My degu just had her babies!

[katharis]

As you guys saw from my previous post, I adopted a pregnant degu because she was going to be euthanized. This is an update!


She was acting very weird tonight (running wildly around and squeaking) and then i noticed her cave-dome thing was fogged up. Curious, I reached my hand in and felt babies! I quickly withdrew my hand as i know you're never supposed to touch baby degus because it stresses out the mum and the pups. Is it safe for me to lift the dome just to see how many there are? How can i tame them if i cannot touch them? Is there anything else i should or shouldn't do?

[saddlers]

Congratulations on the new arrivals, have you had a look through the breeding/babies section? There is a Babies Basics thread which may help

deguworld.proboards.com/board/8/breeding-baby-care

[ilikedegus]

How tame is mum? I'd let her lead, but the babies' curiosity will probably bring them to have a good investigate of you pretty soon.

[deguconvert]

Give Momma a few days to adjust to motherhood, and then you should be able to touch the babies. You will see that the pups will around in about three to four days. Degus have a long gestation, so the pups are born well developed, and brimming over with curiousity! Within the next 2-3 weeks they will start trying to eat the solid foods. You can give Momma some extra treats, sunflower seeds, plain porridge oats, millet, peanuts/almonds/pecans/brazil nuts. These will help to replenish her energy stores which she will need while feeding her pups. Don't go crazy with them, but a nut a day, or several sunflower seeds, a tablespoon of plain porridge oats (like for baking) per day will give additional calories. Start reducing them when the pups are about 4 weeks old.