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Post by xcharlie145 on Jul 2, 2015 0:22:37 GMT
Hi so im new to this website and i need a bit of help. im not really sure how to use this yet and not sure if I'm posting this in the right place but i need some help so..
I bought 2 Degus in April this year (females) from pets at home and when i got them it was the first time of even hearing about them but i decided to get some because they were cute. They have lived really well together since i have had them. Recently they seem to not be getting along, they always slept cuddled up but now they sit on opposite sides of the cage and they have been fighting a lot too. I'm not sure if there playing or if they need to be separated. Sutton used to be more dominant over eedie but now eedie has got a bit bigger than Sutton and trys to bite her and that's when they start to fight. They get very loud when fighting and chase each other around when they fight its like there boxing but they alot bite each other, Non of them will let me pick them up so im not sure i there are any injuries but it has been going on for around 2 days now and im worried one o them will end up getting hurt.
any advice is very much appreciated.
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Post by uglibug on Jul 2, 2015 7:08:13 GMT
Welcome to the forum.
Personally I tend to go with ; if they are squeaking at each other, don't panic'. Major fights are normally almost silent, but do try to keep an eye out for any major injuries. Your girls are probably dominance fighting but a couple of question:
how big is your cage? The one sold as standard by pets at home is too small for happy goos and a cage that is too small can cause fighting.
Is there any sort of obvious trigger, a toy or food or the like?
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Post by deguconvert on Jul 2, 2015 7:39:50 GMT
Another question to ask is what their age is? Degus between the ages of 6 and 18 months are going through a very intensive adolescence into young adulthood, that is overflowing with hormones and the drive to be dominant/top degu. This is often a stage with a fair amount of dispute and can have rather nasty fighting. As Uglibug has said, noisy fighting is more often a sign of healthy fighting that is safer, versus the silent which frequently ends with injuries and in the worst case, death.
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Post by moletteuk on Jul 2, 2015 10:35:11 GMT
Welcome to the forum Fighting is common in young degus as they have high hormone levels and their relative strengths fluctuates and they have to keep re-establishing who is the boss. I think you are right to be concerned if it has escalated a lot and they are biting and causing injuries. The main thing you can do to help is to get a big enough cage, we recommend a minimum of 1.2 square metres or running area for two degus, this is about two and half times the size of the standard PAH cage. For now you could look for a second PAH cage, they crop up on ebay frequently, and join them together, this would also give you the option to do temporary separations and 'time outs' if things get bad and they are causing injury to each other. (We have more on housing, self build, conversion and recommended cages in the housing section of the forum). The other thing you can do is to remove any triggers for fighting, double up on the wheel, sand bath, food bowls, hay etc.
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Post by xcharlie145 on Jul 3, 2015 1:18:21 GMT
Thank you for replying, When they fight is very always very noisy.I first had the cage from pets at home that they recommended until i spoke to a friend who also suggested i get a larger cage so i did and it is roughly 2x the size of the first cage, i moved them into the new cage around 3 weeks ago and after a week of being in the new cage they started to fight but it would only last for like maybe a minuet or so which didn't concern me as much and as i said it was only around two days ago that it escalated and nothing had changed they have been given the same food and treats as always and no new toys have been added they are roughly 10 months old and i was told they are sisters.
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Post by moletteuk on Jul 3, 2015 10:15:59 GMT
Sometimes when you give them a bigger cage it can spark fighting for a while as they work out who is boss of the new territory. It seems a bit odd that they were OK for a the first week, but perhaps they were getting used to the new territory before they decided how great it is and worth fighting over. Did you do a cleanout just before the fighting escalated? If they are borderline fighting about territory, a cleanout can totally reset them and reinforce the concept of new territory and make things much worse.
IF it is about the territory then there is hope that it will be fairly short term and they will decide who will be boss and then go back to being friends. The best course is probably to ride it out as much as possible and perhaps do 'time outs' of separation if you really have to, and then see if the time out helps or not.
This is just a theory and a point of view, so do watch them closely and see what you can figure out and you always have to feel your way forward with the best way to deal with fighting.
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Post by deguconvert on Jul 3, 2015 18:14:08 GMT
A question to clarify your larger cage size. Is it twice the dimension size, and if so, what does it have for running surface space? One complete level? Two complete levels?
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Post by xcharlie145 on Jul 3, 2015 21:12:36 GMT
yes i did a full clean out of the cage i used a diluted cage disinfection and wash all the toys and shelves before moving them into the new cage so i think it could be about territory as nothing of there scent was in the new cage and they were moved into another room of the house.
it has one complete level and 3 half shelves/levels
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Post by deguconvert on Jul 4, 2015 19:32:32 GMT
Degus are scent dependent for their information about each other and their territory/world, so when we clean their cages out and remove their substrate, we also remove all their information. That is almost like wiping their memory. As a result, they act as though everything has to be settled all over again. We recommend that 2-4 handfuls of old substrate be scattered over the new substrate and cleaned surfaces. This will help to keep all their info current.
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Post by xcharlie145 on Jul 5, 2015 1:25:04 GMT
Thank you so much, I had never known that they relied on substrate for territorial reasons, As previous to knowing this i changed the bed more often than a full clean out, so the day i did the full clean outs were never the same as cleaning the bed which meant they always had there scent on something in the cage, As i recently moved them i just cleaned everything full without thinking about them needing there scent so which might explain why i never had problems with them over territory before, Thank you all so much for your help. I will be sure to use the information to keep thinks calm for my goos.
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