Love triangle fighting!!!

[blossombrooks]

I woke up this morning to Pep and Dougal fighting again.
They had a massive fight about 10 days ago which led to me having to separate Dougal from the girls as Pep got injured.

They only fight when Dougal tries to mate with Pepper, she is having none of it and rather than see it as mating she sees it as a threat to her dominance and goes nuts. Dougal cannot understand (he's a boy bless him, trouser dept rules all) and he just goes after her relentlessly. Pep gets very stressed while all this is going on. Daisy on the other hand is chasing Dougal all over because she DOES want him. They get on well and seem to have the same 'needs' but Pep then gets cross with Daisy as she smells like Dougal!

I am confused as we've only just been through all this but June is obviously the peak month for my lot. I just can't wait until it's over, I want my loving little babies back!

Its very vocal fighting and not furry ball of doom stuff but Pep's leg isn't at full strength and they do seem to be being very rough with each other throwing each other around and shoving. I'm really unsure what to do??? Any ideas anyone?

[winic1]

just wondering, has anyone looked into how daylength affects degu hormone activity? I know with parakeets, you keep their nights longer than the days, and it can prevent them from getting "frisky". I have a big cage with 16 parakeets (budgies), about equal numbers males and females, and covering the cage with the dark cover to make it "nighttime" for at least 12 hours a day is keeping 15 of the 16 under control (Bluebell, however, is just a horny little guy. but there have been no eggs or babies.)

I wonder if covering a degu cage to shorten the long summer days could have the same effect?

[deguconvert]

I think that is an excellent suggestion that bears looking into. Though they are thought to still follow the mating patterns/months of those in Chile, I don't see why the longer hours of daylight would not have an effect on them. Is this something you could give a try, Blossombrooks?

As for their fighting, well . . . they kind of need to suss it out or they won't find the balance they need to have to stay peaceful. It is good that you aren't seeing the fbod type fighting, WHEW, so at least they aren't out to kill each other . . . just looking for a little more R-E-S-P-E-C-T . . . right Pep? Hopefully the idea from Winic will prove very helpful and things will slow down more quickly then they might if you just leave them be.

[blossombrooks]

Yep that sounds like a really good idea, thanks Winic!
I keep the blind closed in the summer but it's not a blackout blind, I'll have to invest in one. Poor babies, they were all so exhausted after the fighting/mating frenzy they slept almost all afternoon! It did mean the peace was restored tho, they were too tired to do anything else!
Yeah I gritted my teeth about the fighting, I know they need to sort it out themselves so I just supervised to make sure no one was
getting injured. It's a real test of patience tho! Thank you so much for the advice, really appreciate it. ;D