robyn
Newborn Degu
Posts: 19
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Post by robyn on Sept 16, 2010 16:16:46 GMT
i have two male degus around two years old, neither have had any major health problems but in the last few weeks one has gained a lot of weight and the other has lost a lot, i havent changed their food and they have no sugar in their diet so i dont think its diabetes, i think that the fat one, who is also the dominant one, is just eating all the food althouh i havent caught him doing it, wondering if anyone has any ideas on how to stop this behaviour or what else could be happening?
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Post by slaine on Sept 16, 2010 17:04:32 GMT
2 feed bowls separate ends of the cage ,, maybe small amounts of food in each just so the one doesnt get fatter
are you lots of hay so they can munch when the bowls are empty ?
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robyn
Newborn Degu
Posts: 19
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Post by robyn on Sept 16, 2010 17:17:11 GMT
well the first thing i did when i realised that one was gaining weight was to reduce the food and increase the hay but as this seems to have led the other one to lose weight i didnt know what to do! i have tried feeding the skinny one a bit extra by hand but the other gets very agitated which was worrying, i will try feeding them separately this evening and see if that helps at all thanks
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Post by deguconvert on Sept 17, 2010 4:35:58 GMT
This may seem a silly question/suggestion, but are you certain of their genders? Have you ever looked at the "How to sex your degus" video on this board? Perhaps you are already veyr competent in determining the gender of degus, and if so, please forgive me for going into this. Pet stores seem to mistakenly designate most degus as male because they all have an appendage in their behind bits that resemble a penis. However, both male and female have this and it is known as the urethral cone. The actual difference between male and female is determined by observing the the distance between the urethral cone and the anus. In females these two bits are so close that if you were to outline them with a pen, you would end up with a drawing that very much resembles the figure 8. On the male, a similar outlining would end up with a drawing the more closely resembles the outline of an old fashioned door knob lock. Having said that, it is probably obvious that I am wondering if the goo that is gaining is possibly a pregnant female?
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robyn
Newborn Degu
Posts: 19
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Post by robyn on Sept 17, 2010 16:55:02 GMT
as i've had them for over a year im fairly sure that they are both male although when he started to get bigger that was something i thought of, so it will probably be something to check so thankyou for your advice on how to do it, very worried about the one losing weight though, have tried feeding them separely now, which they are very unhappy about as they do everything together but will have to wait and see if it makes a difference!
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Post by arumanii on Sept 17, 2010 17:46:12 GMT
to give the underweight one a boost you could also try a bit of lactol formula for a few days... (its a puppy milk subsitute) I've used it on occasion when a goo's been a bit down or had injuries just to give them a boost.
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