• Grail@multiverse.soulism.netOPEnglish
      10·
      20 days ago

      I want to, but I don’t have any rats to tickle right now. I only have the knowledge of how to tickle them, and the certification that I have the knowledge.

      I would like to have more access to rats in the future so I can tickle them.

      • angrystego@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        20 days ago

        Can you get some as pets to be able to keep your skill top-level? Also, what is your relationship to rats, and would you like to work in a lab with rats, where bad things happen to them regularly? Thanks for posting, I’m happy to learn professional rat-tickling exists.

        • Grail@multiverse.soulism.netOPEnglish
          4·
          20 days ago

          I love rats. I’ve never had any pet rats, but I would like to when I own My own house. Right now I rent and I’m poor and I have refugees in My family who I need to work to bring here to Australia. But one day we’re going to have a mortgage and some rats.

          I wouldn’t mind working professionally with rats. As long as I believe the harm they’re suffering is worth it for the beings the science will one day help. I want to be kind to the rats and tickle them and help them get through any painful procedures like injections.

    • Grail@multiverse.soulism.netOPEnglish
      9·
      20 days ago

      Rat tickling improves animal welfare, gets rats used to handling, and creates a bond between people and rats. It also calms rats down and helps them get through stressful situations. Labs tickle rats to improve experimental validity and animal welfare. A rat that has been tickled for at least 3 days will be used to human touch, and understand humans to be fun friends.

      So, when a rat needs an injection or some other form of experimental manipulation, it doesn’t get as stressed out by it. As part of My rat tickling certification, I saw the difference in how a tickled rat and a non-tickled rat respond to receiving injections. The non-tickled rat was freaked out, it was reacting like it was in pain, and afterwards it looked quite stressed. The rat that got tickled and then given the injection was relaxed, mostly happy, and after being put back in its enclosure, immediately went back to exploring.

      Rat tickling is also a great way to produce 50hz vocalisations, which are the most accurate measure of rat happiness. So if your experiment is investigating animal welfare, you can use tickling and vocalisations as your dependent variable. For example, you might be testing an antidepressant on depressed rats. You want to know how effective the antidepressant is, so after dosing the rat, you tickle it and count its giggles. A happy rat will giggle more.

    • Grail@multiverse.soulism.netOPEnglish
      9·
      20 days ago

      Make sure you tickle the rat’s top and bottom. Otherwise the rat won’t understand that it’s play.

      Rats can be acclimatised to stroking, but it takes longer than tickling, because tickling is designed to mimick natural rat play. Make sure you tickle properly so the rat gets all the benefits of tickling.