Unexpected arrival! any advice welcome!

[sparkiesnaps]

We have 3 goos, Bruce, who we belived to be male for the last 3 and a half years has suddenly gone and given birth! I thought he had put on a bit of weight but never expected this! The other 2 boys are 2 years old and we guess Chuck is the dad as he is the dominant one but no idea really.

We havent planned this and have no way of separating them at the moment, is there any immediate action we should take, or will they just naturally take care of the babies and get along?

Obviously we'll have to figure out a new housing arrangement, but as yet we can't even see how many babies there are let alone sexes etc.

Any advice much apprieciated, we are very unprepared for this sudden arrival! thanks

[yasmin]

Congratulations!

Ummm...with mine, they all chipped in and helped with the litters and mom knew exactly what to do, but mine were three females and one male – not three males and one female. (I adopted 4 females only to find out a couple of months later – when one miscarried a litter of four – that "Sienna" was actually "Sean". The other two females were also pregnant by the time I separated the male out of the lot and I now have a total of 16 degus!)

I have heard that the father helps with the paternal chores and I don't think the males are any threat to the babies but you might want to get all of the males out of there because of the risk of "Bruce" getting pregnant again. I have heard that this can happen right after giving birth to a litter (not sure how accurate that is) and that it is very dangerous to the health of the mom if she gets pregnant again so soon afterward. You will need the mom to nurse the babies for at least six weeks. However, there is an advantage to keeping the father in there to give mom a break once in a while.

Don't know what would be best or what advice to give you except that they should naturally take care of the babies. I hope you hear soon from someone else on this forum who knows more than I do on your particular situation.

Still, Congratulations!

[deguconvert]

The first three days after delivery are the days when the new mum is most fertile. Then when the pups are 20-21 days old, again mum will be in eostrus, so should be parted from the males again at that point. This is not normal in the wild, but due to the excellent sources of nutrition always at hand, domestic degus have a much higher rate of litter production if allowed to mate freely.

[sparkiesnaps]

Thanks, this really was a big shock after our 3 "fellas" living together quite hapilly for over 2 years. Really not good news for us as we have no way of separating the males, and even the cage we have is not big enough, we were about to upgrade; now we will have to rethink everything.

My biggest concern is what the heck i'm going to do with them all once they are 6 weeks old, I have a 13 month old daughter who is my priority and i really dont want to take on any extra respononsibilities. In all honesty, I can't have been paying enough attention to my goo's already since I didnt even notice one was pregnant. Feeling very guilty and worried at the moment

[listracian]

Lots of people don't notice they are pregnant, don't worry about it! When Enigma had her babies, she didn't loose weight after or seem to put it on, so though I had suspicions she was pregnant I didn't know till the babies arrived and I was only suspicious because both females I brought home were females and one had already given birth! So really don't worry that you didn't notice she was pregnant it's quite common for it not to be noticed.

If you haven't separated them you might find she is already pregnant again.

if you are worried about them reaching 6 months old, if there is no one on here around your area who can take them do you know of any rescue centres? Or worse case pets at home with their rescue areas? I can understand its not ideal with a young child so rescue centres might be your best bet.

[sparkiesnaps]

Yes, thankfully I know the lovely lady at Rhydowen Rodent Refuge, which is about an hour away. I'd hate to have to add to her already busy refuge, but I'd rather they went to somewhere like that than a pet shop where they might be sold to someone irresponsible.

[Ady]

Hello,
congrats on the babies. Degus hide pregnancy very well so don't worry you haven't recognized it. Important think is to make sure the babies are warm enough. They aren't able to control their own temperature at this stage of life, even that adults will nest with them to keep them warm, the nest itself must be able to keep the warmth in. They probably build nice nest themselves but it's good to check it, you can add some tissue, towels into it or just give more nesting material to mum. All adults should take care of the babies, you don't really have to do anything. If you want to check on them, you can pick them up for short period of time, making sure your hands and room is warm, babies should be fully furred, warm, clean, eyes open.
Also baby-proof your cage. If you have metal cage, you should cover it's sides. Any bowl with water should be moved out of babies reach, also remove wheel and flying saucer.
Hope you will find them home, you can try preloved website

[bekystanway]

Hi,
I also had the shock of finding six (I think, though don't want to poke around too much) babies after happily living with our two 'female' degus for over two years. I have separated the parents (although not for several hours of reading up and locating a cage) and from what I read should be ok to put dad 'Rosie' back in a couple of days. I've heard some people talk about nutering. Does anyone know of a vets that will do this in north Derbyshire (Buxton area)?
Also not sure what to do with babies. My daughter (official owner) is very keen to keep them but I'm not sure...