suze
Newborn Degu
Posts: 8
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Post by suze on May 10, 2010 0:50:00 GMT
hi i'm new and would love some help and advise. We were sold 2 male degus in November and called them Pixie and Dixie. The pet shop almost interviewed us which i was quite impressed with . They asked us to think seriously about whether we would take proper care of them. so you can imagine how dissappointed i am that the pet store, with a vet on site, sold us not 2 males but a male and female. last week, worrying that one of boys was getting fat and concerned about diabetes or liver disease we took him to the vet to be told he was a female and pregnant. today she gave birth while we were out. we came home to squeaking and the male trying to impregnate her again. We have now seperated them (in the same cage but with a wire divider so they can see each other) i suspect we may be too late and she may be pregnant again. Despite being able to see her he seems frantic to get at her and a little distressed. i'm worried. so my questions are am i being cruel considering she may already be pregnant? is 24 hours enough to keep them apart?. is it better to have him neutered and keep the pair together or should we seperate them? if we keep one of the pups will it be ok or do we need to take all six away from the mother?
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Post by DegutasticJen on May 10, 2010 9:34:21 GMT
Hello and welcome first of all :-)
I wouldnt say you are being cruel, as you will never know if she is pregnant already so you are taking the correct procautions just incase, I would say at least a good 2-3 days, however other members may be able to help, But I have heard that she is highly fertile at this point and will need to keep seperated, when the same situation happened to me, I removed him for just a few days then put him back in and he helped so much with the babies.
I would say hold off on the neutering for the moment as you may find you will have a boy in the litter which you could possibly keep with dad when the pups turn 6-8 weeks. If you do decide to get him neutered this cannot be done until he is a year old (sorry not sure how old he is).
Regarding the pups, its totaly up to you how many you keep, just becareful sexing, incase you dont want this situation again lol, however none of them can be removed from the mother until 6-8 weeks. My first litters I am keeping both pups as she only had 3, sadly one passed away after the first day, but the remaining two I have kept, I was in two minds what to do with the father, either get him neutered or to seperate them. I had some great advise on here which told me to wait for the litter to be sexed as I may end up with a male that I can keep with the dad and luckily I did :-)
So one female baby and one male, the female is still in with mum and the boy is in with dad I seperated them all last week as that is when they turned 6.5 weeks :-)
I hope what I have said helps you somewhat, if not im sure other members who have had the same situation will be able to help :-)
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suze
Newborn Degu
Posts: 8
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Post by suze on May 10, 2010 13:16:40 GMT
thanks that is really helpful and Pixie seems to have settled down now in his half of the cage. He still goes mental with a lot of tail waving and chirruping when Dixie appears. We have 6 pups by the looks of it so fingers crossed they all survive. Mum is charging round the cage when she isnt in the nest and dragging tissue in. We will put dad back in a few days and hope we dont have any hanky panky
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Post by deguconvert on May 10, 2010 14:32:35 GMT
Hello! Welcome to the forum and . . . I want to say congratulations on the pups, but it may still be too much of a surprise to be a pleasure. Don't be afraid to being picking up the pups by day 4 and getting them used to being handled. Momma won't get upset with you, it won't make her reject them, and it is great for helping them to be hand trained early and very friendly.
You need to know that the pups will be very mobile and within 3-4 days after birth, they will start venturing out of the nest and exploring. Because they are so tiny, they can walk right through most cage bars, so you will need to pup proof your cage. Placing/attaching cardboard strips around the areas where ever there are tiers and level surfaces will help keep them inside. They are climbers, so you may find you have to put something over the top of your cage to prevent them escaping there as well. Also, if you can, arrange your cage so that there are no long drops. They are somewhat clumsy and can fall easily, being hurt in the process. You will also see them trying out solid foods within the week. It is a good idea to be sure of the number of pups you have so that when ever you are near the cage you count to make sure no one is missing . . . especially if you are about to hoover or use any kind of machine that could sweep up and kill a pup that might have escaped.
It is important to have your pups sexed around 5.5 weeks of age. In an environment where they are well fed and housed, the female pups can actually be sexually viable and be impregnated. Although the male pups can't do any impregnating, Daddy can and will. So having him separate from the pups by this time is important.
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suze
Newborn Degu
Posts: 8
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Post by suze on May 11, 2010 0:03:46 GMT
Gosh thanks. there is so much to think about. i think the cage may be fine as it is made up of approx 1cm squares, but i will make sure i check it out. If one gets out i will call it Houdini !! I will take your advise on handling them though as i suspect we are in this position because the orginal pair were not used to be handled until we trained them, so i'm guessing they were hard to catch and sex. Mum seems to be a natural though but I am worried that all the pups are ok as they are deep within the nest box.
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Post by deguconvert on May 11, 2010 4:09:45 GMT
You'll need to resist looking into the nest box over the next 3 days. They will be well cared for, and if there is an ill or dying pup, mum will remove it once it has died. She may even bury it under the bedding in a corner of the cage. Try not to worry, you'll just drive yourself crazy. In the meantime, enjoy all their little sounds, and catch every glimpse of them you can. And . . . look forward to your first chance to hold one, or more. ;D
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Post by smux on May 11, 2010 22:37:40 GMT
Getting back to the neutering part of the above question, I've read that if you look around you might find a vet who is willing and (hopefully) capable of performing a vasectomy on him rather than neutering him...this means the two of them can still "enjoy" an active sex life but she won't get pregnant. Neutering has an effect on males that vasectomies don't, he may not come out of it the same degu he was when he went in (I mean apart from him being Jaffa...seedless). It'll probably cost more if you DO find a vet who will be prepared to do so, but surely it's worth it for a happy degu pair.
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suze
Newborn Degu
Posts: 8
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Post by suze on May 25, 2010 0:59:42 GMT
vasectomy sounds much better and we think we may have found a vet who specialises. We have 7 pups. they all survived and seem to be thriving. The pet shop has said they will take the pups. We had planned to keep the male and 2 male pups, mainly because i'm worried the female is pregnant again as despite splitting them up for 3 days, the male made it his mission to erm err um show her some love :-). However (and i may be mental here) but it seems a shame to split them up. i could kill the pet shop for putting us through this anguish
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Post by smux on May 25, 2010 1:16:53 GMT
Remember that both vasectomy and neutering carry dangers, as does any procedure that requires the degu to be anaesthetised during the process...the longer he's under the more likely he is to not recover, much like with humans. Not trying to scare you, just want to make sure you give him some good love and attention before he goes in for his snip JUST IN CASE you're one of the unlucky owners so you have that final moment with him. I'm sure it won't come to that, but always best to be sure. If the vet's a specialist, he'll probably have the degu under, snipped and back again within as short a time as possible to minimise the chances, and he should know the risks.
And about the pet store taking the babies...don't give them the satisfaction of earning money from their mistake...I'm sure you can find another pet store that'd be only too happy to buy them from you and who will do a better job of informing their customers of which one is male and which one is female, or you could sell them directly yourself (or give them away in the adoption zone here on the forum...or maybe sell them here as babies do tend to be more popular than the older ones)
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