# Good small treats for training



## euneirophrenia (Mar 6, 2014)

I'm currently training one of my boys to spin in a circle, and after 2 session, he seems to do it at least half the time from just the vocal command, which makes me question if rats are smarter then dogs in all honesty, but that is beside the point. The problem is the treats I'm using are just small bits of meat. They motive him quite a lot, which is why I'm using them. However, I know it's a lot of protein so I want some suggestions of good yet yummy treats that will still motivate him the same as the meat. At the moment I am doing 1 training session a day and he gets 5-7 smaller then dime size pieces each session. Anyone have any ideas for alternatives? It also would be ideal if whatever I use didn't take him a super long time to chew since I don't want half the training sessions being him eating the treats lol Thanks in advanced C:


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## thenightgoddess (Apr 2, 2014)

Baby puffs are good low calorie treats for rats you would get something like this http://www.amazon.com/Gerber-Graduates-Strawberry-1-48-Ounce-Canisters/dp/B000FPM22Y most stores have there own store brand for these my boys have three different flavors from three different stores and they like them all. If you want something a little more enticing you could try blue buffalo chicken dog treats http://bluebuffalo.com/dog-treats/blue-bits-chicken?pf=1&type=treat&animal=dog


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## euneirophrenia (Mar 6, 2014)

thenightgoddess said:


> Baby puffs are good low calorie treats for rats you would get something like this http://www.amazon.com/Gerber-Graduates-Strawberry-1-48-Ounce-Canisters/dp/B000FPM22Y most stores have there own store brand for these my boys have three different flavors from three different stores and they like them all. If you want something a little more enticing you could try blue buffalo chicken dog treats http://bluebuffalo.com/dog-treats/blue-bits-chicken?pf=1&type=treat&animal=dog


It's ironic but I have some of those baby puffs since my sister has her two kids with her, so I probably could steal them. I never thought of them as a treat for rats but now that I think about it, it would be a great treat for them! Thank you!


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## Jackie (Jan 31, 2013)

baby puffs and cheerios <3


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## Juliah456 (Mar 12, 2014)

My girls of crazy for thawed frozen corn or peas! Works wonders for training, and im don't have to worry about making them fat  also, yoghurt drops... Just break them into little rat bite sided pieces


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## RexRat (Nov 29, 2013)

I use plain oats and they seem to like them!


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## binkyhoo (Sep 28, 2008)

wheat puffs. Very low calorie yet large enough to finger treat.


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## threelittleratties (May 7, 2013)

I give them Puff Rice  not to fatty or unhealthy and also cheap and a bang for your buck item  also if I happen to have made a ratty safe food for dinner ill give them a small piece (they love potatoes)


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## Leraine (Feb 21, 2014)

Rice krispies, dabs of yogurt or honey on your finger/spoon, cheerios cut into 1/4ths. My girl likes Oxbow enough for me to use it for trick training even though its her main diet. You can also use scritches as a reward. Studies have shown that rats not rewarded with food every time may more reliably perform tricks than those who were given food treats EVERY time. 

I used rice krispies with great success. They are mostly air (seriously try crushing one - you end up with a tiny amount of actual solids) so your rat will need to eat a lot before they get full. 

You can also try using some of their favorite but normal foods. My rat gets fruits/veggies daily. She loves bananas so I can use tiny bits of bananas as treats occasionally, instead of just leaving it in her food bowl like I normally do. 

I read about it in Debbie Ducommun's "A Complete Guide to Rat Training." She says withholding the reward sometimes even when the rat does the trick successfully, may make him perform the trick more reliably. 

She said it was based on a principle scientists discovered when working with rats in the lab - when they gave rats a reward every time he performed a behavior, the rat came to expect the reward. This one-to-one (1:1) reinforcement schedule taught the rat that he would get a reward every time he did the behavior. When the rewards stopped, the rat would figure out that the reward was no longer available and would stop doing the behavior quickly. When the scientists experimented with different reinforcement schedules, like (1:3 where the rat would be rewarded every third time he did the trick) or 1:4, or having a computer randomly decide when to reward, after the rat was put on this schedule for a while, the scientists would stop rewards altogether, and the rat would continue to perform the behavior for a while before giving up. 
This is because the rat had been shown that he had to perform the behavior more than once to get a reward, so he was willing to continue to perform the behavior in hope that he would eventually get a reward. The schedule that resulted in the most persistent behavior was the one with the computer randomly choosing when to reward the rat, presumably because the rats didn't know how many times it would have to perform the behavior before being treated. Even after the rewards stopped, they'd continue performing. Some rats never gave up.

She likened it to humans at a casino - even when people lose at a slot machine, they still continue to play, because they know that to win, they may have to play the machine an unknown number of times. So they'll persist in playing even though payoff does not come for a while.


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