Recently adopted Degus - Need advice please!

[jakaherbie]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum so I don't know if there have been any questions on this issue, but as am also new to Degus - we adopted 2 males on 15th March, they live in my Son's room and so he gets to watch their antics more than I do!

My question is do Degus get "penis ring" like chinchillas?

I hope that's the right word for it... because the other day my Son found one of his "little boys" doing something that looked like fellatio on himself, (I couldn't belive it at first but he showed me a video )

Is this a sign that something is wrong with his bits? I asked a vet yesterday but he doesn't know anything about degus and couldn't help me and I've found it impossible to find any information on degus doing this on the internet, only links to you tube videos of them doing it, so is this common and normal?

Or is he being irritated by something?

As we are their third owners and they are still getting used to us (one doesn't trust us at all yet and wasn't tamed by the person I adopted them from) it's hard for us to check him over "downstairs" also I'm not really sure what I would be looking for either apart from obvious signs of irritation (red skin etc)

Any advice would be great - thank you for taking the time to read this.

I'm sorry if it seems a stupid question to ask, but we were not told by the previous owner that they do this, so it was quite a shock for us both to witness!

*hugs* J x

[winic1]

There are lots of posts about this here on this site, look in the Degu Behavior section. Yes, that is what he was doing. It's normal. And often, they will start chirping loudly for quite a while afterwards, announcing it to the world. Funny little fellows.

[moletteuk]

And just to confirm, it's not a sign that there is anything wrong, so no need to worry

[amie]

Yes. They often 'go down on themselves', sorry to say! It's completely normal. They're dirty little moomins!

[deguconvert]

LOL! That was a speeding introduction to one of the more . . . self serving? . . . habits of male degus. Welcome to the forum!!

[malteser60]

Sigh, yup, male degus will do this to themselves, then loudly brag about it afterwards! It is completely natural and there is nothing wrong (i.e. rash or irritation) around their bits. I've also seen gerbils at it as well at Pets at Home. Had to make sure no little kiddie was cooing over the gerbil!