Question on litters

[shadowdancer60]

For those who have bred degus...Is it common to lose a baby in larger litters?

I ask because we lost one of the litter born Monday night, leaving 8 pups...just like last week, when we lost one pup of the 9 born Monday, on Wed. The others seem to be doing well.

[pinkpiglet]

I think it is. In this last litter of 9 we lost 3. However in the first litter we had Lacey had 9 and we lost none!! We were very excited.

[ra]

Mocha had 9 puppies - I'd thought she'd had eight because that was all I had ever counted. I found one dead puppy under the nest box when I cleaned all of the bedding out of the cage after the first week. The eight remaining puppies were healthy and grew quickly. The little female I kept as a cage mate for Mocha was the runt. Today Tanzania is slightly larger than her mom!!