Food Deprivation & Weight Chart Results

In order to motivate Ratna to eat the chocolate pellet reinforcements, Ratna was deprived of food for the duration of training.  Ratna's target weight, 90% of her body weight, was 199 grams. It took me about 3 days to get her down to this target weight by feeding her anywhere from 2-6 grams of chow. If Ratna was within 1-2 grams of her target weight, then I fed her between a range of 5-8 grams. If she ever lost below the 199 gram mark, I would give her anywhere from 10-14 grams of chow.  Three days before I began training, I gave Ratna the chocolate pellets so that she could try it and get used to those new pellets. Adjustments were made to maintain a weight near this target weight throughout the course of training. I did notice a few fluctuations throughout the training period. This could be attributed to the hyperactivity Ratna performed in the cage and the Operant Box. Furthermore, the chocolate pellets given to her could have also caused these variations. The weight chart below shows her weight in grams along with how many grams of rat chow was given to her during that day. The picture below shows the device we used to measure Ratna's weight, it was zeroed before she was placed in there. 

Date	Weight(g)	Food(g)
2/17/2016	221	2.2g
2/18/2016	220.6	2
2/19/2016	203.5	3.6
2/20/2016	198.7	5.5
2/21/2016	196.5	6.9(chow+ pellet)
2/22/2016	195.5	8.1(chow+pellet)
2/23/2016	194.8	10.3(chow+pellet)
2/24/2016	199	7.2
2/25/2016	200.7	5.9
2/26/2016	197.4	7
2/27/2016	195.3	9.9
2/28/2016	194	11
2/29/2016	195	13.1
3/1/2016	196.5	11.2
3/2/2016	200.1	10.7
3/3/2016	200.5	9.1
3/4/2016	199.5	9.8
3/5/2016	200	9.2
3/6/2016	201	8
3/7/2016	200.1	8.9
3/8/2016	199.5	9.6
3/9/2016	202	8.6
3/10/2016	200	10.2
3/11/2016	200.5	9.8
3/12/2016	199.8	8.8
3/13/2016	200.3	7.1
3/14/2016	199	8.4
3/15/2016	199.8	FREE FEED

Device used to measure weight.