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Post by meshellse on Jul 31, 2010 4:42:04 GMT
I bought a pair of degus a couple years ago. They have multiplied many times over and now we have 22! My son brought me to his room where the cage is this evening and they had eaten one of the smaller ones! Only skin and fur was left! What would cause this awful behavior?
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Post by emz on Jul 31, 2010 5:47:14 GMT
You let them breed that much to the state of 22 degus? That can effect the life span of the females having so many babies. I am sorry if I read this wrong but it sounds like you kept all of them together regardless of gender? Correct me if I am getting the wrong end of the stick.
It was eaten either because it was seen as weak or perhaps another degu felt the need to kill it for competitive reasons. If you have 22 degus I imagine they feel rather crowded in their cage and competative over resources. Degus have a hierarchy of who is in charge and 22 in one cage/area sounds like a very complex hierarchy that I am not sure anyone would ever really be able to understand completely.
I am so sorry for what happened though, it sounds very distressing.
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bjames
Burrowing Degu
Posts: 220
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Post by bjames on Aug 6, 2010 21:41:53 GMT
aww the poor goopie! degu topia says u shld never keep more than 7 in the same cage as the hierachy becomes too complex ^^ basically what emz has said. to be honest how can you keep so many of them? I imagine keeping that many would be very difficult. I am sure there are many people who would like some degus, perhaps you should sell some. or even get several new cages.
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Post by deguconvert on Aug 6, 2010 22:56:45 GMT
22 is definitely way to many for one cage!! I suspect you will see more of this behavior if you don't separate them into smaller groups. It would be best to put them in all male/all female groups, and as mentioned prior, no more than 7 in a group. Are you able to keep them all, or have you considered re-homing any of them? Also, you may like to look at the cages board and look at the home made wooden cages that many here have built. They are easier to keep and to clean.
I just occured to me that the little one may have died of natural causes, and the two that ate him may have been following a natural instinct to dispose of the body for safety and cleanliness purposes.
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Post by lucasm on Aug 8, 2010 2:40:04 GMT
I agree with deguconvert cause i cant imagine them being the ones who actually killed it!! (on purpose anyways) and even as an inexperienced owner 22 in a cage sounds outrageous! Just two degus fill up the cage with poo quickly so I can imagine there is a cleanliness problem thus making a bad environment for your degus... if you truly love your animals i would strongly suggest you to either split them apart or give a reasonable amount away to trusted people.
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Post by emz on Aug 8, 2010 7:44:43 GMT
Degus can kill other degus, and I wouldn't be surprised when there is 22 of them together. I did also say it may have been killed due to it being weak (this is normal with a lot of animals in the wild) but I did forget to mention it died first before being eaten.
I wouldn't assume it didn't happen though. Imagine being cramped up in one regular 2 bedroom house with 22 other people. You would probably start to lose your mind.
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risch
Newborn Degu
Posts: 5
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Post by risch on Jan 22, 2011 16:28:31 GMT
We have been keeping 6 male degus for about 3 months now, but we have just literally come home to find only 5 degus, and the other has been entirely eaten by the rest of the group.... it's really quite terrible. We have no idea what happened but we think that he might have had a heart issue or something similar - he was much fatter than the rest of the degus, in retrospect this could have been a sign of some genetic issue. He was always the most independant of the degus, but the group dynamic as a whole was always good - for 6 males they never ever fought (unless it was over oats!!) - I can't see that this would have been malicious for any reason. I guess degu's eat their dead? Anyway, he always seemed like he had a much higher purpose than the rest of the group, I guess he's moved on to bigger and better things!!!
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Post by Cherpi on Jan 22, 2011 19:37:31 GMT
Risch you shouldn't bump old threads, you should create a new one.
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Post by deguconvert on Jan 23, 2011 2:00:55 GMT
Risch! I'm very sorry about your shocking discovery. That must be most perplexing and sad. I don't know why it should happen as it did. I suspect that he must have died on his own, and then the group took care of "disposal" so to speak. They don't always eat their dead . . . sometimes they bury them . . . sometimes they move them away . . . other times they just leave them be. There isn't really a method that is prominently practiced among all degus, so it isn't a matter of instinct at all.
It sounds like this fella had quite a stand out personality, and you will likely miss him. I'm sorry for your sudden and unexplainable loss.
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