need advice ASAP, Please

[laurieb]

OK,everybody, I need advice pretty quick I don't know how much time we have, but here's what's going on.
As most of you know, our Lilly has been expecting pups for what seems like years now. ;D
Well, the time is really close. We were watching her babies moving all around in her tummy while she was eating. SO COOL! Our kids thought that was the greatest thing on earth!
Now, Lilly, Milly, and Willy have been together since birth. VERY CLOSE! I know that I need to move Willy out before the pups are born for a few days, but I was wondering about Milly. I'm pretty sure that she is expecting, too, but not for a little while.
Should Milly move out with Willy until the pups are a few days old, or should she be kept with Lilly to be with her during labor? Their cages are right beside each other. They can see each other clearly through the bottom aquariums.
Who gets Milly for company?
I will be posting this on another site to try to get opinions ASAP, so you may see me again.

[pinkpiglet]

We had the same situation 2 weeks ago. It has not worked out well. We kept our two females together while we moved the male out for a couple days. That worked out well. When we moved the daddy back in though the fights started - big time!

Daddy was trying to protect his babies and the 'spare' female was obviously a threat. We had to move her out before Daddy killed her.

We tried one more time the other day to re-introduce her and it didn't work. The first female was trying to keep her away from the male. What a mess.

We now have a lone female. We give her lots to do - extra apple tree branches to chew the bark off of and fling around , we hand feed her a lot and pet her. She doesn't like us to pick her up (we've only had the degus for just over a month now) but we can pet her.

We have a wheel in with her but she prefers to stand beside it and turn it with her two front paws rather then run on it.

We are thinking that we may keep one of the female babies and see if she and the 'auntie' can get along and live together. If not, we'll have to find a new home for her.

[laurieb]

I hope we don't have that problem! I'm so sorry . I do think that keeping one of the female pups for the Auntie is a wonderful idea. Females are much more likely to get along. Good luck to you.
Laurie

[ra]

I only had one Degu when Mocha had her litter. She was pretty exhausted tending to all 8 by herself. I'd read the females help one another with the babies so I tried to help her as best I could in the absence of another female Degu.

I would leave Milly with Lilly and take Willy out for the time being. Keeping the cages close together may help. I don't know how that goes since I only had the lone adult.

Unless you plan on having more litters (not recommended - the more babies the moms have the shorter their lifespan) your best bet would be to keep a male pup for Willy and not re-introduce him to the females.

PinkPiglet I would recommend the same for you. Put the females back together and take the male out. Keep a male pup for him instead of a female for the "Auntie".

Unless you know your Degus' background it's really not a good idea to breed them. You more than likely are inbreeding which can result in a host of problems.

I worry sometimes about the female pup I kept. If the information I got from the pet store was accurate (I highly doubt it ) Mocha was bred by her father. Of course they often don't know at the pet store - they told me she was the lone male left from their last litter. HA!! Anyway the baby I kept, Tanzania Peaberry was the runt. She is now as big as her mom with larger feet actually. She has bald patches on her face right infront of her ears. I posted about them last year. Kept a close watch no mites evident - the bald patches never changed shape or size either. Now this spring as they are shedding out I notice a balding area around the end of her nose larger on one side. She appears to be otherwise healthy, eats well and plays vigorously. Could these odd patches be caused by inappropriate breeding? Who knows?

[pinkpiglet]

Thankfully I know for a fact that the male isn't even remotely related to the females. *whew*

We're planning to get the male fixed and leave Hank and Lacey together. I've never seen a male and female animal act more "married" in my life! It's amazing! They get on their wheel together - sometime running in the same direction and other times running in opposite directions - now is that like a marriage or what??