My husband and I just bought two blue rats- which we already love. We are getting them familiar with us and we were wondering what kind of tricks can rats learn and how can we start training them to do these things???
Any ideas and thoughts would be awesome, thanks to all!
2007-01-22 02:18:53 · 3 answers · asked by Mrs. Rabbit 3 in Pets ➔ Other - Pets
CongRATulations on chosing rats as pets :)
Along with being a pet rat fanatic, I'm also a dog obedience instructor, and I've incorporated some dog training methods into training rats.
Start by teaching them their names. One rat at a time with the other out of the room. Get twenty pieces of Rice Krispies. Say the rat's name and give them a treat, name/treat, name/treat, 20 times a few times a day. The rat will learn to associate it's name with a treat. Now do the same for the other rat.
The easiest tricks I've taught some of my rats is chasing a piece of string like a cat would, sitting up/standing up, sort of like a dog, walking a tightrope by stringing a braided rope between two table legs, climbing a ladder comes naturally to rats, and coming when called was a blast to teach when I had fewer rats then I do now.
The best treat that I found for helping them learn the tricks is rice krispies. They munch through them fast and beg for more.
Teaching your rats tricks:
http://search.yahoo.com/search?search=Teaching+your+rats+tricks&ei=UTF-8&fr=ks-ans&ico-yahoo-search-value=http%3A%2F%2Frds.yahoo.com%2F_ylt%3DAnYM54NvMNPtXBeKUqFf2zcazKIX%2FSIG%3D111gjvvgj%2F*-http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fsearch&ico-wikipedia-search-value=http%3A%2F%2Frds.yahoo.com%2F_ylt%3DAs6qPmKbEGuHV570VYkOMTkazKIX%2FSIG%3D11ia1qo58%2F**http%253a%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FSpecial%253aSearch&p=Teaching+your+rats+tricks
spazrats
http://spazrats.tripod.com
Rat Slave at age 38
Specializing in the health and care of pet rats since 1997
2007-01-22 08:37:49 · answer #1 · answered by spazrats 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can teach them almost anything you can teach a dog. Mine know their names, usually come when called, ride on my shoulder, stand on their back legs and can use the litter box. Here is a site with instructions.
http://www.afrma.org/rminfo1.htm
The training info is almost at the bottom.
Good Luck!
2007-01-22 10:43:09 · answer #2 · answered by scarfiespudsushi 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Hi Elizabeth...I hope these websites will be helpful:
http://www.theagilerat.com/ratslearningtricks.html
http://hometown.aol.co.uk/__121b_gfZUi5v+oOVnokqxUpRIToplaG2ByH321YRv+XSBl4s=
http://website.lineone.net/~nene/ratconte.htm
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/pet_rats/41248
2007-01-22 10:44:56 · answer #3 · answered by ♪ Seattle ♫ 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋