🐀

3 days ago

6 min read

The Origins

It all started the way most completely unhinged pet stories start: my sister made an impulsive life decision and I decided to double down. 😅

Growing up, we’d had a rather extensive list of pets, especially rodents including a rat our mom had named Maynard. So when my sister randomly decided she wanted a rat, she and my mom drove over to Northwest Seed & Pet in Spokane. She picked out a sweet little black-and-white hooded baby, named him Dimitri and brought him home.

But right out of the gate, we made Classic First-Time Mistake #1: she bought only one rat. Rats are deeply social creatures; keeping one alone is an absolute no-no.

Within a week of visiting with Dimitri, I was hopelessly in love. Naturally, the following weekend we made the trek back to Spokane so I could get a rat of my own. I was peering into the tanks when I spotted this tiny black-and-white scrap of fuzz with loose curly hair and slightly droopy ears. He was a Dumbo Rex mix with classic "hat ears" (where their ears don't sit straight up or entirely on the side, looking like they're wearing an oversized hat). I asked the associate to see him in particular so they allowed me to reach inside the tank and this sweet boy actually licked my hand. I fell head-over-heels immediately, brought him home and named him Flynn (Tangled fans, unite!).

But when I got him home and we went to introduce Flynn and Dimitri, we realized we had walked right into Classic Mistake #2: Not double-checking gender.

Turns out the pet store got it completely backwards. Dimitri was a girl. 🤦🏻‍♀️Dimitri was promptly renamed "Demee," and suddenly we had to keep them in separate tanks (Mistake #3: glass tanks are terrible for rat respiratory systems, but we were learning the hard way).

About a week later, I drove back to the pet store with the strictly responsible goal of buying only rat food and maybe a toy. But I wandered near the small animal displays and saw a pair of fawn-colored rats snuggled tightly into a corner together and stopped in my tracks. I walked in for kibble and walked out with two more rats so Flynn got a cage mate named Sebastian, Demee got a friend named Naomi and our foundational crew was officially set: Flynn, Demee, Sebastian, and Naomi.

The Infamous DIY Bookcase Enclosure

In summer 2016, our apartment lease ended and I moved in with Logan. Demee had bonded deeply with Naomi, so when my sister asked me to watch Demee during the move, she became a permanent member of our squad.

To house four growing rats, we came up with what we thought was a stroke of DIY genius: we took two 5-shelf bookcases, put them side by side, cut holes in the she

lves, added ramps, and lined everything with stick-on tile to create a 5-story mansion with the boys on one side girls on the other.

It turned out to be a nightmare for many different reasons. One of these being the fact that tile does nothing to stop rat pee from seeping into wood. No matter how much I deep cleaned, the wood absorbed everything. Worse, the cabinet doors swung open face-to-face so whenever I opened the boys' side, I had to physically hold the girls' door shut with my elbow or hip to prevent a Romeo-and-Juliet escape act.

In September, I made the choice to breed Demee and Flynn which brought us 11 beautiful black and white pups of which we kept 2 males and 2 females, but a friend of mine asked me to hold two other females for her to pick up in a month (which she backed out of last of minute and by then I felt like it would be cruel to separate them from their mother and sisters).

But then in November, I decided to see what would happen if I let Flynn and Naomi have pups and Naomi ended up having a jaw-dropping litter of 16 pups! I was blown away but also pleased by the beautiful color and coat variety I ended up with. While rehoming these pups, (including two boys to my older sister in South Idaho, one of whom lived to an incredible 4.5 years!) we kept several.

Between the original 4 and now their pups, our family had exploded into 18 rats (11 girls and 7 boys).

Btw, this was Mistake #4: Breeding without proper licensing, genetics knowledge and endless backup cages.

Then came Christmas. 😐

The Great Christmas Calamity of 98 Babies

For the holidays, Logan and I decided to visit my family in South Idaho and hired our next-door neighbor to walk across the lawn, feed the cat and tend to the rats. Prior to leaving, I walked her through everything including explicit instructions on how to secure the bookcase door on one side while the other side was open so the sides never mixed. She texted daily saying all was well which made us feel confident.

We should not have felt confident. 😐

Upon returning from a lovely Christmas vacation, we were greeted by the neighbor demanding $250 for her checking on the pets. This had not been discussed prior to our arrival as she previously had said she was doing it to be a friendly neighbor and wanted to payment. But before we could even process that, I walked into the living room, opened the female side of the enclosure and froze: Flynn was lounging inside the female side of the bookcase! I was APPALLED.

Approximately three weeks later, in January, seven females gave birth ON THE SAME DAY! Demee had a modest five while Naomi had 15 and the others had massive litters of 9 to 11 pups. Two days after that, an eighth female popped too. I was shocked to say the least.

Between eight females, we were suddenly staring down 11 females, 7 males and 98 newborn babies.

That broke the bookcase era forever. Rat math became our daily reality. Because pups mature at lightning speed and must be separated around four weeks old to avoid sister-brother shenanigans, our living room quickly became home to 11 cages.

The 49-Rat Era & Living Room Legend Status

After raising those 98 babies, I rehomed a good portion of them, but then I adopted some from other people and even a pair from a reptile expo so for about a year and a half, we maintained a steady pack of around 49 rats. I had a beautiful array of colors and markings, all 3 ear types, an interesting variety of coat types and even a couple different eye colors. Some of these rats were small while others were 700+ grams. It was incredible!

From massive batches of babies which resulted in 116 total rats down to heart-stealing trios, we watched generations grow, play and cross the rainbow bridge. We rode the emotional rollercoaster of short lifespans, dealt with sudden male hormonal aggression, adopted unexpected babies from tragic beginnings, had stitches in my hand due to trying to break up a fight incorrectly and learned the hard way how to keep curious Bombay cats from sticking paws through cage bars.

Ruptured Appendix, Real Education: Launching Small Town Ratties

In the end of March 2017, I found myself stuck in a hospital bed for four nights after my appendix ruptured and had to be emergency removed. My sister messaged me that she had started a page on Facebook for our rats and I was an admin.

Lying there with entirely too much downtime, I decided to hop right on and start posting some of the photos I had in my phone. It started out just a fun hobby to be honest because as the years have flown by, my love of rats and my followers have grown. But this year I realized something: I have a decade of knowledge about owning pet rats that I have been slowly sharing throughout the years without realizing it. Meanwhile there is a lot of misinformation or lack of information around rats, especially about owning them.

What 10+ Years of Chaos Taught Me

Over the past decade and a half, I’ve cared for hundreds of rats across virtually every coat type all ear shapes and every marking under the sun. Today, watching my girls Phoebe, Phoenix, and Phaedra popcorn around their clean setup, the routine looks radically different than it did in 2016:

Cat-proofing is non-negotiable: Wire playpens surrounding the perimeter and spike deterrent pads across cage roofs ensure the cats can't climb up or reach inside.
Air purifiers run non-stop: Living in wildfire country means sensitive respiratory systems need medical-grade filtration year-round.
The cleaning toolkit got serious: Headlamps are essential for spotting corner grime and checking hides, a shop vacuum is used for cleaning the cage and thick nitrile gloves protect against harsh cleaners that degrade skin over time.

🐀 Coming Soon: The Rat Chronicles!

This is only the beginning! Over the coming weeks, I'll introduce you to the original mischief, explore the family tree, share the unforgettable personalities behind the names, and revisit the adventures, mistakes, and lessons that shaped my journey as a rat mom.

I already have some in-depth blog posts about caring for pet rats so please explore those and stay tuned because I have so many tips to share, information to teach people and stories to share. We stumbled through every rookie pitfall so you don't have to. What started as an accidental pet store trip turned into a lifelong mission: turning chaotic mistakes into practical, real-world care that keeps fancy rats healthy, safe and wildly loved. 🐀