And God Created Rats to Punish Scientists.

[kamranban]

Hi
I am working on a project and in this project as first step I need to make a rat go straight. But he is a complete idiot and when I put it in the maze he turns back (180 degree rotation) and look at the wall. How can I make him go straight? (For some reasons I should not use food to attract him.)

Thanks;
Kamran Banan

[donnahardy2]

Hi Kamran,

This sounds like a challenging project. I think rats are actually quite intelligent, and you can't make them do anything. You would have to provide a reason for the rat to go straight. Normally the way to get slime molds, planaria, and rats to go the direction you want is to provide some food. If you can't use food, you will need to use something else a rat would like. Perhaps a rat of the opposite sex would work if you have that available. Otherwise, I recommend doing more background research to find out what would motivate a rat.

Good luck!

Donna Hardy

[MelissaB]

I did a project similar to this one many, many years ago. We were working with birds, not rats, but when we put the bird in a tunnel open on both ends, it would immediately turn around, sensing that the nearest exit was behind it. Is the end of the maze where you put the rat in open and/or lit (e.g. can the animal see light)? Try removing that if you can--what we eventually did was to close one end of the tunnel and then to drop the bird in from above so that it could not just sit in the entry box. You could certainly try putting a rat in from above instead of from the end of the maze, if you are not doing so already.

[kamranban]

Hi
Our maze is T Shaped one. we had always put him from above in the tale part of T, the light can come into the maze from above, and interesting part is that it seems that our rat is a corner lover since we give him 3 choices (middle of T) he never sits there and goes to a corner. At the beginning both doors left and right were close. Then we said lets give him some hope and opened the right door but he went to the opposite side!! (He is a complete idiot).
By the way our walls are not too high so rat can escape through wall but he only comes up; looks around sniffs and goes down. What is your opinion about this rat what should we do with him? And why he does so?

Thanks;
Kamran banan

[donnahardy2]

Hi Kamran,

I assume that the design of the maze is your independent variable and the rat's behavior is your dependent variable. So you should record the results of a few trials with this rat, and, if possible, test the behavior of additional rats. I remember a science fair maze project I helped with a few years ago using hamsters. One hamster usually lay down in the middle of the maze and took a nap instead of heading directly for the food. In science, results are empirical. If your results are unexpected, you need to rethink your experiment and possibly review the design of your maze.

Please let us know what you are doing for your experiment if you have more questions.

Donna Hardy

[kamranban]

Hi

I assume that the design of the maze is your independent variable and the rat's behavior is your dependent variable.

that's exactly right.

we closed top of the maze and only little light could come inside. the result was interesting our rat became so active going from a part to another. i think somehow we solved our problem but this theory needs further experiment.

thanks;

kamran banan

[donnahardy2]

Hi,

It sounds like you rat is getting used to the maze, and is exploring. Rats are nocturnal, so maybe they can see better without the bright light. Let us know what you learn from this experiment.

Donna Hardy

[kamranban]

Hi
i 2 another questions:
is there any difference between different rats in their learning rate?
i mean are some of them genius, some stupid? because two of our rats which had learned something, died. (i think they caught cold)
and our new rats are complete idiot although they seem curious about their surrounding. they stand on their 2 foots and sniff about every 4 second.
what is the reason of this unusual behavior?
thanks;
Kamran Banan

[donnahardy2]

Hi,

It’s difficult to train rats if you can’t use food as a reward to motivate them. It sounds like your new rats are behaving normally. What are you using to motivate them? You have never described the purpose of your experiment, so it’s difficult to give more specific advice. Please tell us what you are trying to do.

I am concerned about the report on your first rats; they may have died from a mycoplasma respiratory infection, which is highly contagious, and which has no known cure in rats.

http://www.ratfanclub.org/resp.html

Did you do an autopsy on the first rats? Did you disinfect your maze and equipment before you introduced the new rats? If not, they may get sick also. If your first rats were not feeling well, I’m sure that would have affected their ability to learn anything.

Donna Hardy

[kamranban]

Hi
thanks.
i should check that site.
actually i am using food to motivate him. but some thing is weird. whenever i put him in the maze it seems that he doesn't recognized the water source although when i drop some drops of water on the maze he starts licking and if i take him back into his cage he now understand he should drink from Canteen. actually i am trying to control the rat in different directions by using light.

[donnahardy2]

Hi,

If you can use food, then you should be able to train your rat. Here are some websites with tips on training rats with a combination of food and a clicker.

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Train- ... &id=685747

http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Train-Pet-Rats

It takes lots of patience and you have to be very consistent and work in short sessions when the rat is hungry. Since rats are nocturnal, maybe they naturally try to avoid light. What is the purpose of your project and your hypothesis.

Donna Hardy

[kamranban]

Hi
i found the solution in the comments of website below
and about illness i read the second website:

http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Train-Pet-Rats

http://www.ratfanclub.org/resp.html

and they were really helpful.

thanks a lot Hardy

[donnahardy2]

Hi,

You are welcome. I hope you can make some progress now. Please let me know more about your project if you need any additional suggestions. We do want you to be succesful.

Donna Hardy

[kamranban]

Hi
We are now facing a new problem. we made a suite for him (because we wanted to attach some headphones to his head and control him that way) but whenever we put the suite on him he starts to crawl like a worm. I checked all his mussels and all of them are free. We can’t insert those headphones into their ears (they are not small enough). Do you guys have any idea what I should do?

thanks;
Yours sincerely;
Kamran banan

[Walker]

Hi there,

FYI, you may discover that rats naturally prefer dark areas to light areas. That's true for mice, anyway, which naturally avoid brightly lit places.

Regarding your difficulty with suiting up your rats, I doubt you'll find it easy to convince an adult rat to tolerate wearing a bulky covering. The sensation of wearing a suit could feel like being "trapped" to a rat, and they may find that very stressful. You might be able to habituate rats to some kind of headphone apparatus if you start when they're very young (be very careful not to submit them to painfully loud noises through the earphones!), so they learn not to fear the apparatus. Whatever you decide on, make sure that your experimental system doesn't stress out your animals!

-Will W.

[donnahardy2]

Hi Kamran,

Unfortunately, the rat is obviously not happy and I don't think you are going to “make” him do anything with your new experiment. I thought you were going to try using food. Rats will be much more cooperative if you will trade them food for whatever you want them to do. Rats really object to having anything touching their bodies and they have very sensitive ears, so it will be difficult to use headphones.

I am having a difficult time making more helpful suggestions , because I still don't understand what your objective is for your project. I am concerned because you have done a lot of work on this project, but it sounds like you are not getting the results you were expecting. At Science Buddies, we want to provide you with the best advice for doing a science project, and the best way to do this is for us to understand what you are trying to do. What is the purpose of your project? What is your hypothesis? What have you learned from your background reading? If you can explain these questions, I am sure that the experts who are following this project will be able to provide suggestions that will help you succeed.

One important point that I haven't mentioned before is that when working with vertebrate animals like rats, you need to check with your local scientific review committee and get permission for your experiments in advance. Here is some more information on this process. I doubt that you would be able to get permission for an experiment that was stressful for the animals.

http://sciencebuddies.com/science-fair- ... _src.shtml

I hope this is helpful.

Donna Hardy

[kevala]

I am not an expert but I think if you put a shiny object at the end the rat will go for it.