# Rat Tricks?



## doofussy (Sep 12, 2007)

Has anyone here taught their rats tricks? is it easy to teach them tricks?


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## Forensic (Apr 12, 2007)

Some rats are.... more eager to please than others. :lol:

My rats come at their names. Most of the time.


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## Whiskers (Jun 29, 2007)

[align=center]I'm trying to teach my rats to come when I call their names, but it's not working too well....They don't seem to pay attention..[/align]


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## DonnaK (Feb 8, 2007)

I taught our rats to come to me when I tell them it's home time... the young one climbs up onto my shoulder and the older one into my lap. I've also recently litter trained them, too, if that counts? Other than that, I teach them mini tricks all the time, but then we rearrange things to keep stuff interesting for them, so we move on to new tricks. I think you can teach them almost anything with patience and consistency... they're just that smart.


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## mollylovesherrat (Sep 24, 2007)

My B, she used to come to her name and she would chase me around the apartment, playing "tag".
That's when I would run ahead of her and she would run after me, and by tagging me she would sit on my feet.
She also used to spin in a circle when I moved my hand in a circle above her head.
She was very smart! ^_^


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## Schmea (Sep 21, 2007)

I've taught Boobers to steal whatever my girlfriend is working on, (like if she's working on paperwork I'll pull out Boobers and set her down and she'll run over, grab a page and run for the hills) which I find hilarious.

My girlfriend... not so much.


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## kaylaface (Sep 6, 2007)

One of mine comes when he's called but the other not so much. lol they know what "no no" means. One will be getting ready to jump off the couch and I''ll be like "no no" and he'll coming back and give me kisses. little suck up.hehe.


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## giddy4ratz (Sep 14, 2007)

I've heard that you can teach them to beg for treats and sit on their haunches etc. I think rats are pretty intelligent and do believe that they can be taught to do things, with in reason of course. I've also seen a rat be taught to turn around in a circle on the spot for a yoggie treat.


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## Schmea (Sep 21, 2007)

giddy4ratz said:


> I've heard that you can teach them to beg for treats and sit on their haunches etc. I think rats are pretty intelligent and do believe that they can be taught to do things, with in reason of course. I've also seen a rat be taught to turn around in a circle on the spot for a yoggie treat.


Yup... stuff like that is actually incredibly easy. I used to work with rats in school, training them to perform behaviours that could easily be trained at home, and would end up being pretty neat tricks.

Things I've personally trained rats to do:

Push a level to get food.

Push a lever to get food only after a particular musical tone.

Push a lever 100 times to get one pellet of food.

Taught one particular cute rat to "dance" when she heard a specific noise. (She'd get up on her hind legs and reach her arms and nose towards the roof)

And so on.

A google search for "behavior chaining" or the like, or Skinner Box will get you all the information you need to train your rats to do all sorts of neat things. The rats seem to really enjoy it too, as it's a fun game with lots of rewards and interaction.

Lastly, 

Things my rats have trained ME to do, through the same principles:

If they run to the edge of their cage and push their nose through while I walk by, I'll stop and put my fingers up the the cage, and talk to them.

If they lick my fingers when I do this, they'll most likely get a treat.

When they fill their water dish up with bedding, I'll get them fresh water. (Done daily).

Doesn't work any more, but: they used to hide all of their food immediately after getting fed, and before I noticed they were just hiding it, they'd get a treat once I noticed the bowl was empty. Then one day I caught them hiding it all then running to the door to beg for their treat.

The more nervous and hesitant appearing they seem when I open the door to their cage, the more likely they are to get a treat. This one is actually really funny now, as when I open the door I'm faced with two nervous looking scaredy rats who immediately leap out of the cage and start crawling all over the place IMMEDIATELY ater getting their treat. Fakers.


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## Dimitrius (Mar 19, 2007)

Schmea said:


> The more nervous and hesitant appearing they seem when I open the door to their cage, the more likely they are to get a treat. This one is actually really funny now, as when I open the door I'm faced with two nervous looking scaredy rats who immediately leap out of the cage and start crawling all over the place IMMEDIATELY ater getting their treat. Fakers.


LMAO I can just see it! I love that so much. Such smart, cute little ratties.


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## giddy4ratz (Sep 14, 2007)

Wooow thats amazing Schmea. I hope I get ratties soon <: 3 )~

EDITED: Plus I wanna be able to put my babies in a siggy like all yours :lol:


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## foxx (Sep 13, 2007)

I have just taught my rats to ride on my shoulder but i have only had them for 4 days.


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