Degus have given birth... what now?

[frankieb1928]

About 4 months ago we purchased 2 degus from Pets at home and we're told they were both males. we then introduce them to our male who sadly was left on his own due to losing his brother. They all got along great and have been living together fine but had a shock as when cleaning the cage the other day I discovered 7 little degu pups! checked and sure enough the two we got from the pet shop are both girls... we were concern our other girl was pregnant too, turns out she was and has had 4 degu pups yesterday evening. We have separated the male from them but do we need to separate the two Mum's and their pups. Please can some one who has had experience with this help. Thanks in advance.

[ilikedegus]

Hi Frankieb

Someone with more experience of pups will be along shortly.

Meanwhile, I am fairly sure that you don't need to worry about the mums being together, they will likely share the childminding and feeding as they would in the wild.

However do keep an eye on this for now, as the younger pups could fall behind if they're not being fed as much - if their larger cousins hog the milk supply for example.

Er...congratulations! Do enjoy the cuteness for now.

With a view to rehoming some of the babies in 5+ weeks, if you let the forum know whereabouts you are then there might be people looking for young degus.

[moletteuk]

Hi, welcome

When did you take the male out? Females are fertile again immediately after giving birth, so I'm hoping you took him out as soon as you saw the first babies or you might have repeat pregnancies.

I don't have experience of pups either but I can confirm that the mums and babies can all stay together and they should share the work, but do keep an eye out that everything stays harmonious, tensions could rise if space becomes limited.

Make sure the mums have plenty to eat including some high calcium forage and seeds.

If you complain to Pets at Home there is a chance you might get a cage out of them for their error.

Do you have any plans for the future yet? Will you keep dad with a male pup or two, and both mums together with or without a female pup or two? Do you have big enough cages for larger groups?

[moletteuk]

That's good news that you removed the dad right away.

Do make sure that your cages are as big as you think they are, there is some out of date advice out there. For example three degus require 1.5 sqaure metres of cage surface running area, which is three shelves of 1x0.5m See cage size guide for more info and sizing for different sized groups deguworld.proboards.com/thread/9396/forums-cage-size-recommendations

[animalmadchloe]

Erm congratulations can't wait for photos xx

[yasmin]

Hi there frankieb1928. Congratulations Expected or not, they are such cute little beings.

I can relate to what you are going through. I adopted 4 "females" (one was actually a male), and now have 15 degus. (That happened almost 4 years ago.) Degu Azure miscarried all of her pups – that's when I realized there was a problem. This was followed a month later with degu Lilac giving birth to 6 (one passed away) and, a month after that, Peridot gave birth to 7. I went from one double unit Critter Nation Cage to three double unit Critter Nation cages – 5 in each.

Glad that you are thinking of keeping at least some of them. As soon as they are 6/7 weeks old, you have to separate the males babies from the female babies. I took the added precaution of bringing the babies to the vet along with an extra carrying case and had him sex them and then separate the males from the females.

Yes, you can certainly leave the moms together if you want. They will help each other with the babies. For mine, Auntie Azure was there to help everyone. When Peridot's litter was born, Lilac's babies were a month old and they helped with babysitting their cousins (so adorable). FYI: When the babies start eating regular food, expect to be spending alot of degu feed. Babies seem to eat way more than adults.

I should be able to help with any questions/concerns you may have in the days/weeks to come so I will keep an eye out for new posts on this thread.