What is Rat Basketball?

At the Science Museum of Virginia in the city of Richmond there is a daily event called Rat Basketball that museum visitors can watch from the comfort of theater-style seats for usually about 10-15 minutes. Two rats are placed into a mockup resemblance of a mini basketball court and have little balls that they are trained to pick up and drop through a miniature basketball style hoop. Each time a ball is dropped through a hoop the rat will receive one of three treats; either a sunflower seed, cheerio, or grape-nut. The trainer discusses positive reinforcement and shows how the rats receive rewards for executing the human-desired behavior. The whole event is also displayed on a large screen above the rats with an over-the-top camera angle.

Each year in late summer or early fall the museum will purchase four 1-month-old female rats from a pet store to use for this purpose. The rats are gradually trained to perform unnatural behaviors for little bits of food and, unbeknownst to them, for human amusement. Some rats learn to do what the humans want in as little as two weeks and some rats can take over a year to get it all down. The museum says they don't train male rats because they tend to fight over the balls. 

The rats get trained to go to a particular hoop by not receiving a treat if they drop a ball through the other hoop. According to the trainer the rats will "play" for as long as they are hungry and want a treat, but "when they are two they lose interest in playing basketball" and most rats will stop participating around this time. As the trainer stated, "really more than anything it comes down to how they like food." In December 2023 the rat trainer said the museum currently held 10 rats, some of whom are "retirees" and some who are currently in training. 

Unparalleled Suffering documented the rats, Tilly and Florence, in December of 2023 when they were 15 months old and again in April of 2024. In April there was a third rat who was 6-7 months old and had been training for 5 months, but still hadn't gotten it all down. This rat could be seen repeatedly going up on a platform and jumping through the hoop with her entire body and the ball still in her hands. 

A young girl in the audience brought up how she learned about a science experiment involving live rats showed that rats are empathetic and care about each other. To this the trainer responded that some days Tilly the rat decides she doesn't want to play basketball and she'll sit by where Florence receives her treats and wait for her to share, which Florence voluntarily does.

The rats who aren't used for the rat basketball demonstration are not accessible to public viewing, but the trainer said that the rats typically live for 3 to 5 years.