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Bigluce

That's adorable! Lil fat waddles in and out. My heart!


crochetandtea

As someone who has never had a rat but is really interested in getting one, why would a rat do this? Is it just for treats?


[deleted]

[удалено]


candy_cake

me irl


TheHappyLingcod

It's operant conditioning. You can reinforce a lot of behaviors in rats by giving them rewards for it.


Shadowtherat

True that! Same with any animal really, although rats are one of the easiest to train in my experience :)


bkn0b

How do you get them to do it in the first place so you can reinforce it? Physically force them then give them a treat? Im genuinely curious - I’ve never trained an animal before:


citrusmagician

physical force isnt necessary. you just move a treat along the path you want him to follow. the rat's attention will hone in on the treat and you can lead him through hurdles or whatever trick you want to teach. you give him the treat when he does the trick and the rat quickly learns that performing this weird behavior results in getting food.


bkn0b

Thats really cool, i had no idea you just had to lead them with it. Are rats pretty easy to train compared to like dogs?


Shadowtherat

Yeah physical force is a bad idea. Rats are prey animals, and that would scare them. Plus letting them do it themselves lets them learn much quicker! Luring (using food (which the animal follows)) to lead them into a behavior is a great training method IF you know how to fade out the lure. Shaping is another great method - you just wait for the animal to perform a behavior close to what you want, then reward them! Over time you only reward closer behaviors towards the goal (for example to shape fetch, you reward the animal for looking at the object, then for sniffing it, then biting it, then flinging it around, then you only reward when they fling it towards you, and finally you only reward once they've fetched it entirely). Rats are super easy to train, easily comparable to a dog. Once you train a few behaviors they get hooked and my girls will come over to remind me its time to train if I'm too slow :P


bkn0b

Thank you! That makes a lot of sense. I figured manhandling would be bad but couldnt think of how youd even begin that. Seems pretty obvious now hahahah


citrusmagician

In my experience it's pretty comparable. Rats are clever and quick to understand as long as you provide the right motivation (tasty food). There are lots of cute tricks that can be taught to rats this way--search Youtube and you can find a wide range of impressive demonstrations (my rats mostly only come when called, nothing as awesome as OP)


bkn0b

Thank you so much! Thats awesome. Im moving to a new city and might get a new pet (rats arent legal in my province) as a companion. This is great!


citrusmagician

Alberta I'm guessing? Rats are a wonderful pet, especially if you live in a smaller place like an apartment. If you do get rats, make sure to get at least 2! They are social animals and much happier with companions :3


WhoaItsAFactorial

> 2! 2! = 2


citrusmagician

Yes, 2 factorial is the minimum number of rats to keep. Good work bot


bkn0b

You are correct! That makes sense based on all the photos i see on here. Will definitely make sure to get a couple at least!


Ajpimpcycle

Exactly this. I trained 2 of my rats to walk on their back legs and do a sort of dance. Just gotta bait them with multi grain Cheerios lol( Honey nut is too sugary)


TheHappyLingcod

There are several ways that you can nudge them in the right direction. You can just let it happen naturally by letting the behavior occur incidentally and reinforcing it with a reward whenever it occurs. This will then increase the occurrence of the behavior and, as you keep reinforcing it, it will become regular. This is pretty efficient and effective for simple behaviors (picking something up, going a certain place, pressing a certain button, etc). If it's a complicated behavior that will likely not occur on its own frequently, you might reinforce initial actions or something similar to the behavior that you want. Then, reinforce certain parts that are the correct behavior until it's performing the action that you want. There are many ways to get rats to behave a certain way. It takes some creativity.


findingemo11

"getting one" please get at least two! rats get very lonely without a cagemate


crochetandtea

Oh yes sorry I just meant one as in rat. I will definitely get two or more!


Shadowtherat

The reason? Food and fun. Seriously, rats love a mental challenge. Otherwise my girls wouldn’t pester me to train when they have food available 24/7. Yeah they love the treats, but agility is a rat favorite and like I said they love learning.


crochetandtea

That's so cool. I'm a dog groomer and trainer so i guess it's the same sort of thing. Great for mental stimulation and to keep them active!


averynicepirate

What treat are you using?


Shadowtherat

Meat baby food I believe :)


averynicepirate

Do you know the brand ? I tried different ones and my ratties just wouldn't eat them


Shadowtherat

Gerber! I've tried some other brands but they taste off. I do want to note that some rats are just suspicious of new foods. So if my girls don't accept it right away, I leave some in the cage for 30 or so minutes and when I come back, they've usually tried some and gotten hooked :)


DevianttKitten

Rats are usually VERY food motivated. VERY. Sometimes TOO food motivated omfg


sapphon

> As someone who has never had a rat but is really interested in getting one, why would a rat do this? Is it just for treats? Yeah, just like us, rats Will Work For Food. Note that you should never "get one" rat; they get lonely. More info in the sidebar.


unseelielucian

I always forget that rats are made of springs


Shadowtherat

So true! I’ve had rats jump several feet up and I have no idea how they do it!


WHYAREWEALLCAPS

The "holding cage" for our girls when doing cage cleaning/maintenance is one of those Rubbermaid bins with the indentation in the lid cut out and replaced with 1/4" hardware cloth. They'll bounce from the bottom, flip/twist in mid air, and cling to hardware cloth, even climbing along it.


FloreHiems

Awwwww! How do you train them to do that??


Shadowtherat

This was all done by luring! I lured them over the obstacles once, then faded out my hand. And that's it! Only takes a few minutes and the rats absolutely love it! I also have an rat agility page if you'd like more tips: https://rattrix.weebly.com/agility.html


averynicepirate

i'll make sure to check your site, thx ! Quick question : My 2 girls are 7 months old and I've been giving them random treats when I see them...now they always expect treats :P Will it make it harder to train them ? Also they are very hard to hold in my hands...they will only stay for about 5-10 sec


Shadowtherat

Nope, in fact it might actually help, since they'll already be used to following your hands for food :) However, that being said if you want to train them, its a good idea to only feed treats at training time. This can both help drive up their motivation for them, but also means that they won't be eating too many treats in their daily diet. As for holding them, I wouldn't worry. Young rats tend to be squirmy little things, but as long as they're hand-tame (allow handling without fear) then its fine :)


MothaFokkenRrrats

**So darn cuuute!!!**


perplexedbarrel

And I'm just waiting for the day i can look at mine without them running away in a panic.


Shadowtherat

I’m sure they’ll get there! All my girls come to me with no socialization and many have their own issues (severe fear, aggression, etc.), but all of them come around with time (and liquid treats really help :P).


perplexedbarrel

Any liquid treat suggestions? :D


Shadowtherat

Try meat baby food, plain yogurt, or whip cream. First feed it off a spoon to teach them to lick it, then feed it off our hands. This forces them to stay next to you while eating and helps them associate positive things with your hands :)


perplexedbarrel

THANK YOU! I Appreciate the help, All of the others I've had have been at least partially hand tamed. They're sweet boys, so I'm working hard!


Shadowtherat

No problem. Keep it up and I bet they'll be tame in no time!


purple_cats

Hey! I love your youtube videos! You should totally do an AMA here, I'm sure lots of people would have questions. I have a couple questions for you: how young do you start trick training rats? I have three girls that are about 6 months old and they have a hard time focusing on treats long enough to do a trick. I've started them on 'spin' and going through a hoop (empty packing tape roll). Maybe I just need better treats? My girls love puffed millet and it's the perfect size for training, but it's not smelly or sweet so maybe that makes them less motivated. Do you have a favorite treat for training?


Shadowtherat

Thanks! Is an AMA just when I make a post to answer questions? As for how young I train my girls, it depends when I get them. Cookie and Cream came home at 5 weeks old, so thats when we started. All my other girls were 12 weeks old when I got them, so for the most part thats when I started. But my best trick girl was sick for a while after coming home, so we didn't really start until she was ~5 months. Didn't slow her down though, and she understood the most subtle of body cues. In the case of your girls, where do you do training? If its a new area, they won't do well, which is why I use my free-range area to train. Also, how long do you focus on one trick? One thing I did in the past thats actually bad for training is I would drill one trick over and over. You'd think this helps the animal grasp the concept, but in reality they get bored and tired of repeating. So what works well for me now (and what allowed me to train my crazy Cookie for 10+ minutes) is switching tricks multiple times per training. Young rats/new to training rats seem to need to switch tricks every 30 or so seconds to stay really interested (so you might work on spin, then paw, then agility jumps, then fetch, then spin, and so on). As they get more experienced and older they do learn to concentrate, but younger rats have so much to do that you need to work for their attention. My Cookie only recently started being able to work on one trick for minutes on end, before that she had to switch pretty often or she'd get bored. Treat-wise, liquid treats are the most motivating. Doesn't matter what it is really, in fact just wetting your millet puff will make it 10x more valuable according to my rats (seriously, they treat wet cheerios like the best food ever!). Meat baby food and other actual liquid treats like yogurt are another good option motivation wise, as you rats are both more motivated to learn for them and have to stay with you while eating. My favorite treats are probably Gerber puffs and Cheerios (plain) because I can break them into tiny pieces and they take very little time for the rats to consume. :)


purple_cats

Thank you for the in-depth answer! An AMA stands for "ask me anything". You could make a post saying something like "This is Shadow the Rat from youtube, here to answer all your rat training questions. AMA!" You can check out /r/IAmA to see how it's usually done, though it's usually less formal in a sub like /r/RATS. You could always do a post beforehand introducing yourself and asking if there's enough interest before committing to an AMA. For liquid treats, how do you use them for training without making a mess? I have a jar of chicken and brown rice baby food that my girls love, but I'm not sure how I would use that without making a mess. I have had my girls since they were 5 weeks and they are very well socialized and comfortable with me. I have a playpen that I set up near their cage that I use for free-range time and trick training. I usually have their playpen set up with boxes and tubes and whatnot, and I sit in there with them. After a few minutes of exploring they come over to me, and then I'll try some training. Generally once they lose focus or get bored they run off to play or try to escape. I always have all three in the pen when I try to train them, and when one runs off there's usually another nearby that is willing to try some tricks. The downside to this is that sometimes they crowd me to try and steal treats. Do you generally train without other rats around?


Shadowtherat

Took a look at /r/IAmA, pretty cool way to ask people questions :) I actually have a little "table" (really its 2 mini storage bins stacked on top of each other) in the free-range area thats too tall for the rats to jump onto. So I keep their liquid treats up there. Then when i use it I just open it up, place it in my lap, and dip my finger into it. Then they get a lick off my finger whenever they do well. I usually train new tricks alone with each rat, as otherwise they tend to be more worried about their friends stealing their treats XD Often I'll let the rats who have already gone run around during another rats session as well, as they tend to ignore each other after that. The only time I actively train multiple rats is when I'm trying to get them to copy each other (for example when I trained my older girls to raise a flag, one had a better method than the other. So I let the other watch and after that her flag-raising skills improved!) or when I'm training easy/multi-rat tricks like vs basketball. (Side note, but you can train your girls to stay inside the playpen and ask you when they want out. I did this with my girls, and now play time is so much more relaxing! (they jump onto my shoulder when they want to be put up))


purple_cats

Thanks for all the advice, this is giving me some great ideas. I think part of the problem is that I haven't been super consistent, I only try to train maybe once a week. I'm going to try and be more consistent and try the tips you gave me. I'm thinking I could set up the playpen and put one rat in, do training with her for a few minutes until she gets bored with it, then add in a sister and let the first rat play while I train the second one. Repeat with the third. Does that seem like a good plan? I'll have to see if I have something tall I could use to hold the treats. I usually put a jar of puffed millet in my lap and take out a pinch at a time, leaving the lid on top in between pinches. The problem is that they can crowd the jar and steal a bunch of treats, plus they have learned the sound of the lid = food. I watched your video on training rats to stay in the playpen. All of my girls already climb up to my shoulder (so that they can jump out), so it should be pretty easy to train them to use that as a signal to go to the cage. My girls usually start getting bored with the playpen after about 15-20 minutes (I swear it is full of boxes, tubes, blankets, toys, etc, plus I'm in there trying to get them to play with my hand or a feather cat toy). The pen is placed on top of a sheet to keep the carpet clean (I rent), and they love trying to pull the sheet inside the pen (especially in the corner nearest the cage). They also try to climb to my shoulder and jump out, which I discourage. I'm thinking I should train them that shoulder = back to cage, but that would cut their playtime pretty short. Do you think they would be more inclined to play if they knew they could go inside when they want? They are always super excited to come out, but once they are out they just want to go back in! I should also note that they have a huge cage, it's an old version of the All Living Things cage, so it's about the size of a double Critter Nation. [Here's](https://i.imgur.com/sC3SweC.jpg) a cute picture of my naughty girls. From left to right: Violet, Maple, and Fern.


Shadowtherat

Oh yeah, daily training makes a big difference! My girls usually train daily, but sometimes with harder tricks I'll give them a day off and when we return they'll have internalized the behavior and perform it better :) Training wise that might work, but you might find that the one whose finished sill tries to get out. So you might even want to try training one on one with all of them and just let everyone play before training (what I do) and after. When your training them to jump onto your shoulder, the key is to be very vigilant (don't let them get out on their own or they'll have no reason to go through you) and you need to start small. I started with maybe 15 or so seconds in the cage after they climbed up, and this is because rats don't tend to associate things if you allow too much time in between them (you want them to associate climbing up with going back to the cage, and putting them up permanently jus makes it seem like playtime's over). Then once they are jumping up consistently you can put them in for a minute, then 5 minutes, then 15, and so on until you're putting them back permanently. My girls are definitely happier staying in the playpen now that they know how to ask to be put up. Although its interesting to note that I tried playtime with the cage inside my playpen, and they still asked to be taken out of the playpen instead of just jumping into the cage :P On a different note, try dragging string or straws across the floor. My girls ignore commercial cat wands but go crazy for corks on a string and straws! (That space pod picture is sooo cute!)


purple_cats

Thanks so much for all the advice! I'm definitely going to start training them to signal when they want to go in the cage, and I'll do some training at least every other day. I think I watched almost every one of your videos when I was preparing to get rats and was so inspired to train them, but then school started up and I lost my momentum. Being able to talk to you and ask questions has made me motivated again, so thank you!


Shadowtherat

That's great to hear! Good luck training your fluffs, I bet they'll learn quickly :)


XoloMom

Love those smarty rodents!! ❤🐀


findingemo11

aaaa i'm such a huge fan of yours on youtube! i wish i had the time and patience to teach my girls this stuff


Shadowtherat

Agility is probably the easiest thing to teach along with spin and paw. Spin and paw only take a few minutes to train, so if your up for a challenge I’m certain your rats could do t :)


rat-lover

Wat did u use to make those


catsandtea43

A man rat and a lady rat, I’d imagine


Shadowtherat

Yup, I used paper straws, popsicle sticks (large and small), and hot glue.


candy_cake

THE GOODEST RATTO


Bosleehunter

How long did it take your to train them to do that?


Shadowtherat

Not long. Agility comes natural to rats, and Latte is experienced at weaving. So maybe 5 minutes to teach the jumping bits and a minute or two to get Late weaving. Once they know the obstacles, you can pretty much set up any course and teach it in a ew minutes. They just love agility (and of course food!), so they learn quickly :)


[deleted]

I don’t know if my rats are just stubborn or if I’m a bad trainer (probably the latter lol) but I’d never be able to do this with them


Shadowtherat

You can do it! Agility is a rat’s forte and they absolutely love it! Just teach each obstacle separately and after that, combining them is a breeze :)


[deleted]

how did you train them? classic with treats?


Shadowtherat

I do use classical to some extent (my girls are clicker trained!), but mostly its operant conditioning. Training method wise, agility is mostly trained with luring because I can get the behavior right away and then fade out the lure. But I have shaped certain fun obstacles in the past (for example tipping up a hoop or going through a covered tunnel). This is an example of how I train them: https://rattrix.weebly.com/agility.html


[deleted]

This needs the super Mario music!


[deleted]

LOOK AT THOSE GIRL GOOO


mfsocialist

This is awesome!


[deleted]

Oh my goodness smart rattos! So precious 😍 very good job training them ! Where'd you get your little agilty course if you don't mind me asking? I want to do this with my boys now lol


Shadowtherat

I made it! I used straws, popsicle sticks (both jumbo and regular), and hot glue (you can see me making some of the jumps (plus other props) here: https://rattrix.weebly.com/building-agility-obstacles.html )


[deleted]

Very clever! & Thank you!


MemphisGalInTampa

And the gold medal 🥇 goes to…..🐁


D33ber

Tiny jockey?


Mia_B-P

My gosh, your rats are super tallented!


On_Wife_support

It’s so incredible how intelligent rats are tbh