Blizzard's Journey

Blizzards Magazine Training   It took Blizzard 5 minutes total to be magazine trained. Our criteria for determining whether Blizzard was magazine trained or not was how long it took for her to realize the pellet delivery and where it was how the sound and light meant food was being expelled. She became familiar with the sound of the operant box pretty quickly. During this process, she was exploring the box and was curious about her new environment. She was very entertained by the light she sniffed around it many times and the light being above the lever led her to accidentally press the lever a couple times. The process was similar to the book and class discussion, she was trained at her own pace and eventually got it. I knew what to expect, I just didn't expect Blizzard to get it so fast I was surprised.💖

  This is Blizzard the albino rat.  💖 My first impression of Blizzard was not as bad as I imagined. Prior to me starting this class I knew that we would be getting a rat and have to train it to do something. Going into this class I was terrified, my mother has a great fear of rats and it definitely has rubbed off on me. Blizzard is very active which still scares me a bit but the first day of meeting her I held her and it went well and now I've held her a total of three times!! My thoughts about rats have definitely changed, don't get me wrong I'm still terrified but now I see them as pets and not just house invaders, which helps.  Blizzard's name was initially La Chapa Blanca we realized that was too long and wanted something simpler so we went with Blizzard because she is white like snow and very active like a snowstorm.