Does anyone here have experience training a small rodent such as a rat or mouse?
How hard would it be to train a rodent to walk around a square track of PVC piping without leaving the track?
I am trying to train the animal to go around the track as many times as it can during a one minute test, but it cannot be influenced during the test (i.e. no touching, pushing, coaxing).
Anyone know how hard this would be and what would be the best ways to go about the training?
Google: Skinner box
Cocaine is your best bet for a reinforcer.
try a milk maze instead
No need to hit the corner for coke. Just food restrict (overnight) and then use a high sugar/fat food and they will pick it up in a few runs. Coax them the first time and just a little food at the end. Then, they will start catching on in a few trials.... peanut butter chips work well for mice and rats.
Rats love Cap'n Crunch. Use it.
your dumb
Agreed you need to food restrict and then use a reward but a high sugar/fat reinforcer is necessarily the best. Some sort of grain will work fine. It is important that they can eat it quickly and it is not too filling. You are going to have to use multiple reinforcement trials so if they become satiated that is a problem.
It will probably be best to shape the animal in successive steps to run around the track. Also you should use secondary reinforcers to make it easier like bells or beeps.
1) Train the animal to run down the straightaway without touching the walls when they hear the bell to get a reward.
2) After they have learned this reliably, only reinforce them when they have run down the straightaway and one turn when they hear the bell.
3) Etc...
4) Once they learn to run around the track to get 1 reward this is an F1 reinforcement schedule.
5) Keep on increasing the number of laps they have to run to get one reward F2, F3... but you have to make sure they learn each step before going on to the next.
Caveat:
If you are trying to determine how much a mouse/rat can run or how fast before they get tired, this is not the best way.
On a large fixed-interval schedule the animals will sometimes work in intervals (run for a while, stop, etc) but this is not related to being tired.
Note:
If you are trying to determine how far they can run, remember that they are nocturnal and are active during the night. Most mice will run at least 10k a night on a running wheel but not at all during the day.
Agreed you need to food restrict and then use a reward but a high sugar/fat reinforcer is NOT necessarily
Aghast wrote:
Agreed you need to food restrict and then use a reward but a high sugar/fat reinforcer is necessarily the best. Some sort of grain will work fine. It is important that they can eat it quickly and it is not too filling. You are going to have to use multiple reinforcement trials so if they become satiated that is a problem.
It will probably be best to shape the animal in successive steps to run around the track. Also you should use secondary reinforcers to make it easier like bells or beeps.
1) Train the animal to run down the straightaway without touching the walls when they hear the bell to get a reward.
2) After they have learned this reliably, only reinforce them when they have run down the straightaway and one turn when they hear the bell.
3) Etc...
4) Once they learn to run around the track to get 1 reward this is an F1 reinforcement schedule.
5) Keep on increasing the number of laps they have to run to get one reward F2, F3... but you have to make sure they learn each step before going on to the next.
Caveat:
If you are trying to determine how much a mouse/rat can run or how fast before they get tired, this is not the best way.
On a large fixed-interval schedule the animals will sometimes work in intervals (run for a while, stop, etc) but this is not related to being tired.
Note:
If you are trying to determine how far they can run, remember that they are nocturnal and are active during the night. Most mice will run at least 10k a night on a running wheel but not at all during the day.
Thanks for all the great info! I didn't expect to get so much legit information.
One more question - about how long does it take to implement this kind of training on an animal with no training background (say if I just bought a mouse or rat at a pet store)? I have about 2-3 weeks; is that a reasonable amount of time?
For a bit more background: this isn't any kind of fitness test, more just the ability to walking along the track (an elevated square made from PVC piping) for about a minute without stopping.
Rodents like quality cheese. If you give them kraft, they aren't doing shit for you.
idiot wrote:
your dumb
My dumb?