Mouse Treats?

[Emmastaff]

Don't think I'm crazy, but I am going to try to clicker train a mouse. Why not? What I need is some sort of small treat that mice like and will serve as the unconditioned reinforcer after the click. Can anyone recommend a small treat that mice like, and will likely take from your hand? I'm thinking cheerios but not sure?
(I clicker trained my dog and decided to try it on the mice for the heck of it). I am starting a colony for my snakes, so I have several breeders to work with.

[musicalKeyes]

I clicker trained my rat to do a few things, but mice are going to be reeeeally difficult, if not impossible. But I suppose they have them do things in movies, right? Maybe you can teach it to stand up, or go certain places, or something. My mice really like those little yogurt drops, and they break into little pieces pretty easy. Good luck, I think you'll need it!

[tweets_4611]

I don't think mice would be too much harder than rats... If I ever get around to it I plan on trying to train my breeders to do a few little tricks. Worst case scenario... they get extra treats and don't learn anything

[Emmastaff]

Hey, if you think mice aren't trainable, check out this video!

YouTube - mouse agility - world's smartest mouse

[ballpythonluvr]

Thanks for sharing that awesome video! That was truly amazing!

[truthsdeceit]

buy the fruit flavored yogi treats. But make sure to break them up into smaller pieces a whole drop is way too big for a mouse.

[kc261]

Thank you Emmastaff for sharing the link for that GREAT video!

As far as training your own mice, it will take a lot of patience, but it is doable. The important part is to find something that will motivate them. Tiny bits of some food treat that they like should work; you can experiment to see what your mice seem to prefer the most.

I hand-trained a few mice that were pretty wild when I acquired them. What they wanted most was to be left alone. Each day I spent a little time, basically chasing them around the cage, trying to corner them and force them to jump onto my hand. Every time they would jump onto my hand, I would freeze. The first time they would stay still on my hand for a moment, the training would end for the day. It didn't take them long at all to realize that the "safest" place was on my hand. After a few days, I gradually increased how long they had to stay on my hand to get their reward of being left alone. Soon they would stay on my hand and I was able to lift them out of the cage and pet them. No food treats or anything else involved.

[blackcrystal22]

Liquid yogurt that they can lick off your finger is a wonderful treat that they love!