Magazine Training

My first goal with Muffin was to magazine train her, to get her used to the operant box and associate that when the light in the box goes off she will receive food, and when she hears the noise after pressing the bar hard enough she will receive food. 
Muffin was food deprived to approximately 85% of her starting body weight. Her original body weight was 242 grams, my goal was to get her down to 210 grams. I know that sounds a little harsh, but Dr. Trench assured us this was a natural process that wild rats will go through at some point in their life and that this is not hurting her. It only took four days for Muffin to go from 242 grams to 212 grams (I wish I could lose weight like that!)
I began magazine training Muffin on September 19, 2011 with my professor Dr. Trench. The first day Muffin was in the operant box, she was not amused, to say the least. Although she was food deprived for eight days she did not seem interested when I rewarded her with sugar pellets. I pressed the hand switch to show her that when the light in the box turns off she would receive sugar pellets as a reward. There was also a noise from the dispenser that sounded when I pressed the hand switch. Muffin still seemed more interested in smelling the box and grooming herself rather than eat the sugar pellets. Dr. Trench and I magazine trained Muffin for 30 minutes and saw that she left quite a few pellets left in the food magazine. We decided to give her a break and try again on my own another day to see if she would become more interested.
Two days later I resumed Muffin's magazine training. She was much more alert and would eat the sugar pellets when I pressed the hand switch. 

This is Muffin! She was so excited to say "Hi" and get started for her first day of training :)