Diane Nesom adopted her first two female rats from The Peninsula Humane Society in 1998 and soon thereafter started taking in unwanted rats from local families. Before she knew it, Rattie Ratz was born and it took on a life of it's own! In 2003, she married Gavin Nesom and, together, they launched The Rat Shop. Over the years, Gavin and Diane have been working together to ensure that high quality food and products are available to the pet rat community. Despite being divorced, they still worked together to keep this venture going for over 20 years!

​On March 1st, 2022, Diane and her French partner agreed to make a permanent move to the South West of France. As such, The Rat Shop is drawing to a close and she will be pursuing a product review and comparison site called Rat Shopping. We encourage you to check out the similarities and differences of products between the USA and Europe while she embarks on this new life adventure and next stage in her rat caring journey!