New goo mama of NINE!

[alisonwonderland]

I found a lady who is giving away 3 adults and 6 babies because she doesn't have room for them.

My question is who should i keep and why.
I have 2 cages and the adults are 1 male and 2 females, I would love to keep them together but how fast do these guys reproduce, I'm ok with having a litter once in a while but not all the time, it's not fair to the goos at all!
I was planning on taking the male and separating him from the females and keeping one of the boy pups so the adult male will have a buddy.
and if I particularly love one of the baby girls I'll keep her and have her with the 2 adult females
and I'll rehome the rest.

but I just need some extra advice to go with what I've read already. I've done my research, as always, and I'm very animal-savvy. I make sure any animals I care for are happy and healthy and have the best I can give them.

I'm off to browse old posts and I thank anyone who gives me advice!

[emz]

The degus will pretty much constantly reproduce, which will result in any pregnant females lifespan being dramatically reduced and you overrun with pups you will probably not be able to manage. A female is ready to mate every 14-21 days and also just after giving birth she would also be at her most fertile. Gestation is only 90 days so you would get a lot of babies.

You can keep males and females separate in different cages or neuter the males once they are over 1 year old but otherwise it is not a good idea to keep them all together. Keeping all of them would be quite costly and it depends if you can afford that.

[deguconvert]

Welcome to the forum! What a plunge for you! LOL! Nine all at once is kind of into the deep end. However, they are wonderful little furries and we love ours to bits.

Who should you keep? Well, I don't think that is something we can answer for you. These little guys have very developed personalities and characters that as you get to know them will become apparent. I think you need to spend a little time with them, daily building trust and a relationship with them, letting them get to know you and get used to your home. With each day and week that passes you will see new things and new progress will show up in your relations with them. I think as you get to know them, you will begin to get a feel for who you want to keep, and that will help you know what sex you need to keep for company etc. Now if this doesn't happen, I guess you ask for help, and maybe tell us what you know about the different goos and what you see happening between them and you.

Don't be afraid to be using tiny bits of treat (like sunflower seeds, or shredded wheat cereal, or porridge oats) to encourage them to get to know you and come onto your hands.

Let us know how things are going!

[alisonwonderland]

hello again, I now have my goos, i love them! the woman told me there are 2 females and 4 males, but I'll check this for myself before assuming, however I think that the other female is also pregnant and I'm going to need to look around on the breeding board and see if I should expect them very soon, as she's a little fatter than the other female and she's been with the male all along since the other momma had her babies.

When do i seperate the male and female babies? they're still small and the two cages have different width bars so the little ones have to stay in cage number two for a while before they won't be able to escape the other cage, thank goodness the little ones are almost old enough to be re-homes because once the second litter is born there will be way too many in one cage.

I would seperate them now but the male would be all alone in his big cage and that would be no fun, and if i put the non-pregnant female in with him, I'll probably have another litter to deal with in 3 months, so I'm thinking I will keep the 2 male babies (if I only kept one then the other would have to be sold alone, and I don't want that to happen.)
then I'll sell/find homes for all the rest of the babies and have 3 males in one cage (it's a very large cage) and 2 or 3 females (depending on if i have someone buy 3 females instead of sending off 2 pairs...) in the other cage (which is also quite large.)

I'm just thankful that the cages the woman gave me are large, otherwise I would be more worried.
and I have plenty of animal experience and have done my research so I'm not too worried.


OH... and all of the degus are beautiful, happy and healthy and very very tame, they don't mind me touching them or anything, the pregnant momma may be my favourite, she even lets me reach in and just rub her face. and soon I'll try picking them up, i don't want to be too pushy but they all seem like they won't mind being picked up.

[emz]

You can separate the baby males from the mother at 6-8 weeks old, which is their weaning age.

Separating them too early is bad for both physical and mental development. The sounds of their mother contributes a lot to healthy mental development I recall reading somewhere.