kiko
Newborn Degu
Posts: 1
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Post by kiko on Apr 9, 2005 18:08:04 GMT
I'm new to this site as you can see and later this month im buying 2 baby degus, and i was wondering what kind of cage is best for them? I was also wondering if you could tell what gender they are because i really dont feel like having a million degus running around? if you can tell what gender they are waht gender is better to get, male or female? I appriciate any help i can get. Thank you.
KikoTEXT
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Post by Sunshinemeg on Apr 9, 2005 18:39:18 GMT
Hi Kiko, welcome to the board.
We are a friendly bunch, and I know everyone will do their best to help you!
Ok, firstly, regarding what type of cage, you will soon learn that a degu can chew its way out of nearly everything! So you have two choices, either a glass tank, of a suitable size, or a metal cage with a solid base. they need the solid base so that they can move off the metal bars if they need to, else they can develop a nasty condition known as Bumble foot. This if serious can result in the need to amputate the foot!
Second, regarding what sex, the pet shop should sex the degu and give you two of the SAME sex. And unless you bring home a deu like Ra did, then you will stay at just two degus! Ra however manages far more than this!!!!! I myself have 4 male degus of differing ages, they are happy together, but I know that male degus can sometimes fight. Females if they are litter mates seem very happy together, so if in doubt, maybe a female is better. I will leave that to the other people on this website to make suggestions.
Just remember that having a degu is a lot o work, but a lot of reward! Enjoy!!
SUNSHINEMEG ;D
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Post by ra on Apr 9, 2005 19:00:12 GMT
Sexing Degus is a challenge, believe me!! Both male and female have a conical urethral orifice. I mistakenly thought Mocha's was a penis and was just certain I had a male. Well my "male" had 9 puppies this past Tuesday so what does that tell you?
Anyway, the difference is the distance between the anus and the urethral orifice. There is a greater distance between the male's. The female's are very close together. I was able to closely inspect the baby that died last night . It was definitely a male. I intend to sex my babies by the time they are 3-4 wks so we don't have any mishaps.
Apparently though Degus mature sexually around 7months they can and do breed as early as 6wks. That is what I suspect happened to Mocha. Poor little girl was just trying to grow up herself carrying nine growing babies.
I agree with Sunshinemeg, two females would be your safest bet unless the males are from the same litter. According to my research, males are more territorial thus will fight more.
I plan to keep one if not two of Mocha's female puppies so she won't be by herself anymore. I was wondering where to find a cage mate for her. Little did I know she was carrying her own!!
Good luck. You will have to post pictures of your new arrivals.
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kiko
Newborn Degu
Posts: 1
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Post by kiko on Apr 10, 2005 14:35:09 GMT
Thank you for helping me on those topics. But the store people where im buying them from say they cant tell me what sex they are until they are a certain age(is that really true?) and they'll be ready to leave their mother on the 24th of april, and thats when im buying them, so it might be to late to figure out what they are by the time they can tell.
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Post by ra on Apr 11, 2005 2:05:09 GMT
The babies are usually weaned at 4-5wks. By then they certainly should be able to sex their babies. If not, they are taking a chance of the females getting impregnated by their own father at 6wks! That's what I think happened to my Mocha.
It may be difficult but I believe the pet stores should become more knowledgable about the pets they carry. I was appalled that the pet store where I bought Mocha had "no idea how that happened."
I've done a lot of research and I believe they owe it to you as their customer to properly sex their Degus. What if they give you a boy and girl? You wouldn't want them to breed. Shame on the pet store. I am certain that the little Degu that died was a boy. They are hard to hold on to when they are alive but it must be done.
I hope they are able to sex the Degus for you. Good Luck. I love mine regardless but worry about her health in the long run. If indeed she was breed at 6wks (they aren't truly sexually mature until 7mo)the poor little baby was trying to grow herself while carrying nine baby Degus.
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Post by shigatsu on Apr 11, 2005 16:29:09 GMT
I agree that pet stores should become more knowledgeable about the creatures they sell. It's sad how many pet stores you go to and they know very little. Where we're from there is only one store that sell degus (of the big pet stores it's our least favourite for the animal's conditions - we feel that they could be better, and also, I've watched some of the employees handle some of the animals incorrectly ). I'm not sure if they do this with all their creatures or just some of the more difficult ones, but they had us sign a small form that says that they do not guarantee gender. When we bought ours they were already seperated (they had 3 females and 2 boys). I'm not sure why but during our planning we wanted boys, so got ourselves boys. The employee actually tried to discourage us from getting boys as they fight and all that, but we still got them. Sometimes I wonder though if they were sexed correctly though. Taisuke and Mario fight a lot (though nothing serious), but I have heard that sometimes females can fight just as much. It's so hard to tell! At least they both look the same though... we sometimes worry that they could be male and female too - as sometimes I've seen one mount the other (but I've read, I think somewhere here, that they do that sometimes as a part of their fighting for dominance). Ummmm... We never asked how old they were when we got them, but from their size we guessed that they were approximately 6-7 weeks old. Actually well I'm at it (I'm sorry if I'm rambling a bit )- when measuring their length - should they be measured when they are how they normally are when walking around or whatever, or when they're stretched out (like when sleeping sometimes)? Also, what do you think is the maximum amount of spacing between bars in a cage should be? -I've read that an inch is okay so long as they are somewhat grown up and you do not plan on breeding - The cage we're looking to get them is an inch spacing, so we just want to make sure that it should be okay. We were actually planning on making a cage, as we have a bunch of sites bookmarked on how to make cages that are much cheaper then the ones you buy, but are just as good - but we just can't find the stuff here in Canada for cheap or at all!!!! (ARGHHHHHHH! sorry for that vent, we're really annoyed about this) - the cage we're looking at is around $300 (CAN), and if we get it, we're going to make a pan out of sheet metal to line the inside of the bottom as it's plastic. Okay, I think I totally rambled on, sorry about that. Hope I was helpful in some way, and thanks for any help anyone gives me ^_^
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Post by shigatsu on Apr 11, 2005 16:35:56 GMT
They're a handful, but they're great little guys ^_^
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kiko
Newborn Degu
Posts: 1
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Post by kiko on Apr 11, 2005 20:12:46 GMT
Thanks for all your help. the pet stores here in indiana are a bunch of dummys. they barely know the differance between a rat and a hamster . anyway they have no clue how to tell what sex they are. i went in yesterday to get crickets for my lizard and i asked them again if they could tell and they said that their is no way to tell. but ill check on all that stuff you told me. i had one last question, i was wondering if degus get depressed a lot if they dont get handeled all the time, because im a student so im at school from 7am to 3pm and im mainly free all the time except for when im at school and when im gone to karate on tuesdays and thursdays, and i was wondering if they got depressed if you werent with them most of the day? thank yah. Hope/ Kiko
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Post by shigatsu on Apr 11, 2005 21:49:10 GMT
So long as you get at least 2, all should be alright. When we got Taisuke and Mario, I got a temp job just shortly after, and we were working from 6am till 3 or 4pm, and we have dance lessons once or twice a week, but they're doing great. We play with them as much as we can and when we can't they play with each other (and fight ) ^_^ When you get them, and they still feel that they can't tell them apart, then ask to hold them (which is usually a good idea anyway to see what they're like with you, if they're willing to be friendly and to check out their general health and all that) and try to look for yourself - I can't say for sure how to tell them apart as they look almost the same but the male is supposed to have farther spacing between the anus and privates - other people have better tips when it comes to that on here then me! - just try to make sure the ones you get look the same, that's at least better then having breeding occur when you don't want that. Ummm... If the pet store hasn't done any taming, they'll be all over you like crazy when you hold them so it may be difficult. Ours had very little human handling before we got them, so they were unwilling to sit still at all
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