I wouldn't advise housing rats in the typical plastic storage containers that many use for snakes. As already noted above, rats can & will chew thru plastics if they can
get their teeth on it, so whatever you use must be smooth, thick & have nothing they can get a hold of...they can chew thru bricks & many other things too, & in fact,
they NEED to chew hard things to keep their teeth filed & not over-grown. And trust me, you don't want rats getting loose & established as wild...they're intelligent &
very hard to catch. I highly recommend using professionally-made lab cages designed for rats...it's not worth the risk of them escaping; such lab cages have the hard
plastic bottom with nothing they can get their teeth on, & they have metal bars overhead they cannot chew through to hold their food (so it stays clean & not wasted).