I've been reading the Lab Rat Chronicles, interesting stuff except that it makes me sick reading about what they do to these lab rats
however trying to concentrate on what they learned, they studied what they referred to as "trust fund rats"- rats who have everything they needed given to them, primarily food
and their "country cousins" who had to work for their food, and they found that the ones who worked for their food did much better, well I don't recall all the particulars right now :lol:
but basically the message was that you are MORE stressed if you just have everything given to you and don't have to work for anything. So, I decided to make it harder for my boys to get their food. Up til now, they had food readily available but I made them work for treats.
So I put their food in several different places, some easy to access with a little bit of effort (like inside an egg carton, that is easy to tip over to get the food out, or chew thru to make the holes bigger)
Then I put some in a couple of different treat balls made for cats- you have to roll the ball to get the food out
and I put some inside those little plastic eggs, which they have a hard time opening (my girls had no problem with the eggs, these boys seem to prefer to move them around instead of trying to get them open lol)
I also put some food out in the open but in places that were unfamiliar, like inside a tube that I jsut hung up etc.
When I did all this last night, I knew that they both had eaten well and shouldn't be hungry right away.
So this morning I check and they have found and eaten or hoarded the food that was the easiest to get to, but the plastic eggs are neatly piled in a corner (Dre did that Im' sure LOL)
and the treat balls still have quite a bit left in them.
Now, to my question: would it be "mean" to make them find the rest of the food before I give them more?
I want my rats to have healthy challenges to keep them stimulated and mentally healthy, but I don't want to stress them too much.
How do you determine what is too much stress?
The book I"m reading would be no help. as much as the author says she loves rats, she has no problem doing some pretty awful things to them in the name of "science"
I don't doubt that they learn a lot from these experiments but it's very hard to read about what these poor animals go thru, very hard.
I have noticed that these two boys give up fairly quickly when something seems too hard. For example, I'll put some treats inside a cardboard tube and then inside fleece, and hang it like I've always done for my girls and my last mixed group.
My past rats chewed thru those in no time, Norry and Dre dont' bother, they go looking for something easier.
It doesn't even matter if I put something esp tasty inside, they just give it a half hearted try and give up.
Do you think they can learn to try harder?
however trying to concentrate on what they learned, they studied what they referred to as "trust fund rats"- rats who have everything they needed given to them, primarily food
and their "country cousins" who had to work for their food, and they found that the ones who worked for their food did much better, well I don't recall all the particulars right now :lol:
but basically the message was that you are MORE stressed if you just have everything given to you and don't have to work for anything. So, I decided to make it harder for my boys to get their food. Up til now, they had food readily available but I made them work for treats.
So I put their food in several different places, some easy to access with a little bit of effort (like inside an egg carton, that is easy to tip over to get the food out, or chew thru to make the holes bigger)
Then I put some in a couple of different treat balls made for cats- you have to roll the ball to get the food out
and I put some inside those little plastic eggs, which they have a hard time opening (my girls had no problem with the eggs, these boys seem to prefer to move them around instead of trying to get them open lol)
I also put some food out in the open but in places that were unfamiliar, like inside a tube that I jsut hung up etc.
When I did all this last night, I knew that they both had eaten well and shouldn't be hungry right away.
So this morning I check and they have found and eaten or hoarded the food that was the easiest to get to, but the plastic eggs are neatly piled in a corner (Dre did that Im' sure LOL)
and the treat balls still have quite a bit left in them.
Now, to my question: would it be "mean" to make them find the rest of the food before I give them more?
I want my rats to have healthy challenges to keep them stimulated and mentally healthy, but I don't want to stress them too much.
How do you determine what is too much stress?
The book I"m reading would be no help. as much as the author says she loves rats, she has no problem doing some pretty awful things to them in the name of "science"
I don't doubt that they learn a lot from these experiments but it's very hard to read about what these poor animals go thru, very hard.
I have noticed that these two boys give up fairly quickly when something seems too hard. For example, I'll put some treats inside a cardboard tube and then inside fleece, and hang it like I've always done for my girls and my last mixed group.
My past rats chewed thru those in no time, Norry and Dre dont' bother, they go looking for something easier.
It doesn't even matter if I put something esp tasty inside, they just give it a half hearted try and give up.
Do you think they can learn to try harder?
