Single Degu

[fredundant]

I hope this is the right section. But this is something that concerns me. I have two males (Harry and Finn). They are both only a year old so hopefully many years of fun left. My concern is when the first degu will inevitably die. Either Harry or Finn will be alone.

Surely he would be too old to introduce another degu into his home, or to home with another degu. The time alone could be upto a year, maybe more.

Surely everybody will encounter this problem and I'm sure many already have. What actions are usually taken? Do they get introduced to new degu's or do they live the rest of their days a lone degu?

[smux]

The advice is usually for you to get yourself two baby degus to introduce to the lone degu so that when he eventually passes as well, there is no remaining single degu as you got two. While this is a bit more work in that you went from having two to losing one and having three, it is the logical way to do things.

If your degus were getting old, it would be a good idea to get the two degus in advance so that they can be integrated into the structure in advance of anything happening, but as you said your two have many years left ahead of them :-)

The reason babies are chosen are because adult degus are less likely to be threatened by a degu who has just finished weaning (6 weeks old) and will accept them readily into the collective, hopefully forever. It doesn't always work like that, especially if the adult degu is exceptionally old or exceptionally dominant or horny (my Dante is the latter two, and sadly still on his own, but he is to be introduced to the boys over the next week in a proper two-cage intro), but generally it works out well.

[fredundant]

Thanks smux for your reply.

The only problem I see here is that it is a cycle. That will eventually repeat. Would you recommend giving a lone degu to a good home?
I would find this difficult though as if the degu isn't accepted he will be lonely anyway. In which case I would want my degu back to live its last days with me. Furthermore a new home may cause stress which wont help an OAP degu.

[smux]

PERSONALLY speaking I would probably let the degu live his last days with me if he wasn't accepting of new friends, and I wouldn't entertain the thought of giving him or her away to someone else unless they were nearby me and I could visit regularly (and of course get them back if it didn't work out). I would probably keep on trying degus from sources that could have their degu(s) returned if it didn't work out, much like I have done with Dante and the babies...if another introduction with the babies doesn't work, another batch of babies (don't ask, wasn't planned) is due in a month or so and hopefully there'll be males among these that he gets on better with. My problem here is that I promised myself and his previous owner that there would be no next owner for these boys, they'd been through many homes already (I think I am number 6) and this was where they'd stay to live out their lives. Sadly it didn't work out too well for his brother, Elsevier, but it's going to go well for Dante.

It is a cycle, but getting two degus ensures that the cycle is partially broken as there is no need for another degu once one dies, you would need for another to die before more would be needed.

If nothing works with Dante, he'll be a lone degu but he'll have constant companionship from me and the flatmate plus regular playtime with the girlies (whom he adores) and there is also the possibility of him getting the snip and getting to live with them permanently in a bigger cage...there's always compromises if you're willing to go the distance :-)