How to Build a Rodent Maze

Rodent, or rat, mazes have been used for almost 100 years to show how small animals make decisions and learn. You can build your own rat maze, whether for a science project or just for fun. Here's how.

Things You'll Need

  • Wood
  • Ruler
  • Pencil
  • Wood sealer (nontoxic)
  • Scissors
  • Cardboard
  • Hot-glue gun with hot glue
  • Cheese or other food/reward item
  • Chicken wire or other mesh
  • A rat or other rodent
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Instructions

    • 1

      Figure out what kind of maze you want to design. There are different rat mazes you can use for different purposes. Some mazes are long and complicated. They might help you show how a rat uses memory to find its way to the end. Other mazes are very simple. They can be used to show what kind of food a rat prefers. You can find diagrams and explanations of different mazes on the link at the bottom of this article.

    • 2

      Figure out how big your maze will be. You will need a piece of wood for a base that is at least as big as your maze.

    • 3

      Plan out the walls of your maze. Use a pencil to draw where you plan to put walls. Your walls should be about four inches wide so that your rat can turn around if it needs to.

    • 4

      Seal your wood base with a nontoxic wood sealer. This will keep your rats' waste from soaking into the wood as they run the maze. It will aid in cleanup, and it will keep the scent from getting into the wood and distracting rats as they run the maze.

    • 5

      Build the walls to your rat maze. Before you can build the walls, add up the length of all the lines you made in Step 3. You will need this much cardboard to build your maze. Using scissors, cut out strips of cardboard for each length. Each strip of cardboard needs to be at least four inches tall.

    • 6

      Use hot glue to secure each of your walls in place. Hot glue works well because it is sturdy and dries quickly.

    • 7

      Set your rat on its first run. Put the food or reward item in one part of the maze. Secure your rat in the maze by placing the rat at the beginning, and then put the chicken wire or wire mesh over the top of the maze. This will keep your rat from climbing over the sides.