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Post by housejohnson on Jun 26, 2010 5:21:04 GMT
A degu forum, how awesome is that. I am new to the forum, but not new to degu's... my degu family consists of Dante and Dot, a happy little couple that just had their second litter... the girls..Sugar, Spice, and Delilah the boys..Peru and Francis and one solo boy, a rescue, Damien.
We have tried to introduce Damien to some younger males in hoped that he would not have to live alone but thus far it has not been very successful. He was a bit of a trouble maker at the pet store where we got him from and had progressed to the point where he was seriously hurting his brothers. The pet store basically gave him to us because they could not find a home for him... we continue to try, and we may try again with the young male from Dot and Dante's latest litter...
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Post by deguconvert on Jun 26, 2010 6:00:35 GMT
Hello!! Welcome to the forum! ;D It is good to have you here! It sounds like you have a full little family of mostly happy degus. Damien being the exception. Poor Damien, some degus just have a really tough time with the whole social aspect of their nature. Do you mind if I enquire, how old is Damien? I love the names you have chosen for your goos. Francis was the french name my french teacher in early grades gave me to use in class for myself. She couldn't think of the french equivilant she said, so that was the closest she could think of. Personally I think it was because it starts with the same first letter and that's all. LOL!
I hope you will enjoy the forum and all our members here. We are a right friendly bunch, and thoroughly enjoy being of help to one another. I'm sure you'll fit in great!
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Post by iamlina on Jun 26, 2010 6:34:03 GMT
Helloooo =] Welcome to the forum! I also love the names.
x
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Post by NightwishRaven999 on Jun 26, 2010 7:00:40 GMT
Hi there ! Welcome to the forum. Hope you have fun here
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Post by smux on Jun 26, 2010 11:41:43 GMT
Damien's the name I gave to my little troublemaker too...and I know he enjoys being naughty because he looks at me innocently while he does it. My only advice there is to let him get away with the minor stuff but if he does anything seriously bad then show him who the boss is (use the dominance hold if just telling him no isn't working).
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Post by DegutasticJen on Jun 26, 2010 13:33:17 GMT
Welcome :-)
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Post by housejohnson on Jun 26, 2010 19:35:29 GMT
I am not sure how old Damian is, the pet store did not have any information on him, or at least the person I spoke too did not, but from the sound of it they had him there for awhile. We have thought about trying to introduce him to one of the male's from Dot's litter, seeing if he can get along with a young male.
We originally had three, named after the animaniacs, Yako, Wako, and Dot, but being a new Degu owner at the time, and not being informed that plastic bottomed cages were bad, Yako and Waco chewed out one night and were nabbed by my cat. That was when Delilah and Dante came in, although we did not know Dante was a male. It wasn't until Dot had babies that we realized something was amiss.
Delilah had to be separated from Dot though when she had her litter, for some reason she became really aggressive towards the other female. They are in cages beside each other now and they keep meeting at the bars so maybe it was a temporary spat.....
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Post by emz on Jun 26, 2010 19:40:31 GMT
I am sorry to hear that happened to your degus. We all make mistakes though and the cat was just doing what its instinct dictated. This also happened to my older sister when we were little, who forgot to close her hamster cage and she also had a cat.
Also, welcome. I hope you enjoy it here - it's our own little corner of the net where we can go degu nuts in peace. ;D
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Post by smux on Jun 26, 2010 23:26:49 GMT
Sounds to me like you've had no luck whatsoever with pet stores, I hope you don't buy your supplies from any of these stores that (1) first provided you with the degus and wrong type of cage and (2) provided you with a mis-sexed degu (although that's easily doable). There's no excuse for ignorance when it comes to selling live animals, you either KNOW your stuff or you don't sell it, simple as that.
Anyway, you're here now, you'll soon be degu-proficient and anything you need help with you can ask and we'll help if we can :-)
And you didn't mention who became aggressive to whom...was Dot (the mother) aggressive to Delilah (perfectly normal in a way...protective of her babies...although female degus usually share chores) or vice versa? If Delilah's the aggressive one, it's trickier to gauge the possible reason :-)
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Post by housejohnson on Jun 27, 2010 0:21:27 GMT
Sorry, the mother (Dot) became aggressive towards the other female, Delilah.
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Post by smux on Jun 27, 2010 0:28:17 GMT
Then yeah it's a natural reaction...she may see Delilah as a threat to the babies somehow, or she may want to handle all the chores herself. Just make sure the cage is pup-proof (so they can't escape or get anywhere dangerous, which I'm sure you've already done :-)) and leave Dot to it, she doesn't really need Delilah's help anyway. Give Delilah lots of attention as she's been forced out of her cage, again as I'm sure you're already doing :-)
Oh, totally off the topic, but the two names Yako and Wako are a bad idea. Phonetically they sound way too similar and you'd have confused the poor guys if they had all got used to their names :-)
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