Final Thoughts

I loved getting the opportunity to train our rat Anne Rataway. The entire project was incredibly fun and I always looked forward to training and feeding days because I got to spend time with our rat. I found the workload was manageable and thought-provoking and enjoyed learning how to use an operant conditioning box. I also enjoyed observing common behaviors from rats within the operant conditioning box. For example, signs of frustration and stress could be seen when Anne would pace around the cage or try to bite the lights and levers. To improve this project, I would have more concrete due dates for things. I am aware everyone's schedules are different and therefore when the rats can be trained may change, but I would have benefited from a more concrete schedule of assignment due dates. I was most surprised by how quickly most of the rats picked up on pressing the lever. Of course, every rat is different but most only needed the first two days to be able to be successful at pressing the lever. I was also surprised by how friendly Anne was, she appeared to be genuinely excited and happy to be held by Emily and I. It was neat to be able to bond with her throughout the project. I learned rats will "sway" to focus their eyes so they can see objects (and people) better and more clearly. The first time I saw Anne and Queso do it, I was concerned and thought something was wrong with them. One of the misconceptions I had about rats was that they were fairly dirty animals. I was surprised by how clean their cages would stay and how frequently they would clean themselves.