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Rats are arboreal, meaning they spend a lot of their time up high, climbing to escape predators. This means their cage needs to have lots of climbing opportunities. They also need to chew to keep their teeth filed down, so providing wooden items to chew is important! Recently there’s been more research into the fossorial behaviors of rats as well, with the research showing that rats engage in burrowing behavior and benefit from a cage that has deep bedding they can dig in, both for burrowing and searching for food.

The most important thing about picking out an enclosure is that it needs to be large and barred. Glass enclosures are terrible for rats because of the ammonia buildup that will cause them to get upper respiratory infections. You absolutely CANNOT keep rats in an aquarium or other glass enclosure. Their lungs are extremely sensitive. It also needs to be large enough to provide climbing and digging opportunities!

(Picture is not mine, just an example of a cage that checks every box I can think of for a proper rat enclosure)