Keeper Tessa Stripes Blog Post 8/28/2023
As you head back to school to learn new things, know that you’re not alone. Here at Carolina Tiger Rescue, our animals are learning all the time! We use operant conditioning to train our animals to do new behaviors. What does this look like? When the animals do something we want, they get a reward. With cats, they normally get their favorite food: raw meat! Sometimes we start with small behaviors and shape them into much more complex ones. It takes a lot of work and a good relationship with the animal.
Why do we do operant conditioning? There are a few reasons. It can help us do health checks on an animal. We might ask them to show us their paws or their teeth or their side, and then we can get a nice look to make sure everything looks good. Some animals will even let us give them shots! This starts with having them come up to the fence, then we poke them with a stick and slowly work our way up to needles. Caprichio Tiger is an expert with this!
We can also do operant conditioning with animals who get stressed easily. That’s why we started working with Roscoe Tiger. He gets scared easily, and we can use operant conditioning to help him. Operant conditioning is also just a good way to get an animal moving and keep their brain active!
