Help and advice seriously needed Please

[waynep1979]

Hi I'm Wayne, I'm new to this forum, and new to keeping Degus.
Apologies for long message, but feel its necessary to give people as much information as possible.



About 8 months ago, I possibly foolishly adopted 4, female 1 year old Degus, (2 Blue, 2 Agouti) knowing nothing about Degus.
I read and learned as much as I possibly could about them, and very quickly the whole family fell in love with them.
Although the pairs looked similar, we could easily identify which each one was because of their unique characters.

I cleaned out their cage at least twice a week, gave them their dust baths at least every other day.
I closely monitored what they ate, and really as far as I was concerned, did everything right.
They fought when they fed, but never actually hurt each other.

My only concern was the cage, (they came with the cage) was a little on the small size for them.
To combat this I had them out and running round the house most of the time we were home.

6 months later, I lost my two blue ones.  I had them out in the morning and they were all fine. Gave them breakfast, put them in their cage, and went out for the day.
Came home 6 hours later, my 6 year old daughter went to open the cage door, and they were dead.  More traumatizing for my daughter was that the others had completely eaten the head of one of them.

I have absolutely no idea why they died.  I read and re-read as much as I could and could find no real reason.

The other 2 seemed absolutely fine.

Then shortly after one of my agoutis began pulling her fur out from her cheeks and under her chin.
I read that they may do this through grief, or boredom.
I changed the toys in their cage and spend even more time with them.

They seemed fine and healthy other than the fur pulling.

Then last night I put them away while I went to work.  Again both fine.  Came home about 7 hours later, to find another one dead (the one that was pulling her fur out) and again the other one had completely eaten her head.

I now have absolutely no idea what is best to do.

I know that it's not good to keep just one Degu, especially as she has been in a family of four.
But I worry about getting more, a) in fear it is something I'm doing wrong. b) very worried about Isis, (my surviving Agouti) if they may have had a disease.  and c) how Isis will integrate with new Degus, or vice versa.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance

 

[petmadness]

I'm afraid im a newbie myself but you can always contact your vet about getting a necropsy done and you may be able to find some answers. I would also suggest doing this before getting any more degus just incase its infectious. Its normal for them to eat their dead, like some hamsters. Sorry for your loss and that I couldn't help any more. xx

[swiffermuis]

Sorry about your loss! That must've been traumatizing! Degus are known for eating the other ones when they die, this is to prevent leaving a trail for predators in the wild.

What Petmadness said is the only way to find out what the cause could've been. There are some universities who do post mortem, or else it might be a good idea to contact your vet.

I'm still not an expert in degu keeping, but when I kept mice I used to have a similar thing. It turned out to be a disease that one of mine had some how picked up, before I know it three of mine were gone.

Maybe someone more experienced could help you a bit better!

[dyzired]

I'm so sorry! What a traumatizing first degu experience

[moletteuk]

I'm really sorry about this awful experience. It's such an unusual occurrence, to be honest I'm not sure what to say. As others have pointed out, although distressing to see, the eating of the dead is fairly normal for small prey animals, so try not to read anything into this. The eating of the head only or first seems a little more strange, but again is unlikely to mean anything as long as they have a decent diet.  Perhaps there was a catastrophic stroke or aneurism which resulted in some bleeding in the head which could have sparked this responce.

I think the necropsy is well worth considering, perhaps you could telephone your vet about the possibility of this.  It might also be worth getting Isis checked out by a vet.

Sudden deaths like this are unusual, I take it there were no signs at all that anything was wrong, for example lethargy or other behaviour change? It is worrying that it could be a disease, but I can't think of any disease that would strike and kill so fast. It seems more likely to be something like a stroke or heart problem. Presumably they are all litter mates, so I suppose it is conceivable that they all have the same genetic weakness that could explain the same thing happening to three of them.

How long was there between the first two deaths and the most recent one?

To address you cage size concern, it is true that small cages can contribute to fighting, but I have never heard of a degu killing a cage mate in a very short space of time that he/she was previously living harmoniously with. Squabbling and fighting between cagemates follows a gradually increasing pattern that is easy to spot.

I don't really know what to suggest for Isis.  I would be inclined to wait and see for a couple of weeks.  Perhaps you could consider an older female or neutered male as company for her.

[Cherpi]

I don't have anything to help what's happening I just want to say that I am so sorry you've lost 3 poor Degus

[waynep1979]

Thank you all for your advice and condolences.

I tried to call a couple of local vets last night but sadly, none seemed to have very much experience with Degus.

Moletteuk, it was about two months, between the death of the 2, and then the death of the other one.

I'm not sure whether they were all litter mates, or not as I adopted them.

There were no signs at all of any lethargy or behaviour changes, they were running around quite happily until I had to put them away on both occassions.

Isis doesn't seem too unhappy at the moment, and is eating fine.

Thank you all again.

[deguconvert]

I'd like to add my condolences as well. It is always a shocking and deeply painful thing to lose our much loved pets, especially when it is so sudden and with no prior indications it may be coming. Mind you . . . even with warnings . . . it still hurts just as badly. I am very sorry for your losses! How is your little girl doing with the losses?

I'm thinking that it wouldn't be bad to just keep Isis to herself for up to a month, just to be sure that she doesn't have whatever harmed the other three. She will be looking for more attention from you, of course. I also think it would be a very good idea for you to look all through the areas your degus have access to, and look at all your electrical cords, and anything that may bear evidence of having been chewed by your degus. I can't help but wonder if they found something to chew on that ended up causing them internal harm. They are voracious chewers, degus are, and they will try out literally anything to see what it is like. Perhaps they got into something you are unaware of.