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Post by laura1234 on Mar 2, 2011 12:59:49 GMT
I am hoping somebody might be able to help me or offer some advice. I adopted 2 badly abused degus from P@H towards the end of last year, they didn’t know much about their history as they had been dumped there but the poor degus had shed their tails and were extremely traumatised, they are still untouchable today. I was told at the time the degus were the same sex but they were unsure which sex. I am sure you can predict my next sentence – we now have a family of 6 degus! After researching degu breeding, the female becomes fertile within 4 hours of giving birth and therefore we now have another litter on the way. What started off as good intentions, adopting 2 unwanted and abused animals, has turned into a complete nightmare. I enquired about having the males neutered but that will cost approximately £46 per degu, which I am not in a position to afford.
I have tried finding local degu rescue centres (I’m based in Leeds, West Yorkshire) but haven’t had any luck so far.
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Post by pappy1264 on Mar 2, 2011 13:35:36 GMT
How old are the first litter? Any chance you could put dad in with just the males? Had they had any litters in the pet store while there? I would think 'obviously not' if they said they were the same sex, but then they could have just said that because they wanted rid of them. So sad.
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Post by nickymills30 on Mar 3, 2011 6:51:28 GMT
i agree with most of what smux has said Do go back to P@H's i did and got a thicket cage, for £10, and my female wasn't pregnant, just sold to me as a male! I contacted the pet care trust, who forwarded my letter to the pet shop, they did nothing, and when i spoke with them, they said, it needed to be dealt with by the pet shop, but do try your local council, the environmental health, issue license for selling pets. I agree, degu's are specialist animals, but you can't slate Laura for taking them on Smux. She may well be better, re-homing the 2 adults, and keeping some babies, but, at least they where gotten out of that hell whole. You've surprised me hun, as any animal not there, is def better off xxx
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Post by laura1234 on Mar 3, 2011 16:06:16 GMT
Thank you for your replies, they’re much appreciated. We managed to catch all the degus this morning and took them to an exotic vet to be sexed – out of the litter there are 2 girls and 2 boys so we’ve put the mum with the females and the dad with the males. We’ve managed to split the cage in half as a temporary solution until we consider all of our options.
In hindsight, it probably wasn’t a good idea to rescue 2 neglected degus but we’d seen them sat in the adoption centre for 2 months and wanted to give them another chance at life. We carried out a lot of research beforehand to make sure we could provide them with the best possible care and also built an entirely new degu cage from scratch for them to live in. P@H told us how they’d had a horrible start in life and had been passed from ‘pillar to post’ so we wanted to provide them with a forever home. When we first brought them home they were incredibly timid and wouldn’t leave their nesting box until we left the room. Thankfully, they’ve come out of their shells a lot more now and will move around the cage whilst we’re in the same room but it’s taken them a long time to develop this confidence. They seem particularly fond of my Rottweiler and always come to the front of the cage to greet her, sometimes even sleeping against the glass next to her!
We don’t want to return the adults or the babies to P@H because they will most definitely ‘sell them on’ and I don’t want them going to homes where they will be neglected or abused like their parents.
Thank you once again. I will keep you updated!
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Post by laura1234 on Mar 3, 2011 16:41:35 GMT
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Post by nickymills30 on Mar 4, 2011 7:03:52 GMT
love th cage hun! Your googles look very happy xxx
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Post by moletteuk on Mar 4, 2011 17:52:16 GMT
what a great cage you have provided them with, and you have my complete respect for taking them on I hope you can keep them all and that the second litter, if it comes, is small so you have a nice size colony of each sex. You should definitely go back to petsathome and have a polite rant to see what they will give you.
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Post by laura1234 on Mar 5, 2011 19:02:23 GMT
Once again, thank you for your replies.
We have already split the cage in 2 with the boys in the bottom half and the girls in the top half. The litter are over 6 weeks old and have been split up now - sorry for leaving this detail out!
We woke up this morning to find that the mum has now given birth to her second litter - 4 in total. Is there any extra care the babies need? We have made sure mum has fresh water, food, hay and gave her some shredded toilet roll to keep the babies warm (she'd already made a nest with toilet roll we'd put in earlier in the week) Other than this, is there anything else?
With regards to letting the dad visit, I don't feel too confident about that. Obviously we want to avoid any accidental pregnancies and don't want to put any unnecessary stress on the mum and her babies - he's still very wary of us and it wouldn't be a simple task catching him again if we let him in with the girls.
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Post by deguconvert on Mar 6, 2011 1:08:34 GMT
She has already had her second litter?? WOW! I feel like I've entered a time warp. The babies from her first litter must be more like to three months of age, as degus have about a 90 day gestational period. When did you separate the female pups from the males and Daddy? I ask because when the pups are in an enviroment of plenty (as in good supply of good nutrition, safe conditions, warmth) they can be fertile and ready to conceive as early in life as 6 weeks of age. I really hope this not going to become a future "difficulty" and event for you.
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