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Post by mcavan on Feb 3, 2012 11:08:59 GMT
So on 29th of Jan my 1st litter of degu pups went 6 weeks old!!! ;D They still all lived together with mum & dad. I Did not separate them on that day due working. Any way we had 4 girls and 1 boy. Now i went to separate them yesterday and found my favorite most naughty and cheeky degu boy pup dead in the bottom of the cage He had blood all over him and looked like he had been attacked, but now i cant figure out why this would happen to him. First i thought it might be a dominance thing between him and his dad but every time i went to check them he was always sitting next to his dad and both grooming each other. My partner thought it was their mum as she is constantly fighting with all the degus over food and so on. But i just cant get my head around it and why they would kill him? I still think it was the dad but i think maybe it was an accident? like he didn't mean to kill him if you understand. Any help would be appreciated as he truly was the best degu of the bunch. Soon as you open the cage he would crawl all over you sit on your shoulder/head where the others were to scared. So is this normal behavior for them to kill their own?
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Post by Ady on Feb 3, 2012 11:18:54 GMT
It's unsuall for degu to kill youngster. There's posibility your little ones died in accident or from natural causes and the adults were trying to ged rid of the body - eating it. That's natural behaviour as dead body will atract predators.
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Post by mcavan on Feb 3, 2012 11:26:12 GMT
What kind of accident though.. They live in a built wooden cage every level has steps to get up and down in. I found him on his spinner with blood all over, no sign of an accident just looks like bite marks on his face and his legs and back.
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Post by yasmin on Feb 3, 2012 17:52:14 GMT
He most likely died from natural causes and the others may have tried to destroy the body, as Ady has noted. (I have read that degus do this to prevent the body from attracting predators.) My degus' babies at 6 weeks had no issues with the adults. There was bickering and some body-checking and chasing, and the odd ear had been bit, but that was as far as the aggression went. I doubt he was killed by the others. I feel for you. What a tragic, horrifying thing to come upon. My sincere condolences.
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Post by deguconvert on Feb 4, 2012 4:12:37 GMT
I am so sorry for your loss. Killing of pups is indeed uncommon, and if the little one met his end at the hands of one of the others, there is no way of knowing why it happened. Even had you witnessed such an event, we may not be able to diagnos the cause. As Yasmin says, it may well have been natural causes. For whatever reason, he may have lived all his full life in these short six weeks. I am truly sorry for this most unexpected death, that no matter how it came about, it has left a very grizzley memory.
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Post by Maravilla on Feb 4, 2012 9:35:14 GMT
I am sorry for you loss, too. As the other, I don't think it was due to a fight between him and his dad as boys need a couple of weeks longer to become sexually mature (normally this is at the age of 10-12 weeks). Until then, I consider this as little possible that daddy attacked him due to this cause. Degus are very good at hiding health problems. Especially at this early age it can be a question of just a few hours to develop any problem, lose weight and die. Maybe it was an infection, an intestinal problem, an heridary thing, whatever. We will never know. Keep an eye on the other pups to see if they grow properly. It is hard, but you cannot change the situation. It was neither your fault nor the one of you little friends.
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