experienced owners, please

[Been to the Mountaintop]

Two rats from the Holbrook rescue would chirp rhythmically. With Rosewell, sometimes his whole body would tremble like he was cold. The vet found nothing wrong with Rosewell and a very mild URI in Nico. They've both had combo (Doxy and Baytril) antibiotic but they still sometimes chirp. They also brux, but it is different. Some people say this is happiness but they do not look comfortable when they chirp. What is this??? Can Nico be adopted out? Thanks.

[BigBen]

Could it be hiccups?  That's the only rhythmic sound I can think of that's not the result of a respiratory infection.  But my rats that hiccuped never seemed uncomfortable when doing it.  I found that with one rat in particular, simply picking him up would stop the hiccups.  And people here on GM have posted about rats' hiccuping from happiness.

Come to think of it, I did have a rat once who made a noise while breathing that could quality as a chirp.  Antibiotics didn't help, and the vet eventually concluded that it was caused by a benign structural abnormality of the nasal passages.

Is this something that other Holbrook rats do, perhaps?  (My beautiful sweet Lizzie's seizures turned out to be common to the runts of the South Paris litters.)  At least if the problem were common to other, related rats, it'd probably not be the result of some dire disease.

[mamarat2]

I've had a few chirpers in the past. Some we could tell were chirping at their neighbors to communicate, others we saw the hiccupping action. Chirping due to respiratory issues is a completely different sound than communication or hiccuos, the respiratory related is closer to wheezing.

I'd say if you have an adopter who is willing to continue to take note to be sure it's not respiratory then they'd be fine to be adopted out.

[Ratdaddy]

I've had a number of rats that would have spasms that looked like hiccups and would be accompanied by a chirp.  Frequently this was in the midst of bruxing, so I always assumed it was another involuntary reaction to happiness.  I did go to the vet once, but of course the patient didn't do it for him, and she had nothing else wrong with her at the time.  So if this is what you're seeing, I wouldn't worry unless you see some other symptoms.