Adrienne

My rat is almost 8 weeks old. I've had him for almost 3 weeks. I adopted him with his brother. After a few days I started to notice that he made sounds that kind of sounded like chirping or squeaking and he made them mostly when he was wrestling with his brother. Maybe 6 or 7 times over these few weeks I've heard him make noises for a few seconds when he is just standing there . Just now, he was sitting in his cage and made some kind of clicking noise for a few seconds (could possibly be congestion but I'm not sure). He acts normal, he eats, plays, runs on his wheel. But I do suspect that he is displaying early signing of a respiratory infection just because his brother never did any of the things he does. And mostly because of the clicking noises I just heard. I have plenty of doxycycline but I've read that doxycycline can retard bone growth. As can baytril. This is a young baby, I just weighed him and he weighs .4 lbs. I found this guide on preparing the medication for rats http://ratguide.com/meds/figures/compounding_medic...

And I read you can administer 2.5 mg/kg. in which case I would give him .5 mgs 2x per day. Would this be safe for such a young baby?

If it isn't, should I just try giving him chocolate chips?

I read that can be really helpful.