When you walk into Shaena Ivey’s spotless home north of Bend, you see a giant bird cage against the wall. It’s the kind that might hold a cockatoo or parrot, but instead it holds three fancy rats who spend every waking minute racing from floor to floor, climbing up wire walls, zipping through plastic tunnels, burrowing under flannel blankets and peering out the front to see which humans are watching. And all of that is done within seconds.
Ivey decided to adopt her first pet rats a few years ago to help her child with anxiety. She currently has three rats, all rescues from Little Critter Crew in Eugene. Part of the reason they are good for anxiety, Ivey says, is because rats need a lot of attention. Domesticated rats are highly intelligent and social. They need to be kept in pairs or groups to thrive.
“You have to handle them. You can’t just shove them in there and just look at them,” Ivey says. “You have to hold them every single day.”
Her trio of rats are named Sake, Mocha and Freyja. She adopted them in May when they were about eight weeks old. Pet rats generally live about two years, making them an intense emotional investment. This group is Ivey’s second set. She pulled up photos on her cell phone of her last two, Nim and Ruby. “We raised them from six and eight weeks old. They could spin and dance,” she fondly recalls.
While Sake, Mocha and Freyja don’t dance, they are highly entertaining and sweet-natured. Rats are nocturnal, but with a guest in the house they seemed delighted to show off in the middle of the day. To keep them stimulated, Ivey puts their food in balls and gadgets that require work to get it out. She feeds them rat food, baby food, fruits and vegetables.
Their elaborate two-story cage is filled with tunnels, hammocks and cardboard boxes for them to explore with an abundance of energy. Rats need to have cages cleaned, at a minimum, weekly, Ivey says, “because they can get respiratory diseases.” She also says owners should either have rats that are all the same sex or get them spayed or neutered in order to avoid them rapidly multiplying. A female rat can have up to seven litters a year with an average of seven babies per cycle. Spaying also helps alleviate health issues. “The reason you fix them is because females are very prone to tumors,” Ivey explains. Female rats are susceptible to ovarian, uterine or mammary cancer. Ivey takes her rats to Tumalo Animal Hospital.
Freyja is a Double Rex, meaning she will shed all of her fur, becoming hairless. “So she’s bald, then hair and then bald, then hair. And she may go all the way bald. Not everybody likes bald rats, but we love them,” Ivey says as she holds Freyja.
“Freyja is super sweet and gentle and curious about everything and will snuggle the most. She’s the best snuggler,” Ivey says. “Mocha is a little more shy but she wants to climb out of the cage. She’s very curious about the outside and she likes to snuggle, too. Sake is adorable. She will come to me more than anybody but she’s a little skittish and likes to hide.”
These fancy rats get time out of the cage as well, usually in the bathroom where they can be contained. These three are litter box trained. Ivey even travels with them.
“Once you get started, you get really attached,” she says with a smile while fixing a tunnel in the cage that Mocha knocked off a ledge. “Did you knock that over?” she murmurs to the fancy rat. “I’ll help you. You silly.”
Rat facts:
Fancy rats are domesticated brown rats that are kept as pets.
Male rats are called bucks; females are does and babies are pups.
Rats come in different breeds including standard/smooth, rex, hairless and tailless.
Rats are most active at night.
Rats are very social creatures and should never be kept alone.
A rat’s average lifespan is 18-36 months.
Rats need spacious cages, ideally multi-level, with a minimum of 2’x2’x2’.
This article appears in Central Oregon Pets Fall 2025.
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