i'm training Hamstershaver - pics

[Buddy_Christ]

well, not quite.

my rat for my psych lab. cool little dude. i've got the smallest rat. free feeding weight was 258 grams. we have deprived them down to 80% of their free feeding weight, which is typically the weight you find them in their "natural environment." all the rats are hungry, which is what we want. they're getting food as a reward in the lab.

 

[PBR]

smart little bastards arent they?

 

[Buddy_Christ]

smart little bastards arent they?

for the most part, yeah. yesterday my rat finally figured out that if he sticks his nose in the hole (Breaks a fiber optic beam when he sticks his nose in) a food pellet will be delivered. i had to shape his behavior to get him over to the hole. all his nose pokes were accidental the first 2 days. it wasn't until he had his head in the feed chute yesterday and i dropped a pellet on his head that he associated the noise with the delivery of food.

80 nose pokes in under 10 minutes today. pretty good time, but tomorrow we start a new schedule of reinforcement, so it'll take longer.

 

[hamstershaver]

smart little bastards arent they?

yes they dont lick the kitty

 

[CFZB]

i had a rat like that.....his name was munson.....my roommate gave him a hit of acid in college ...munson was a strange rat.

 

[jaded]

lol, this ones cute.

 

[Buddy_Christ]

yes they dont lick the kitty

that's right, they don't.

they're all male and they hump each other.

 

[hamstershaver]

that's right, they don't.

they're all male and they hump each other.

you gotta do what you gotta do

 

[Buddy_Christ]

lol, this ones cute.

referring to the pic? it's the same rat in every pic.

i had to turn the flash off. i left it on for one pic. the flash on my digital starts flashing real quick before it goes off. my poor rat was going apeshit when that happened.

so i'm taking pics and i hear one of the girls behind me say "what is he doing?" with a tone in her voice like i was fucked in the head. one of the other girls says "oh, he's just taking pictures of his rat." once i heard the chick asking someone else what i was doing, i started talking to my rat asking him if he wanted to be a model, then telling him i had a camera and that if he'd strike a pose, it'd be vogue.

betcha that one chick thinks i'm really fucked in the head now.

 

[PBR]

yes they dont lick the kitty

Thats right Hammy....Kitty's[lick] the rats....got that?...good...now we have to work on the FAT chick thing, unless there is still some confusion....questions?

 

[Robert Jan]

This is psych lab?

sounds more like easy and fun that educational or interesting

 

[Buddy_Christ]

This is psych lab?

sounds more like easy and fun that educational or interesting

taking care of the rat is easy, it is something fun, but it's also educational and interesting. who said that you can't enjoy what you're learning?

plus we've got a 60 page article to read on operant conditioning (what we're doing) as well as a test on it, then the last 2 assignments involve a full write up of the experiment we're doing now. the whole class is based on doing and writing up experiments in APA format. the two pre-requsites for this class were not easy, so this is kind of a breather, except for all the writing involved with this class.

but go ahead, bash our education system, because i know that's what your intent was.

 

[blz]

I do genetics research and i've killed about 200+ mice just like yours.

 

[Buddy_Christ]

I do genetics research and i've killed about 200+ mice just like yours.

well, i don't see much harm in that.

someone told me of an experiment where they electrodes were implanted in a rat's brain right in the pleasure centers. the rat was put in a cage and when it would push a lever, the pleasure centers would be stimulated.

then the rat was trained to go to a lever on either side of the cage and press it to have the pleasure centers stimulated. it had to go back and forth to continue to have the pleasure centers stimulated.

then the center of the cage was electrified, so the rat would have to get shocked to get back and forth across the cage. the rats would collapse from exhaustion of getting shocked repeatedly just to continue to have their pleasure centers stimulated.

the experiment was to get an idea of how strong addiction really is and was related to human drug addiction. i have to find that experiment and read it, as it sounds pretty interesting.

 

[SoreArms]

I used to have two big pet rats, they're smart fuckers