Confused new owner....

[honeybee]

Hiya,

I have had my 2 male degus for 9 days now. They settled into their new home really quickly, they get on well, and after some, er, certain displays of "affection" live together really nicely.

But in the last couple of days, whenever Ive been feeding them, one of them won't let the other one near the bowl, and if he does, they have the most crazy massive all-out scrap! They make awful noises when they do, and Im worried they're gonna end up getting hurt! (Sorry, we are still throwing name ideas around )

I'm just confused cos they've been absolutely fine for a week and it has suddenly just developed. And as a new degu owner I don't know if this is normal or not!

[ra]

Degus tend to be food aggressive. Surprisingly enough Mocha's baby Tanzania who I kept as a cage mate for her mom, is VERY food aggressive. She growls and pushes her mom away from the food dish. They don't actually get into it too often but once in awhile there's a lot of squeeling and shoving going on.

You could put in two food dishes to alleviate the fighting.

[gooey]

yes they are definitely selfish little buggers when it comes to food
i can get away with one food bowl for their everyday pellets, but for the once in a while treats, there better be two bowls and they have to be on separate levels also otherwise there is growling, slapping and sometimes a well placed kick!

[honeybee]

OK, 2 food bowls sounds like a good idea. Thanks for the help! I will give this a try!

[jacky]

I had to put my food dishes on different levels for my five boys, its funny because one of them would push his dish over the ledge so that he could then guard two dishes at the same time. I have now started putting his on the floor (no Dish) and he is so busy rushing around guarding his that he leaves the others alone.

[sarah]

Yesk Jacky has a good point -- we have to put the bowls on the same level far enough apart so one degu doesn't guard both, but not too far so that when Blossom attacks someone who is trying to eat from "her" bowl, the other one is close enough so the displaced degu doesn't have to go far. Otherwise, he just keeps going back to Blossom's bowl and is attacked again.

[critterrx]

My two boys finally got in a REALLY nasty fight when they were about 6 months old and hurt each other pretty badly. Since then, they live in separate cages placed next to each other and are out together for supervised playtime.

Hopefully the separate food dishes will solve your problem, but just keep an eye out for signs of more fighting.

[honeybee]

They're funny little things though aren't they, since yesterday they've been fine and getting along really nicely, and the last couple of times I've fed them they have been eating together right next to each other without a problem!

I think that like you said critterrx, it is maybe something that just needs keeping an eye on!

[exile57]

Mine were fine when they could both fit in the dish, but now they're bigger they have a dish each and amazingly enough feeding time is so easy now.

I open the cage in a morning, as the stand there watching I get the bucket with their food out, and as soon as they hear me pop the lid, they clinb into the bucked, grab a pea flake and sit on my knee eating it while I fill their bowls. Then they jump back in the cage and go to their own bowls (on the same level) with no fighting, grumbles or anything. I even stroke their heads before closing the cage and they just keep eating away as if I wasn't there.