to create an association in the animal: “I go to the obstacle – I get a reward.”
The next step is that you only click and feed the rat when it has walked around the post in the correct direction.This exercise will need to be repeated several times. It may even take a few lessons to fully master it.
Then start clicking and giving the treat only when the animal has walked around two posts. Then – 3, 4, 5 and so on until the end of the track.
Your task is to get the rats to “slalom” with just one click and a treat. When she realizes what is required of her and begins to do the exercise without mistakes, increase the interval between the click and the treat, and then start giving the treats every other time.
Useful tips
- your classes should be short – no longer than 10-15 minutes;
- Always finish training before the animal gets tired or tired of the process;
- Practice only one exercise at a time;
- When you start practicing a new trick, don’t talk. Voice commands are added LAST;
- Remember previous activities before moving on;
- When the rat begins to understand the essence of the exercise, alternate click + treat with one click;
- click At the very moment when the rat does the right thing; not before or after;
- Do not touch or punish her.
Rat training: tips for a beginner from professionals.
Rats are very intelligent, playful, curious and quick-witted animals, which makes them easy to train.
Why are rats easy to train?
By nature, they have a desire for development and the creation of logical chains that lead to an attainable goal. Without this, they simply would not have survived. We just learned to understand them and direct unrestrained energy in the right direction.
I would also like to note that they constantly communicate with each other, transmit information about the location of goodies in the apartment, how to get to them and what needs to be done to get the desired prize.
Once we trained two rats. They needed to play with the ball or take it in their paws and pick it up. For this they received a treat. We spent a couple of days training for 5-15 minutes with only two, when at this time the rest of the pack was running around. But at one of these moments, a third friend suddenly runs up, who did not participate in the training, but watched all this, pushes the ball and waits for a tasty treat.It would seem, how does she know what to do? Now the three of them are trying to grab the ball from each other in order to get the coveted treat.
Rats respond well to vocal commands, but they should be short, clear and in the same intonation. They know their nicknames. If, for example, you are looking for them in a room, you can simply call one of the flock by name, or call everyone to the sound in a voice that resembles the click of a fountain pen. You can also call the typical feline kitty-kitty.
Clicker-training of rats
When the girl and I began to engage in rat breeding, we watched with admiration various videos where rats run, carry balls, throw them into a ring, run through tunnels and perform other interesting tricks.But we had no idea how to do it.
At first, we just suggested that the rat do some action and gave a tasty treat in return. Then, after talking with other rat lovers, we learned that you can train with a clicker. The ratmen showed how he looks, clearly demonstrated and told the basic principles of working with him. The next day I already ran to the pet store for a miracle device. Instead of a clicker, you can use an automatic pen click, baby food can lid, tongue click, etc.But there is one nuance, the click should not be too loud: animals are often frightened by this, which slows down the learning process.
On the very first day we worked with one rat for 5 minutes, on the other – for 30 minutes. The next day there was no difference between the performances: they did what we trained with them in the same way. That is, the rat does not have to repeat the same thing hundreds of times. A couple of minutes is enough – and they already understand what is required of them. Further, it remains only to improve and complicate the action that the rat must perform in order to deserve praise.They grasp everything instantly.
On some commands, such as a call for a nickname, a request to jump on their hands or not touch something, they do not even have to give a tasty treat, it is enough to take on the handles to scratch behind the ear, iron it, warm it in your palms. For them, this is also a praise, because they simply adore the attention and love from the owner. If not encouraged at all, the rats, of course, are not very offended, but the “sediment” remains. And how can you want something from an animal, but at the same time give nothing in return? This is too cruel.
All rats are different. There are lazy, playful, loners or outgoing – like people, each has its own character. This must be taken into account.
What is the best way to reward a rat during training?
For reward, it is better to use non-nutritive food, for example, finely crushed cereal flakes without sugar or other additives, or a chopped apple, banana, a lint of boiled chicken breast, steamed buckwheat grains, etc.
But you should focus on the taste of a particular rat.For example, if a rat loves cereal and is willing to sell its soul for them, why not take advantage of it?
Some people like pears, and some like bananas. All our rats just love bananas.
But do not get carried away with a specific product and give it a hundred times every day. Rats have a specific nutritional pyramid that is designed for a long, healthy and fulfilling life. It is necessary to adhere to it and take into account the goodies, without going beyond.
What is the best way to start training rats?
First of all, it is worth tying the reward to the sound.That is, to form a “clicker – tasty” relationship. After the rat learns this, you can move on to learning various tricks and commands.
Let’s consider the further steps using the example of the ball already familiar to us. We use a plastic one with holes and a ringing ball inside. These are sold in every pet store, like a toy for cats.
The first thing, , is to show the rat that for any interaction with the ball it gets reward. You can put the ball and as soon as the rat touches it, click the clicker and encourage.Continue this until the moment when she will purposefully run to the ball, touch and wait for a treat from you.
Further , you can complicate the interaction: the rat put its paw on the ball – the clicker did not work. Yeah, so something is wrong. And if there are two legs? Clicker and yummy again. He just holds it with two paws – he doesn’t get a tasty treat, tugged or took it in his teeth – he gets it. And so you can develop the trick further.
If a rat does something 5 times and stops receiving a reward, it will think: what’s the catch? What else needs to be done? And training becomes a creative process.The rat thinks what else can be done with the ball: drag it, give it to someone, etc.
Also one of the easy tricks to learn is jumping onto your palm from a table, chair, cage, bed, etc. Bring your palm to the edge of the surface on which the rat is located, wait for it to step onto your hand – clicker and yummy. Then we move our hand a couple of centimeters from the edge of the surface to the side or up – we wait until the rat jumps or climbs – we encourage. And with such steps, one centimeter or two, we move the hand away.
But keep in mind that rats can jump a maximum of 1 meter, so be careful not to injure the animal.
For greater safety, you can put something soft under the training area so that the rat that failed to jump over does not fall to the floor and injure its paws.
How to develop the intelligence of a rat?
Rats, like the talker bird, are distinguished by a good mind and quick wit. But like people, they need to train their memory, develop mentally and constantly learn something.We can create an enriched environment for this.
The place of their walking can be abundantly forced with various boxes, houses, pipes and everything that can serve as an object for them to study.
We have an entire room for walking, in which there are various ladders, houses, rags, boxes, climbing devices, various toys (balls, a wheel, etc.). It is advisable to change the arrangement of objects once every couple of days: rearrange, turn over, move, etc.To move, rats use landmarks that they already know, which settle in memory in images, changing them, you will give them new information that also needs to be remembered. The same rearrangements can additionally be carried out in the cage.
Clicker training is primarily an educational game for your pet, during which the rat memorizes a lot of information, learns to interact with you and the surrounding objects.
For a full-fledged life, a rat simply needs a same-sex friend, i.e.because they share information with each other, communicate, play, go to mischief as a couple. Unfortunately, we cannot catch all their communication, because they mostly speak ultrasound, which we cannot hear. For people, they chirp, squeak, rustle their teeth.
Love your pets, give joy, care and warmth. The better their mood, the easier the training will be.
How to tame a pet rat to your hands. How to tame a decorative house rat to your hands – the nuances of training.Is it possible to bathe decorative rats
The hobby for domestic decorative rats has been going on for more than a dozen years. Many sincerely sincerely attached to their pets, popularizing this kind of pet-pets. The number of fans of cute rats is growing, but newcomers to this business often have a question: “How will he accustom a rat to his hands so that tactile contact gives both true pleasure?”
The Latin name for the ornamental animal is Rattus norvegicus forma domestica, which means “domesticated form of the gray rat.”That is, this is an ordinary pasuk (Rattus norvegicus), which has gone from a basement ship thief to a domesticated pet.
Domestication is a long-term process of domestication, keeping, selection and breeding of wild animals in artificial conditions created by man.
Such directed selection led to many changes in the behavior and instincts of the animal, adapting it to living not just next to a person, but making it viable only at home.
Without human care, the decorative rat simply will not survive, because in the process of domestication, a person deliberately deprived it of many of the survival mechanisms used by the common gray rat Pasyuk.
This includes not only changes in protective color, coat structure, ear shape and lifestyle (the common rat is active at dusk and at night), but also the absence of fear – neophobia, which in the wild quickly leads to a sad end.
But how to explain to a tailed pet that you – his master – wish him only well ?!
How to train a rat to yourself
The rat is a very intelligent animal, effortlessly navigating in space, with an unusually sensitive hearing and smell, dexterous and cunning, playful and attentive, sociable and affectionate, besides being tenderly affectionate to the owner.
But in order for the rat-host connection to be firmly established, you need to tame the decorative rat – to accustom it to your smell and to your hands.
Experienced “rat breeders” advise, after purchasing a pet, to allow him to get to know your smells in plenty.
The rat cannot perceive your appearance – it does not see your face as a whole, and in general its vision is far from perfect.
The taming of a rat to the smell and “look” of the owner is not difficult – this is the first stage of accustoming to the hands.
Rat Taming Instructions
We carry out taming in 4 stages:
Stage one
For the first 2-3 days, do not disturb the rat in its cage, do not try to pull it out of there by force.
Put your thing in the cage – an unwashed T-shirt (a piece, of course) or socks, let this smell be associated with the new home and with you.
Keep the cage somewhere near you – on the table, by the sofa, next to the computer and on the kitchen table.
Give the new tenant a new name!
Whatever you are doing, do not forget affectionately, from time to time squeezing some “tasty” through the bars of the cage: a piece of cucumber, a dried banana, a fish, a nut, a pumpkin seed, etc.d.
During this time, the beauty or the little rats will get used to the fact that something big, with a pleasant voice (rats are very musical!) And with a supply of various goodies, is not going to cause harm. And the smell is quite bearable!
Second stage
You will need a T-shirt and a long-sleeved trowel here.
We put on a T-shirt, tuck it into the belt, fasten the trowel with a zipper, gently pull the rat out of the cage under the belly and put it in our bosom.
Attention! A rat that has not previously had anything to do with a person or has received a sad experience of communicating with a bad person is afraid of hands!
Just in case, reach the rat with your hand in a tight (better – leather) glove.
You can do household chores without paying attention to the animal’s journey through your body. And be sure to talk to him!
If the traveler stuck his muzzle out of the collar or sleeve, call him by name, give a cooked tidbit and try to pet him.
When this lesson is also learned, complicate the task: bring your open palm to the door, and dip the finger (s) of your other hand in sour cream and hold it over your open palm so that the animal is forced to sit on your palm if it wants to get to the sour cream. Do not forget to tenderly say something pleasant!
After a while, the tame rat will willingly go into the palm of your hand, knowing that this is a safe business and at the same time you can also profit from tasty things.
How fast is the taming process
Rats have bright individual character traits. For one, 2 weeks are enough, for the other – 2 months. Time, patience, constancy – these are 3 whales of success to tame a pet rat and teach it to calmly treat your hands.
There are individuals who do not like to sit on handles and be tortured by gripping. There are those who are ready to take hours of stroking and scratching.
Temperament and addictions must also be taken into account.
It is necessary to tame the animal to the hands so that the rat understands that your hands are not dangerous – they can be trusted, and you could perform some manipulations, both with the animal itself and with its cage.
Hand training is a pledge of your own “safety”, first of all!
Video: how to tame a rat to your hands
How to tame a pet rat
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Of all rodents, rats are the most easily tamed. Unlike other species, they do not tolerate loneliness very well and easily make contact.With good treatment, animals easily get used to humans, they become harmless pets.
Rats easily adapt to the human daily routine, food ration, habits, quickly get used to the new territory. But after taming, the animals require constant care and affection. If you play with your pet at about the same time (for example, after coming home from work or school), then hearing that you are at home, the animal will start to fuss, eagerly awaiting your attention.
First of all, give the animal a nickname. Then set up the cage so that the rat sees you as often as possible, for example, opposite the table at which you usually work or do your homework.
Approaching the cage, talk to the pet in a quiet, gentle voice, calling the nickname, try not to make sudden movements. Feed the animal and clean its cage only on your own, and soon the rat will get used to your sight, smell and voice. If you do not offend the rodent, then he will begin to trust you, then you can pick him up and play with him.
Rats not only do well in captivity, but are also perfectly trainable
The most difficult stage of domestication is hand-feeding the rat. It usually takes a long time before the animal begins to take food from you. At first, the rat will take a treat and immediately run into the house to hide, but after a while it will get used to it and will eat in front of your eyes.
The next step is to teach the animal to respond to its nickname. To do this, at each feeding you need to call him by name; over time, he will get used to it and, having heard familiar sounds, will run out of the house.
Unlike mice, rats see in a person not a tower for climbing and inspecting the surrounding space, but a friend. The animals are very fond of scratching in the area of the cheeks and back and respond to affection by lightly biting the hand of the owner.
When handled properly, rats become loyal and follow their owner as well as a dog in free-range. Stories are known of cases when tame rats helped a person get out of captivity, gnawing through the bonds or bringing the keys to the dungeon.
Ornamental rat can be tamed quite quickly, especially if you purchased it from a qualified specialist; moreover, in this case there is a very high probability that at the time of purchase the animal will already be completely tame, which means that you will not have to put any effort into it.The situation is much more complicated when it comes to taming a wild gray rat, especially if the animal is more than 3 weeks old.
Wild rats by nature have a completely different temperament than their relatives, which have existed at home for many generations. By nature, these animals are shy, unsociable and withdrawn, go to contact with a person with great reluctance, and in order for a wild rat to eventually become your friend, you will need to spend a lot of effort and energy.
Of course, if you don’t pay enough attention to your pet, it will remain wild forever. But at the same time, one should not rush too much with the education of such an animal: as a result of strong pressure on the psyche, a wild rat will inevitably experience nervous stress, which can lead to the development of many serious diseases and even death. For this reason, it is recommended to tame the animals gradually, in stages, and in general, the whole process can take up to 3 months. Do not be afraid of such a long time: with a successful result, all your efforts will pay off a hundredfold, since a well-trained wild rat subsequently promises to become even more loyal and affectionate than a domestic one.
Rats get used to humans very much and, when free-roaming, follow their master everywhere. In order not to hurt your little friend by stepping on him, it is best to walk around the room without shoes, shuffling.
At the initial stage (however, as well as in the future), it is necessary to remember that in the conditions of their natural habitat, wild rats usually arrange dark burrows for themselves, hidden from prying eyes. An even, open, well-visible space can greatly traumatize the fragile psyche of the animal.Therefore, at first, it is advisable to use the darkened portable cage in which you brought it as a pet’s home. Darkening can be created with some old clothing that retains your body odor. This will not only provide the rat with an imitation of natural conditions, but also greatly facilitate the animal’s process of getting used to the new environment.
The portable cage is best placed in a place where you go most often so that you can spend as much time with your pet as possible.You should not be surprised that for the first few days the rat will not leave its temporary home, hiding and hiding from people. This is a natural reaction for a wild animal to a change in the environment. You can devote this time to the arrangement of the rat’s corner, which will become a permanent home for your pet. It is not recommended to talk loudly in the room, turn on music at full power, use noisy electrical appliances, since any harsh sounds during the adaptation period can have a negative effect on the nervous system of the animal.
Most likely you will not be able to lure the wild rat out of the cage; this process usually proceeds spontaneously, as if by itself. To do this, you need to keep the cage door open whenever you are nearby and can watch the animal. You should not be too persistent and impose your society on the rat, which still does not give it anything but unnecessary anxiety. Go about your business and act completely indifferent, but from time to time look at the door.After a while, a curious sharp muzzle will appear from it and begin to examine the nearby space. Just then, you will have a great opportunity to offer the rat a tidbit and thereby take the first step towards rapprochement with him.
Of the mouse-like rodents, the easiest way to establish contact and trust is with rats. They perfectly adapt to the daily routine of a person and skillfully use it.
The main thing at this crucial moment is not to scare off the animal with sudden movements or sounds (rats, especially wild ones, are naturally very careful, and at the first stage of taming, the slightest imprudent action on your part can permanently deprive the rat of trust in you).
In no case should you remove the animal by hand from the portable cage: the rat should feel completely safe in its little shelter and realize that no one will encroach on its freedom within its limits.
Otherwise, the animal will always strive to find a more reliable shelter for itself, and this, of course, will negatively affect its attitude towards you.
It is quite easy to determine that the rat is really used to its temporary home.The first indicator is that, being in an open space, with a sharp sound or movement, the animal runs back to the shelter and does not attempt to hide anywhere else. And if, having received food from your hands, the rat takes it to the cage in order to quietly dine alone, you can be sure that he has completely mastered his new place.
At this stage, you can try to teach the animal to respond to the nickname (talk to him affectionately, often mentioning the name) and execute the simplest commands.Commands can be anything, because rats, like most other animals, understand not words, but intonation. For example, in order to teach a rat to come to a call, you can use the command “Come to me!”
At the same time, it is imperative to combine requirements with rewards: as soon as the animal fulfills your command, by all means treat it to something tasty. Initially, submission is associated in the mind of the animal with a treat, and only later can this skill become independent.
It is strictly forbidden to show aggression or use violence against the animal after it fulfills your request. First impressions are very stable, and if the rat knows that something bad can happen to it after executing a command, it is very likely that it will never obey you.
It takes a lot of patience and perseverance to tame and train an animal. The rat will very quickly learn to respond to the nickname that you give it, if you pronounce it softly and affectionately, while trying not to make sudden movements.
It is very convenient to vary the treat: it is best if you have different pieces in your hands each time. Rats not only have a fairly high level of intelligence, they have a highly developed sense of curiosity, and if the animal is interested in what exactly you offer it this time, it will more willingly obey you. At the same time, it is also possible that the rat will not immediately eat the delicacy, but will hide it in its cage and return for a new portion. There is a logical explanation for this: wild rats are thrifty and thrifty animals, in natural conditions they are accustomed to stockpiling, and this instinct does not disappear from them even when they are trying to tame them.
Soon the rat will be imbued with confidence in its owner. Initially, this manifests itself in the fact that he sniffs and licks your hands (in this case, you can try to pet the animal, but this should be done very carefully), and subsequently puts his front paws on your palm. If the upbringing at all stages is carried out properly, after a few days the rats will completely trust you.
As soon as curiosity prevails over caution and the animal begins to boldly leave the shelter, examining the surrounding space with interest, keep in mind that the time has come to change its place of residence.Having noticed these signs, you can no doubt accustom the rat to a permanent home.
Rats see a fellow in a person and expect attention and affection from him. They will be very grateful if you caress them, pat their cheeks, neck and behind the ears.
The first step is to remove the artificial darkening from the portable cage: rats do not tolerate unprotected space, and the former shelter will instantly cease to be comfortable for your pet and lose all attractiveness in his eyes.
Of course, not every wild rat will be enthusiastic about your idea of moving it to another cage. Most likely, she will actively resist resettlement, and the owner will have to insist on his own. Therefore, it is especially important that the rat feels great in a new place and subsequently realizes that any actions of the owner are directed only to its benefit.
If the cage is designed for maximum convenience, the rat will never try to leave it and find a better shelter.True, at first your pet will need some time to adapt, which will manifest itself in a slight decrease in activity. However, this time this period will be much shorter than in the first case, and the general condition of the animal will quickly return to normal. As soon as this happens, you should continue to educate the pet and improve the skills already acquired by it (reaction to a nickname, approach on command, etc.).
As far as command processing is concerned, the technology itself does not change significantly: you still seduce the rat with a treat, utter the command and, after successfully completing it, reward the pet with the promised treat.But there is one very significant difference: if earlier the rat left its cage on command, now it must learn to run to the call from any corner of the room. The wider the area of the space occupied by the rat becomes, the more distant places should be chosen.
With the relocation of the rat to a new place, it is necessary to continue to engage in its own domestication, that is, hand training. You can put your palms in a house and carefully cover the animal with them, making it feel that there is no threat from you; on the contrary, you guarantee your pet reliable protection and safety.Already in the near future, the rat will provide you with the opportunity to visually verify the correctness of your actions by allowing yourself to be stroked. Soon he will begin to climb onto your shoulder, into your arms, into your bosom, into your pocket, and hide under your loose hair.
American scientists have discovered that rats are capable of dreaming. “We studied how individual cells function to figure out the content of rat dreams. We now know that they really have dreams, and these dreams reflect their real experiences, ”the experts said.
However, at this stage of rearing, the rat cannot yet be considered completely tame; while she is too shy, and therefore care should still be taken in handling her. To begin with, try, putting the animal on your shoulder, gently stand up and move some distance from the cage. All this must be done slowly and smoothly so as not to frighten off the pet; if this does happen, it is necessary to return the rat to its place.
Some time later, when the animal gets used to such treatment a little, you can move long distances from the cage and gradually accustom the rat to sharper movements.
Nice to play cat and mouse with your pet. Release the rat from the cage and, when it runs on the table or on the floor, try to catch it and hold it in your hands for a while. The longer the game goes on, the more often you should catch the animal, gradually increasing the time it stays in your palms. Pretty soon the rat will get used to it and will willingly come to you.
Here it is worth saying a few words about how to take the animal correctly. Some people catch the animal by the tail and hold it upside down – this is strictly prohibited.The rat feels most comfortable if it fits completely in your palm and follows the body, under the chest.
If a rat, sitting in your arms, closes its eyes – this is a sure sign that it feels completely safe with you and enjoys communicating with you.
Finally, at the final stage of taming the animal, it is quite permissible and even desirable to invade its personal space (which, for obvious reasons, should never be done when a wild rat has just entered your house).Place your hand in the rat cage and let the rat sniff and explore. At the same time, you can also offer your pet some tasty treat: this will further endear him to you. Subsequently, the need for such an invasion may arise repeatedly (for example, when you change the feeder or drinker, clean the cage, etc.), therefore it is so important that the rat gets used to your actions and stops showing fear or aggression at the same time.
The whole taming process will likely take you a lot of time, but, be that as it may, the result will justify all your efforts.
The tame rat will give you many interesting and joyful moments, to which will be added the pleasant feeling that you have done the almost impossible: turned a wild, withdrawn, uncommunicative creature into a devoted friend who eats from your hands, fulfills any command and misses you even when several more rats live in the same cage with him.
The acquisition of a pet is a joyful and at the same time alarming event. You brought the rat home, placed it in a cage, fed it, gave the animal toys, and now it pleases you with its presence.The problem, at first glance, is insignificant, appears at the moment when you are about to start training your pet. To do this, the rat must be given a nickname.
Choosing a nickname for the animal, many people do not limit their imagination, since, in addition to interesting sound combinations, almost all human names are suitable for naming a pet. Some call their rats rare and sonorous names (Caesar, Cleopatra, Dollar, Lord), others – simple and unassuming (Masha, Vasya, Lyalya).
If you are in no hurry to give your pet a name and call him either a baby, then a rat, then a baby, you thereby put both yourself and the animal in a difficult situation. The fact is that all animals remember the sounds that you make when addressing them. If they constantly change, the animal will not be able to adequately respond to your words and actions.
Names for females: Alice, Alpha, Basia, Becky, Varya, Dhabi, Dana, Darcy, Dusty, Daphne, Dasha, Daisy, Jaysie, Gina, Josie, Joy, Judith, Dixie, Dina, Dinka, Disy, Donna, Dora, Doris, Ira, Iris, Kasia, Kaela, Keila, Kayleigh, Klava, Klara, Cleo, Knop, Cora, Krynsi, Krysya, Krunya, Ksenya, Ksyu, Ksyusha, Lara, Laura, Leka, Lesya, Liza, Linda, Fox, Lolka, Lona, Laura, Myra, Maya, Manya, Mara, Marta, Mariam, Margo, Marisa, Marusya, Martha, Maska, Masyanya, Mata, Matilda, Mika, Mickey, Milady, Milka, Milli, Mina, Missy, Molly, Monya, Taisa, Tapa, Tasya, Tasha, Tisha, Teresa, Tosya.
Not all rats respond to nicknames given to them. The reason for this may be an “inconvenient” name for a rodent. Experts say that a similar problem occurs due to sounds that rodents interpret differently.
Some time ago, studies were carried out, during which scientists found that:
nicknames, which male rats most readily respond to, begin with the letters C, K, M, D;
nicknames, which female rats get used to faster, begin with the letters K, M, D;
rats respond better to nicknames in which the letters K, C, W, P, M, H, L and T.Thus, the most popular nicknames are Scully, Milli, Dee-Dee, Klaus, Molly, Vasya, Katya.
Names for males: Ice, Axel, Bucks, Benya, Venya, Hans, Harry, Count, Denis, Denis, Denya, Derby, Jack, Jam, Johnny, Dick, Jacques, Ivashka, Ignat, Kevin, Kesha, Kidis, Kiri, Rats, Kuzya, Kunya, Max, Mouse, Mick, Mityai, Warrant Officer, Mishik, Bear, Ozzy, Pronya, Fuzzy, Piglet, Rich, Rocky, Romik, Ginger, Sema, Senya, Serik, Serge, Simba, Simson, Shiro, Skudya, Snape, Sonic, Speedy, Styopa, Steve, Stu, Cracker, Sphinx, Sur, Sam, Tyson, Taras, Tepa, Tima, Till, Tish, Tom, Usyk, Faust, Chucky, Shkurik, Shnyr, Stirlitz.
Rats are not only perfectly tamed, but also, possessing natural quick wits, lend themselves well to training. However, it was noticed that painted decorative rats cope with the assigned tasks much easier than white rats, whose eyesight is much worse. In addition, all the animals act in different ways, and it is very interesting to watch them.
If you decide to teach your pet a few tricks, then you need to know the basic rules of rat training.First and foremost: before the beginning of the lesson, the animal should not be full, but at the same time, you cannot train a very hungry one. It is best to feed him one last time 12-14 hours before class.
Secondly, the first lesson should not drag on for more than half an hour. Thirdly, training begins with the consolidation of random actions in the right direction. That is, having decided to teach the rat to jump from one stool to another through the hoop, you first need to give it the opportunity to explore the stools put together.At this time, the animal can be given a piece of some delicacy.
After the rat examines the stools in detail, they need to be slightly moved apart, about five centimeters, so that your pet can freely move from one to the other. As soon as the rat moves to the second stool, as a reward, it should be given a small tasty bite again. This is done every time the animal moves to another stool. If, during the first lesson, the rat realizes that he is receiving encouragement when moving from one stool to another, the goal is achieved.
If this required more than one lesson, do not be upset and even less punish the animal. The fourth rule of training says that the rat cannot be forced to do anything by force. This will only lose your pet’s trust.
The fifth, and last, rule is that you can complicate lessons only when the previous ones are learned. That is, if your pet has learned the first lesson and learned to move from one stool to another in a row several times, they need to be moved apart a greater distance.
Sometimes the rat licks the owner’s hands or even lips. This does not mean that she is hungry or asks for something: she just trusts her master and thus expresses her love for him.
This is how you gradually teach the animal to jump from one stool to another. And only after that you can enter into the trick and the hoop. In the same way, a rat is taught to take out pieces of paper (lottery tickets) from a box, walk on its hind legs, choose a certain object from many others, etc.
The intelligence and resourcefulness of the rats interested the American zoopsychologist Luo Seng Tsai, who set up with them a number of interesting experiments demonstrating these abilities. He attached two shelves to the wall, put food on the upper one, and attached a light ladder to the lower one with a rope tied to it, thrown over the block.
According to the conditions of the experiment, in order to get food, the rat had to climb up the ladder to the first shelf, and then use a rope to lift it so that it would stand between the first and second shelves.After that, the rat had to climb to the second shelf.
Several animals took part in the experiment at once. At first, smelling the smell of cheese, they climbed the stairs to the first shelf without any problems and tried to jump up. Naturally, they did not succeed in this. The attempt to climb the wall also failed. The rats broke and fell. The animals found the rope and tried to climb along it, it fell under the weight of the animals, and the edge of the ladder was shown above the surface of the first shelf. The rats immediately noticed the rope’s pliability, but did not always pay attention to the simultaneous movement of the ladder.Continuing to touch the rope with their paws or pulling the rope towards them with their teeth, they raised the ladder even higher and then they already noticed a change in its position.
Seeing the ladder, the animals threw up to pull the rope and, approaching the ladder, tried to climb up it, but since it was not fixed, it fell to the floor under the weight. One or two unsuccessful attempts were enough for the rats to leave the hanging ladder alone and return to the rope.
Some people think that training a rat should be started as early as possible, otherwise it will not obey its owner.This is a misconception: rats can be trained throughout life, and it does not matter at what age you teach them the first lesson.
In addition to quick wits, rats are distinguished by patience and perseverance. Therefore, they did not stop their attempts to get to the cheese and continued to pull the rope in one way or another. As a result, the rats finally lifted the ladder, which already stood firmly between the first and second shelf. The animals immediately discovered this and immediately climbed upstairs, where they rewarded themselves for their efforts.
Another problem was more difficult. The rats needed to climb the stairs to the shelf, learn to pull the swing by the rope and with their help move to another, neighboring, shelf for food. But the rats gradually learned to cope with this problem.
When starting to train rats, you need to be patient and remember that the first stage of training is always the most difficult.
Everyone knows that rats are quite intelligent and quick-witted animals, and these qualities largely determine their needs.Of course, the animals need, first of all, proper care, a full-fledged balanced diet, but this is not enough. If you regularly feed your pet, clean its cage, etc., but at the same time do not pay attention to it at all, the animal is bored and its life cannot be called happy.
Due to its innate qualities, the rat should always be busy with something, but at the same time no owner is able to devote all his time to her, if only for the simple reason that sometimes he is not at home.Therefore, it will be very useful to provide your pet with entertainment during your absence. All kinds of games are perfect for this purpose. There are a great many of them, besides, you can always come up with something of your own, but the most popular are games with a matchbox, a ball and a “tasty” piece of paper.
Rats love to play
Take a regular matchbox, fill it with your rat’s favorite treat (preferably with a strong odor) and close tightly.Natural curiosity will make the animal try with all its might to open the box, but with the help of its paws, it will not be able to do this. Such a game is a kind of puzzle, the rat will try all possible ways to implement its intention. At the same time, it is very interesting to observe what method she still uses: if a rat gnawed the boxes into small pieces, it means that she has a “destructive” mindset, and if she somehow managed to solve the problem without the help of her teeth, do not hesitate, that your animal belongs to the “intelligent” type.
The game of football will bring great joy to your pet. It is best to use a white plastic table tennis ball in this game. It is enough to put it in a cage, and then everything will happen by itself: believe me, your rat will find a worthy use for it. Rat football works especially well if you have multiple animals in your home.
The game of “rat and mouse” is widespread (although the owner will have to participate in it too). You can tie a rustling piece of paper (for example, a candy wrapper) to a thread and spread something tasty on it.After that, you should let the rat out of the cage, show it the “treat” and, as soon as the animal shows interest in it (which will certainly happen), pull the thread. Not every rat can resist the temptation to get the coveted candy wrapper by any means. However, this game causes the greatest excitement in young rats, provided that they are not afraid of open space.
Rats are happy to play football
Many rat owners prefer to use special treadmills.Without a doubt, this is a very good option, but you should always remember that the use of wheels is fraught with serious risks, and take all necessary precautions.
First of all, the diameter of the wheel must be at least 2 times the length of the rat’s body (that is, approximately 40-50 cm), so that the animal can freely accommodate in it. Of course, in turn, this requires the appropriate size of the cage, which is not always possible in an ordinary city apartment.
Secondly, a grid wheel rim can cause dangerous injuries to your pet, especially if you are keeping several rats.If an animal’s foot or tail gets stuck in the cells of the rim, the wheel will quickly stop under the weight of its weight, but the other rat will not stop running. This can lead to serious fractures and even to the death of the animal, and therefore the rim of the running wheel must be solid (preferably made of plastic or tin).
When meeting these requirements, the running wheels can be safely used. They enjoy the greatest success with young rats, but if you accustom the animal to this entertainment at a young age, it is quite possible that it will run in a wheel all its life.It is also worth noting that female rats are more fond of this “sport” than males.
Just running around and frolic for a rat is very useful
In addition to all of the above, there is a huge number of toys designed specifically for rats and other pets. For example, stairs and bells, which are usually used by bird owners, are perfect for your animal. Rats are very fond of various tunnels; you can easily make them yourself from plastic tubing.Hammocks and swings will also give your pets a lot of pleasure, but if they are made of fabric, it is not recommended to use them: rats tend to gnaw on everything they see, and very soon such toys will fail.
Like humans, rats are social creatures. In order for their life to be full, varied and happy, they need communication with their own kind. In nature, rats always make up large families, this instinct is also preserved in decorative animals, and therefore it is recommended to keep several rodents at the same time.
Even the most gentle and attentive care on the part of the owner is unlikely to replace the rat’s communication with its congeners. In addition, coexistence will not only help your pets to realize their natural social behavior, but will also bring purely practical benefits. The rat will groom its companion, brush its fur, massage and warm it in cold weather.
Of course, rats are often kept alone. In the absence of communication with another animal, the rat, of course, will not die, especially if you pay enough attention to it.However, if you want to make your pet’s life not just bearable, but truly happy in all respects, it is advisable to choose a pair for him.
Do not be afraid that constant communication with your own kind will be tiresome for your pet: tired of games and entertainment, the rat will simply go to the side, where no one will interfere with it. And when the animal needs a friend again, he will gladly join the rest of the group.
Many less experienced hobbyists believe that if the rat lives alone, it will be more attached to the owner, since its loyalty will not extend to other animals.But anyone who knows even a little about zoopsychology will understand the obvious fallacy of this opinion. Moreover, often two rats become even more attached to a person than one, because they have to compete for the right to earn his love and affection.
The rat is imbued with trust and sympathy for the owner, not at all because it has no one else to play with. If you are really trying to win the loyalty of the little animal and are doing your best, he just likes to communicate with you, regardless of whether he has companions.
In this respect, rats are very similar to people, and, trying to create optimal conditions for them, all situations should be applied to oneself, that is, as if to put oneself in the place of a pet. If, for example, you forbid your child to communicate with other children in order for him to love you more, it looks at least strange. In the same way, you deprive your rat of many of the joys in life, deliberately isolating it from the society of your own kind. There are cases when a rat, kept alone for a long time, began to behave completely unpredictable: it became fearful, withdrawn, nervous, avoided its formerly beloved owner, and sometimes even tried to gnaw its fur.But as soon as another rat was put into the cage, the animal’s condition returned to normal.
If your rat is unfriendly and shy (this often happens with young untamed animals), it will be very useful to pick up a calmer companion for her, accustomed to humans: very soon the uncommunicative animal will also trust you.
Some owners find that keeping two or more rats is much more difficult than keeping one. This, at first glance, a fair observation is also not entirely true.Two rats can easily fit in a regular cage of standard sizes, so you don’t have to specially equip a new home for them, and you only need to clean such a cage once a week. Of course, in this case, you will have to spend a little more money on feeding, visits to the veterinarian, etc., but if you really love your pets and want to provide them with a full and happy life, insignificant material costs will not be a problem for you.After all, of course, the realization that you bring joy to your beloved creatures will bring considerable moral satisfaction to you yourself.
Rats must be selected by character
Thus, everything said above definitely testifies in favor of the group keeping of rats. It is worth giving up this thought, perhaps, only if all your efforts are unsuccessful. Unfortunately, this also happens, since our decorative rats are more aggressive than Western ones (they do not breed such animals abroad).So, if, despite all your efforts, the rats do not want to get along with each other, it is better to leave these attempts and settle the animals one by one.
Rats react differently to the appearance of a neighbor depending on a number of reasons, among which the age and sex of the animals is not the last. In some cases, the process of adaptation of individuals to each other can take several weeks, and, of course, for its most successful course, the most active participation of the owner is necessary.
Experience has shown that young rats, whose age is no more than six months, get along best with each other.Of course, experiments on the mixing of adults often take place, but there is no one hundred percent guarantee of a successful outcome. The hardest part is introducing adult males, especially if they are not castrated. Castrated males perfectly converge both with each other and with non-castrated males, and are also quite loyal to females and babies. It is not recommended to keep non-castrated males and females in the same cage, as in this case they will reproduce continuously (although their acquaintance is likely to be quite easy).The optimal companion for an adult male will be a rat at the age of six months, but not younger, since males often kill unfamiliar babies.
It is not easy to choose an animal that would suit your pets in everything, but it is within your power to try to make getting used to each other less unpleasant.
Rats are bred in several stages. In no case should a newcomer be hooked up right away, otherwise a fight is inevitable. For a start, it is recommended that the animals be kept in different cages, but it is better to put them side by side so that the rats get used to the appearance and smell of each other.After a while, the animals can be swapped: put the newcomer in the cage of the “old” rat, and vice versa, so that they adapt to someone else’s territory. At the same time, it is necessary to monitor the behavior of the animals: if they show aggression, hiss, arch their backs and ruffle their fur, then the time has not yet come to move on to the next stage of acquaintance. If you have not noticed these alarming symptoms, then you can safely release the animals from the cages.
The territory of initial acquaintance should be neutral: so, it is undesirable to choose for this purpose the favorite place of your rat’s games.Best of all, at this stage of adaptation, a bath is suitable: most likely, here your animal will not defend its right to possess the space and drive the newbie away.
If, in this case, the reaction of the animals did not cause you concern, you can move them to where your rat is used to spending time often. For example, your knees can become such a place: put both animals there in turn, and the “mistress”, realizing that you recognize the newcomer as your own, may follow your example. But at the same time, you need to especially carefully monitor how the animals behave in order to avoid a possible fight.
Rats accepted a newcomer into their company
If the attack did occur, it is necessary to separate the fighting with all caution, since in a state of uncontrolled aggression the rat is quite capable of biting the owner. For maximum safety, it is advisable to wrap your hand in a towel or any other thick cloth. In the event of a fight, the initiator should be removed, as an exception, by lifting it by the scruff of the neck or by the tail, and after a while, repeat the dating procedure.
Having passed this step, you can proceed to preparing the cage for the animals to live together. It should be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected to completely eliminate the smell of the previous owner. Before you put rats there, you can cut the claws on their paws and grease the animals with natural aromatic oil so that they acquire the same smell for a while. After that, you can try to put the animals in one cage.
This time you must also be ready to fight.If you add a new rat to a group of animals, the community leader is likely to be the most aggressive. But immediately after he accepts a newcomer (which should happen sooner or later), all other members of the group will accept the appearance of another neighbor.
There is another way to speed up the process of rats getting used to each other. You can smear the rats from head to toe with their favorite treat, and then let further events develop on their own.Most likely, the animals will begin to lick each other, which will best facilitate their rapprochement.
This is a normal reaction to the “occupation” of a territory that the community leader is used to seeing as his own. Therefore, you should not be afraid that the clash between the animals will become serious. A beginner should be isolated only if the aggression reaches an extreme degree of expression, as evidenced by hissing, raised hair, arched back, etc. just trying to show that he admits defeat.But as soon as you notice that one of the animals is in danger, immediately put the rats in different cages.
Such attacks can be repeated for several more days, but as a rule, if you followed the instructions properly, they will become more harmless each time.
In the end, the desired result will be achieved: the animals will make friends, begin to sleep together, brush each other’s fur, etc.
Of course, the acquaintance of a novice and an old-timer does not always go smoothly, and in some cases the owner’s intervention cannot change anything.If, in spite of everything, the animals do not want to accept each other and violent fights continue, most likely, the reason lies in a kind of psychological incompatibility of the rats. In this case, all attempts to make friends with animals should be abandoned and subsequently it is better to keep them separately.
Taming a Wild Rat
A decorative rat can be tamed quite quickly, especially if you purchased it from a qualified specialist; moreover, in this case there is a very high probability that at the time of purchase the animal will already be completely tame, which means that you will not have to put any effort into it.The situation is much more complicated when it comes to taming a wild gray rat, especially if the animal is more than 3 weeks old.
Wild rats by nature have a completely different temperament than their relatives, which have existed at home for many generations. By nature, these animals are shy, unsociable and withdrawn, go to contact with a person with great reluctance, and in order for a wild rat to eventually become your friend, you will need to spend a lot of effort and energy.
Of course, if you don’t pay enough attention to your pet, it will remain wild forever. But at the same time, one should not rush too much with the education of such an animal: as a result of strong pressure on the psyche, a wild rat will inevitably experience nervous stress, which can lead to the development of many serious diseases and even death. For this reason, it is recommended to tame the animals gradually, in stages, and in general, the whole process can take up to 3 months. Do not be afraid of such a long time: with a successful result, all your efforts will pay off a hundredfold, since a well-trained wild rat subsequently promises to become even more loyal and affectionate than a domestic one.
Rats get used to humans very much and, when free-roaming, follow their master everywhere. In order not to hurt your little friend by stepping on him, it is best to walk around the room without shoes, shuffling.
At the initial stage (however, as well as in the future), it is necessary to remember that in the conditions of their natural habitat, wild rats usually arrange dark burrows for themselves, hidden from prying eyes. An even, open, well-visible space can greatly traumatize the fragile psyche of the animal.Therefore, at first, it is advisable to use the darkened portable cage in which you brought it as a pet’s home. Darkening can be created with some old clothing that retains your body odor. This will not only provide the rat with an imitation of natural conditions, but also greatly facilitate the animal’s process of getting used to the new environment.
A portable cage is best placed in a place where you go most often so that you can spend as much time with your pet as possible.You should not be surprised that for the first few days the rat will not leave its temporary home, hiding and hiding from people. This is a natural reaction for a wild animal to a change in the environment. You can devote this time to the arrangement of the rat’s corner, which will become a permanent home for your pet. It is not recommended to talk loudly in the room, turn on music at full power, use noisy electrical appliances, since any harsh sounds during the adaptation period can have a negative effect on the nervous system of the animal.
Most likely you will not be able to lure the wild rat out of the cage; this process usually proceeds spontaneously, as if by itself. To do this, you need to keep the cage door open whenever you are nearby and can watch the animal. You should not be too persistent and impose your society on the rat, which still does not give it anything but unnecessary anxiety. Go about your business and act completely indifferent, but from time to time look at the door.After a while, a curious sharp muzzle will appear from it and begin to examine the nearby space. Just then, you will have a great opportunity to offer the rat a tidbit and thereby take the first step towards rapprochement with him.
Of the mouse-like rodents, the easiest way to establish contact and trusting relationships is with rats. They perfectly adapt to the daily routine of a person and skillfully use it.
The main thing at this crucial moment is not to scare off the animal with sudden movements or sounds (rats, especially wild ones, are naturally very careful, and at the first stage of taming, the slightest imprudent action on your part can permanently deprive the rat of trust in you).
In no case should you remove the animal by hand from the portable cage: the rat should feel completely safe in its little shelter and realize that no one will encroach on its freedom within its limits.
Otherwise, the animal will always strive to find a more reliable shelter for itself, and this, of course, will negatively affect its attitude towards you.
It is quite easy to determine that the rat is really used to its temporary home.The first indicator is that, being in an open space, with a sharp sound or movement, the animal runs back to the shelter and does not attempt to hide anywhere else. And if, having received food from your hands, the rat takes it to the cage in order to quietly dine alone, you can be sure that he has completely mastered his new place.
At this stage, you can try to teach the animal to respond to the nickname (talk to him affectionately, often mentioning the name) and execute the simplest commands.Commands can be anything, because rats, like most other animals, understand not words, but intonation. For example, in order to teach a rat to come to a call, you can use the command “Come to me!”
At the same time, it is imperative to combine requirements with rewards: as soon as the animal fulfills your command, by all means treat it to something tasty. Initially, submission is associated in the mind of the animal with a treat, and only later can this skill become independent.
It is strictly forbidden to show aggression or use violence against the animal after it fulfills your request. First impressions are very stable, and if the rat knows that something bad can happen to it after executing a command, it is very likely that it will never obey you.
In order to tame and train an animal, you need a lot of patience and perseverance. The rat will very quickly learn to respond to the nickname that you give it, if you pronounce it softly and affectionately, while trying not to make sudden movements.
It is very convenient to vary the treat: it is best if you have different pieces in your hands each time. Rats not only have a fairly high level of intelligence, they have a highly developed sense of curiosity, and if the animal is interested in what exactly you offer it this time, it will more willingly obey you. At the same time, it is also possible that the rat will not immediately eat the delicacy, but will hide it in its cage and return for a new portion. There is a logical explanation for this: wild rats are thrifty and thrifty animals, in natural conditions they are accustomed to stockpiling, and this instinct does not disappear from them even when they are trying to tame them.
Soon the rat will be imbued with confidence in its owner. Initially, this manifests itself in the fact that he sniffs and licks your hands (in this case, you can try to pet the animal, but this should be done very carefully), and subsequently puts his front paws on your palm. If the upbringing at all stages is carried out properly, after a few days the rats will completely trust you.
As soon as curiosity prevails over caution and the animal begins to boldly leave the shelter, examining the surrounding space with interest, keep in mind that the time has come to change its place of residence.Having noticed these signs, you can no doubt accustom the rat to a permanent home.
Rats see a fellow in a person and expect attention and affection from him. They will be very grateful if you caress them, pat their cheeks, neck and behind the ears.
The first step is to remove the artificial darkening from the portable cage: rats do not tolerate unprotected space, and the former shelter will instantly cease to be comfortable for your pet and lose all attractiveness in his eyes.
Of course, not every wild rat will be enthusiastic about your idea of moving it to another cage. Most likely, she will actively resist resettlement, and the owner will have to insist on his own. Therefore, it is especially important that the rat feels great in a new place and subsequently realizes that any actions of the owner are directed only to its benefit.
If the cage is designed for maximum convenience, the rat will never try to leave it and find a better shelter.True, at first your pet will need some time to adapt, which will manifest itself in a slight decrease in activity. However, this time this period will be much shorter than in the first case, and the general condition of the animal will quickly return to normal. As soon as this happens, you should continue to educate the pet and improve the skills already acquired by it (reaction to a nickname, approach on command, etc.).
As far as command processing is concerned, the technology itself does not change significantly: you still seduce the rat with a treat, utter the command and, after successfully completing it, reward the pet with the promised treat.But there is one very significant difference: if earlier the rat left its cage on command, now it must learn to run to the call from any corner of the room. The wider the area of the space occupied by the rat becomes, the more distant places should be chosen.
With the relocation of the rat to a new place, it is necessary to continue to engage in its own domestication, that is, hand training. You can put your palms in a house and carefully cover the animal with them, making it feel that there is no threat from you; on the contrary, you guarantee your pet reliable protection and safety.Already in the near future, the rat will provide you with the opportunity to visually verify the correctness of your actions by allowing yourself to be stroked. Soon he will begin to climb onto your shoulder, into your arms, into your bosom, into your pocket, and hide under your loose hair.
American scientists have discovered that rats are capable of dreaming. “We studied how individual cells function to figure out the content of rat dreams. We now know that they really have dreams, and these dreams reflect their real experiences, ”the experts said.
However, at this stage of rearing, the rat cannot yet be considered completely tame; while she is too shy, and therefore care should still be taken in handling her. To begin with, try, putting the animal on your shoulder, gently stand up and move some distance from the cage. All this must be done slowly and smoothly so as not to frighten off the pet; if this does happen, it is necessary to return the rat to its place.
Some time later, when the animal gets used to such treatment a little, you can move long distances from the cage and gradually accustom the rat to sharper movements.
Nice to play cat and mouse with your pet. Release the rat from the cage and, when it runs on the table or on the floor, try to catch it and hold it in your hands for a while. The longer the game goes on, the more often you should catch the animal, gradually increasing the time it stays in your palms. Pretty soon the rat will get used to it and will willingly come to you.
Here it is worth saying a few words about how to take the animal correctly. Some people catch the animal by the tail and hold it upside down – this is strictly prohibited.The rat feels most comfortable if it fits completely in your palm and follows the body, under the chest.
If a rat, sitting in your arms, closes its eyes – this is a sure sign that it feels completely safe with you and enjoys communicating with you.
Finally, at the final stage of taming the animal, it is quite acceptable and even desirable to invade its personal space (which, for obvious reasons, should never be done when a wild rat just got into your house).Place your hand in the rat cage and let the rat sniff and explore. At the same time, you can also offer your pet some tasty treat: this will further endear him to you. Subsequently, the need for such an invasion may arise repeatedly (for example, when you change the feeder or drinker, clean the cage, etc.), therefore it is so important that the rat gets used to your actions and stops showing fear or aggression at the same time.
The whole taming process will likely take you a lot of time, but, be that as it may, the result will justify all your efforts.
The tame rat will give you many interesting and joyful moments, to which will be added the pleasant feeling that you have done the almost impossible: turned a wild, withdrawn, uncommunicative creature into a devoted friend who eats from your hands, fulfills any command and misses you even when several more rats live in the same cage with him.
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How to train a decorative rat
Rats are animals characterized by great intelligence, thanks to which they are easy to train.However, in order to master some skills, the owner of this amazing animal needs to know how to tame a decorative rat.
How to train a rat to hand
Young rats are characterized by a mobile lifestyle, the desire to constantly run somewhere and explore the territory. You can pick up such an animal only when it gets tired.
how to tame a decorative rat How to tame a decorative rat
If the animal constantly avoids hands, is frightened of people and is afraid to leave the cage, this indicates a disrupted socialization process at an earlier age.In such a case, you can build trust and train the rat to hand with liquid food, such as yogurt or baby food. A few drops of treats are poured into a spoon and handed to the animal. Such food, unlike hard pieces, she will not be able to grab and drag away to a secluded corner. Forcing the rat to leave its shelter farther and farther each time, you can achieve its complete location and thus completely accustom the rat to its hands.
How to train a rat to respond to a call
A decorative rat can be easily trained to respond to the call of the owner and for this you need only two things – a delicacy that it cannot resist, and a short, shrill sound to which it will respond well.Such sounds are emitted by whistles, bells and small toys-beepers. Handing out a tidbit to the rat, you should give a sound signal. The constant repetition of such actions can form stable behavior.
How to tame a decorative rat How to tame a decorative rat
How to toilet train a rat
On a note
It is quite simple to train a decorative rat to the toilet. This will save not only the time spent on cleaning the cage, but also the money spent on purchasing a special filler.A rat can acquire this skill at any age, but in the first months of life, the process will take much less time.
For toilet training, you will need a special tray, which is installed in the cage and filled with used filler, which has a characteristic odor. The perseverance and patience of the owner, who constantly transplants the rat into the tray, will make even the most stubborn animal get used to the toilet. Praise and tasty rewards can help speed this process up a lot.
How to train a rat to spin a wheel
In order to teach the rat to turn the wheel, you need to hang the animal’s favorite delicacy to it.Trying to run to an appetizing morsel, the rat will involuntarily start spinning the wheel. Several such trainings will develop a persistent reflex in the animal, and each time it gets into the wheel, it will turn it.
In addition to the above skills, a decorative rat can be taught simple tricks: stand on its hind legs, run on ladders, and so on. However, this will take some free time and patience. When training a rat, you must remember its safety and not leave it alone in free space.We would like to remind you: the wheel must be completely plastic! You can see it in the picture.
In order to turn a shy rat into a loving pet, it should be gradually taught to communicate with you. First, you need to adapt the rat to its new place of residence and develop its trust towards you. Treats and affectionate treatment can help make your pet feel comfortable in your presence, which will ultimately lead to a close friendship between you.
Steps
Part 1
Keep your rat comfortable in the cage
Let the rat be alone for a while.
A newly acquired rat should be left alone in its cage for a few days. This will help her adapt to her new environment without the added stress of communicating with you.- If you bought a rat that you have tamed since birth, then you can establish contact with it in the first couple of weeks or even days.Such a pet should start taking a treat from your hands within a few days after purchase and it will be quite easy to train it to hand. Rats sold at pet stores usually fall into this category.
- Untamed rats are usually terrified of people, it is very difficult to pick them up and even touch them. They may scream in fear if you try to touch them. These pets are not suitable for beginners, as it takes a lot of patience and experience to tame and socialize them.Often this category includes rats raised as snake food.
Place the rat cage in a medium-busy area of your home.
While you should allow your pet to adapt to the cage, this does not mean that it needs to be completely isolated. The rat should see some activity around it, but it needs to be protected from noisy devices and loud noises. A quiet corner of the living room is usually a good place for a rodent cage.- In fact, long conversations on the phone in the same room with a rat can train your pet to the sound of your voice. Nevertheless, you should speak in a normal tone, and not scream, as the rat can be frightened.
- Most rats are easily frightened by rustling, rustling and electronic hum, so try to protect your pet from such sounds during the taming period.
Be patient.
Give the rat as long as it takes to gain confidence in you and to express a desire to communicate.Remember, each animal needs its own approach, so do not despair at all.- Do not try to handle the rat before it gets used to its new home. From fright, she can twist, bite you and lose all confidence in you.
Part 2
Chat with your pet
Begin to communicate little by little with the rat through the cage.
At the very beginning of taming, a short communication with a pet is better than a long one.Try to communicate with the rat when you are happy and calm, speak to it through the cage in an affectionate voice before trying to touch it.- You can offer a treat to the rat through the bars of the cage, but do not expect it to immediately start taking it from your hands. Just make sure that the rat sees what you are putting the treat into its cage.
Teach the rat to take the treat out of hand.
Incompletely tamed rats often refuse to take the treat out of hand right away, so just give your pet a piece of fruit or vegetable once a day.Feed the rat in the cage for several days in a row to get it addicted to the treat. When the rat begins to enjoy this treat with pleasure, stop putting it in the cage and offer to taste it only from your hands.- From now on, the pet will be able to feast only if it takes the treat directly from your hands. This is a very important step in strengthening the bond between you.
Give the rat one piece of treat each time you open its cage. Open the cage door, make yourself known and make sure that the rat is aware of this, so as not to accidentally scare the pet. Shake the food bowl to associate the noise with the treat, then feed the rat. This approach will teach the rat to look forward to the next contacts with you, since they are associated with obtaining a treat!
- Learning to get a treat from your hands will create a close bond between you and your pet.
Let the rat sniff your hands. Have the rat sniff and examine the empty palm regularly. This will help her get used to your scent and will allow her to understand that when you put your hand in the cage, you will not always have a treat for her. If you allow the development of such an association, then the rat may begin to bite your hands, implying that they are food too.
- This will help you move to the stage of taming when the still shy pet is ready to feed from your hands and is already calmly studying you.
Start stroking your pet.
The rat will probably not like your strokes at first. You will need to accustom her to this kind of physical contact by regularly stroking her for a short time. With repeated strokes that end up with a treat, the rat will quickly realize that this is a safe and very pleasant contact.- At first, try to pet the pet only once. After one to two weeks of single strokes, you can go on to a series of strokes in one attempt.
- Over time, train the rat to stroke longer. The rat will not like this, but it will have to go through this experience to get used to such treatment. Some rebuff from her is a completely normal and expected reaction. If the pet is very frightened and starts screaming, step back to a short stroke.
- Strokes are very good for taming. You should resort to them often and even when the rat is not interested in them.Most rats start to enjoy stroking when they are stroked enough.
Give a negative beep when the rat misbehaves.
If a rat bites you, yell or yelp back. Don’t try to scare your pet too much with a yell, just let him know that you are in pain and should be careful.- Never use physical punishment for bad behavior. Punishments only let your pet know that you are unpredictable and untrustworthy.
Visit the rat during the day.
Talk to the rat in a gentle and pleasant tone of voice. Open the cage door and lower your hand in so that your pet can sniff it and possibly get a light stroke on the head. You need to communicate with your pet as often as possible.- Before touching a rat, make sure that it is awake and aware of your presence in the cage.
If you have a very nervous pet, try training it with a clicker. Using a clicker is a great way to develop positive associations in your shy pet about your interactions with him. This type of training leads to the emergence of an associative connection in the rat between the sound of a clicker (click) and a positive stimulus (in the form of a treat or toy). If the rat does something that you like (even if it’s just a step in your direction), click the clicker and immediately offer the pet a treat.
- Try to use the clicker exactly at the moment when the rat performs the action you need.
- The training clicker can be purchased from the pet store or purchased online.
- If you’re not sure where to start, search the web for clicker training tutorials. You can even find videos and text instructions specifically for training rats.
Part 3
Hand train the rat
Train your rat to come to the cage door to get a treat.
This will allow your pet to come up to the door when you need it.This way you don’t have to chase him all over the cage. Shake the bowl of treats to encourage the rat to come to the door.- If the rat does not come to the door, bring the treat to its nose and try to use it to lure it to the door.
- Instead of shaking the bowl, you can say your pet’s name so that he comes up to you when he hears it. If you repeat your pet’s name every time you give it a treat, it will quickly get used to its name.
- Whichever signal you choose, be consistent.
Use a treat to lure the rat into your palm.
Take a few pieces of the treat in your hand, open the cage door and stick your open palm with the treat inside. As soon as the rat grabs one piece from the palm and eats it, make it so that it has to step out of the cage to get the next piece.- In the first few days, the rat will most likely be afraid to follow the hand to eat.Give her time.
- Continue to move the hand with the treat further and further until the rat begins to move out of the cage and onto your palm to treat it.
Let the rat explore the environment outside the cage.
If at some point the rat just wants to leave the cage and explore the room, let him do it. Do not jerk towards her and do not try to stop. If she comes up to you for a treat, let her eat it.If the rat starts to climb over your clothes, let him do that, do not twitch. You need to show your pet that you are not a threat.- In the end, the rat will definitely dare to come out to you and find out what you are. Do not interfere with this process, even if the pet decides to run for you. Just don’t move and let him study your scent.
- Allow the rat to return to the cage as often as it wishes.Remember that the cage is a safe area for her. In it, the rat should feel safe and be able to fully control the situation.
Start picking up the rat when it gets used to you.
To do this, you need to choose a convenient moment and lure the pet into a corner. Corner the rat as calmly and gently as possible. Try not to scare the rat. As soon as the rat is in your hand, quickly offer it a treat and return it back to the ground.- Never lift the rat into the air by the tail. This can cause serious injury to the pet, which in extreme cases may even require tail amputation.
- If the rat starts screaming when you try to lift it, let it run and calm down. Never force a screaming animal into contact. However, a quiet beeping is perfectly acceptable.
Caring for decorative rats
Decorative rats have recently become increasingly popular among those who want to have a pet.This choice is influenced by many positive factors: rats are intelligent and easy to train; these are social animals that enjoy communicating with relatives and humans; in comparison with cats and dogs, their maintenance is possible even in small apartments and rooms and requires less effort, the food of such a pet is cheaper. But the fact that a pet is small does not mean that it will require less attention and care. Caring for a decorative rat has many features and pitfalls that you need to know in order to ensure that the animal has a healthy and happy life in your home.
Cage and Space Selection
Many owners make the fatal mistake of settling a rat in a tiny hamster cage or aquarium. The pet needs space for physical activity and a sense of freedom of movement. Rat three-story “cottages” with wheels, ladders, hammocks are not at all a whim and not an excess. Such a house is a vital necessity for an active and inquisitive pet, especially if you have no plans to release it to “free range” around the apartment.The size of the cage must be at least 60 * 40 * 50 cm and meet the following specifications:
- Distance between metal rods no more than 12 mm;
- Presence of a “house” or “nest” where the rat can rest and retire;
- Sufficiently deep bottom, which can be filled with filler (paper, sawdust, shavings) with a layer of at least 5 cm;
- Feeding trough and special drinking bowl with clean water;
- All simulators and “entertainment” must be well secured;
- It is necessary to clean the cage approximately once a week: wash the tray and cage components, change the filler and wipe the rods.
If you decide to have two different-sex animals, and do not plan to engage in professional breeding of decorative rats, then you will need two cages. You can keep two or more rats together only if they are same-sex or they are all neutered and spayed.
Feeding rats
Rats, including decorative rats, omnivores. But this does not mean at all that you can pour them a plate of borscht or feed them exclusively with cereals. The diet of the animal should be varied, including all the necessary vitamins and elements for the health and full development of the pet.The menu of a mobile animal, constantly exploring the world around, must be formed based on its daily needs, namely, feed it with a large amount of carbohydrates that provide energy (50-60% of the diet of a healthy rat), provide protein for growth (25-30%) and not forget about fats (10-20%).
You can take care of compiling a menu for a domestic rat on your own, taking into account all its needs and characteristics, or you can purchase a special food, the composition of which was developed by veterinarians and will definitely not harm your pet.Whichever of the options you choose, you need to know the list of products that a decorative rat should not eat in any case:
- sweet;
- fatty, spicy, salty foods;
- citrus fruits;
- alcohol.
90,016 raw meat;
90,016 raw vegetables such as potatoes, beets, spinach, beans and cabbage;
The last point may seem like an excessive caution, but, alas, cases constantly pop up when, due to the amusement of the owners or their guests, a rat, instantly addicted to alcohol, suffers and feels unwell due to the lack of a new “pile”.
A rat should eat about 30-40 grams of fresh food per day, it should not chew all the time, and should not allow it to gnaw on spoiled food leftovers from a week ago.
Hygiene
Rats are very clean animals. They spend a lot of time cleaning themselves of food debris and debris. If the cage is washed and cleaned regularly, the rat will not need special hygiene procedures. Including bathing. You need to bathe your pet only if something that can poison your pet has got on the coat.In other cases, experienced rat breeders recommend refraining from water procedures, since a wet pet can catch a cold, and frequent bathing can completely violate the barrier properties of the skin.
The claws of rats do not need to be cut, they themselves make sure that the claws are of the optimal length. In addition, given the size and nimbleness of the small paws, there is a high risk of causing pain or injury to the animal.
Training and Communication
Everyone who wants to settle this little animal in his house should understand that rats are very social animals.They need communication and your participation. Therefore, putting a pet in a cage and just feeding it is not an option. At best, you will get just a sad, disliked pet, and at worst, an antisocial, aggressive animal with an unstable psyche.
Training decorative rats is an activity that requires perseverance and patience, as with any other animal. Using standard training techniques (repetitions, treats, etc.), you can teach your little pet a variety of commands: respond to your nickname and come to the owner’s call, return to the cage after a walk, stand on its hind legs on command, sit on your shoulder, etc. …Decorative rats are highly intelligent creatures, capable of recognizing voice intonations, gestures and sounds. We do not guarantee that the animal will give a paw and bring a stick, but with the proper aspiration, you will teach him the most amazing “tricks”.
Rat Physiology and Facts
Finally, some numbers and facts that will help you get to know these cute and nimble animals even better.
- Average lifespan of rats 26-40 months (2-3 years)
- Average weight of an adult male is 300-500 g;
- Average weight of an adult female 225-325 g;
- Body temperature 37.5-38.5 C;
- Sexual maturity occurs at 6-8 weeks;
- Pregnancy lasts 21-23 days;
- Litter on average 6-12 pups;
- Weight of a rat at birth 4-6 g;
- The approximate food intake of an adult rat per day is 15-20 g;
- Approximate water consumption per adult rat per day 22-33 ml;
- Rats are nocturnal animals, but can adapt to the owner’s regime;
- Rat teeth grow throughout life, so they need solid food to grind them down.
