We get these little toys for the rats called 'mini nut knot nibblers' or some such thing; its basically a bundle of chew sticks arranged in a puzzle, with a nut in the middle. The idea is the animals can chew through the wood to get to the nut. The rats, however, don't do this; they just play with it, pushing it around the cage, throwing it at each other, what have you. Well, except Brie, who had this weird habit. She would pick up the toy and put it in the food dish. She did this ALL the time. We'd take it out, walk away for two minutes, turn around, and it was back in the food dish.
So I figured, hey - I can probably teach Brie a command to get her to put it in the food dish, right? Brie was an incredibly smart rat, so I knew it wouldn't be hard for her. Thus, the command "Brie, put your toys away" was born, and the adventure unfolded!
This is an awful picture, but here is Brie carrying the toy in her mouth at the start of our training - just so you guys can see how awkward it was for her to carry xD
"Put your toys away" first involved Brie dragging the toy up the stairs to dump in the litter box. Wrong toybox, Brie >>
She then tried to bring it into the igloo, but Tomo wasn't having it. Back to the start! (Note: every time she messed up, I would pick up the toy and put it in a random spot in the cage and again say "Brie, put your toys away!". So there was a method to the madness).
Brie: Damnit, Tomo, let me in! I want to hide this thing so mom leaves me alone!
Tomo: Can be nap tiem now plz?
Once Brie realized she would never get it inside the igloo, she slowly figured out what 'put your toys away' really meant...
Almost there...!
VICTORY!
Brie: Can I has yogie now plz?
(she did indeed receive a yogie!)
This took maybe 20-25 minutes or so to teach her, and it was actually a ton of fun! The best part however was, after she did it the first few times, I took her toy out again, moved it, and asked her to put her toys away. And I swear (and Lindsey was there, she saw the whole thing!), Brie picked up the toy, went to the stairs that lead down to the bottom half of the cage, and -threw- the toy onto the bottom level xD She'd had enough. Cuddles ensued.
Anyway, that's the end of Brie's Trick! And here she is, taking her victory photo - and what became her very last picture. Love you, Brie-bear.
