I just found out

[rosberry]

Well we have had our degus a little over a month now. They are finally tame enough to let me handle them and such. I was told that we had 2 females by the pet store owner. Well when I compared them today, they are definitely different!!! So I am pretty sure that we have a male and female (who may or may not be the dad of the little baby Mira). I am excited but know that they cannot be separated, so I am wondering what other people do to find homes. I think we may have found a good pet store that may take them but for how long I don't know. And my other question is, what do I do with the baby when it is mature. Obviously it has to be removed from the cage, but do I need to find a friend for Mira? Any thoughts would be appreciated. I sure know how to sex a Degu now!!

[diet otaku]

homes for who, your existing degus or future babies? the market forum here is a good place to start. whether or not mira will need a friend all depends on where she goes. if she will stay with you but in her own cage, it's probably best if her mom is her cagemate and her dad gets a male cagemate for a friend. that way you don't get any more surprise babies. if mira goes to someone else's home, as long as she has a cagemate (whether they already have one or are planning to get one) she'll be fine. but she shouldn't be sold/given to a home without other degus.

[rosberry]

Thank you diet otaku for your reply. I think I finally have everyone sexed and Mira looks to be a girl. But that is what I was wondering too- we want to keep Mira so obviously she can stay with the mom, But then is it okay to separate mom and her mate? Do I just need to find him a friend then?

[diet otaku]

it should be fine to separate mom and dad. degus don't mate for life or anything, plus there are times when they have to be separated (i.e. right after birth). the only time mom would need dad around is while the baby is still young and she needs help caring for it. but from the looks of your pictures, mira's older than that.

[Aimeelou]

Hi Rosberry
I understand your problem, as i had the the same prediament.
As i understand, degus mate for life, so splitting them up would just be cruel. Heres what i did...

I bought 2 degus which i beleived to be boys, untill my "boy" Taquila gave birth to 5 baby girls, of which one sadly passed away.
I then looked into degu neutering, then after discussing with my vet, had him nuetered. The only problem being, that it takes 5 weeks after the castration, for the male to be free from any.. well.. sperm
So, i couldnt risk the father getting his baby girls pregnant, and i couldnt put him on his own without another male for company( which would of defeted the object in the first place!) So the girls went in one cage (6 weeks old and weened) and my only sensible option was to let Taquila and Taco have another romantic interlude in their seperate cage ;D ;D
3 months on, Taquila has her second brood of 4 babys, of which are being looked after by the whole degu family, and no else is going to be having any more.
The 4 new babys are going to freinds and family, or the pet shop.

Phew, I hope you understand what ive put, its hard to explain! Hope ive helped
Aimee

[diet otaku]

really, degus mate for life? i hadn't read anything like that before.

[rosberry]

That is what i heard also. This is a quote from another web site:
" If you have decided you want your degus to have children, remember that it would not be fair to them to separate the male from the female in the future… when you decide to stop having degu children. The male and the female degus will get attached to each other."

So I will have to do some checking into getting him neutered. Thanks again for everyones help. I am off to the vet to get my cat his shots.

[Aimeelou]

I know diet, ive read alot about them getting atached, but ive read that they dont, but i didnt want to take the chance of breaking their hearts ahhh..

[xdegudivax]

Wow..This is really interesting..I will have to do some looking around too..and..when I clean out Squeakers and Mocha's age..either later or tomorrow..(most likely tomorrow..since I work 5-9 tonight) I need to sex them again too..I'm pretty sure it's boy and girl..but..One can not be too sure!

[diet otaku]

the easiest way is just to compare the two. but if it's a girl, you should be able to see the extra orifice between the anus and urethra.

[xdegudivax]

Yea..I know..It did look like boy and girl..I just want to redo it to be sure..

[Anna]

It's almost like being married.. I can understand that because their very social. Someone on here told me it was like 35 dollars or something to get a degu nutered (excuse my bad spelling). So, Thats always an option you could do. I wonder if they would get really depressed if you seperated them. Hearing about baby degus makes me wanna get two females haha.

[shigatsu]

With our vet, neuturing is either $103 (Canadian) or $133. (Lee and I heard different numbers, so we're not sure, I hope the lower one is the right one though, we're thinking of getting them neutured if they continue to be too rough (both boys)).

Seeing everyone's babies is making us want to have little furry babies! haha ^_^

On the note with neuturing, we were going to get them neutured once we had the money saved up, but read on "Degutopia" (excellent site) that they should be at least a year old, as it could completely screw them up as they are still growing before then. That put us on hold, we'd rather be safe, they're about 7-8 monthes old right now).

^_^

[diet otaku]

yeah, with almost any animal you want to wait till they reach sexual maturing before fixing them.

[deguqueen]

you know i was pretty sure for a long time that my two degus are girls. its really difficult though ebcause they wont let me hold them to check it out. i got my boyfriend to pick up princess and it looked like she was a girl. the two holes were really close to eachother. there was pretty much no difference at all. but the thing is if i ever wanna get another degu i NEED to know what they are. does anybody know if there are any behavioral characteristics when it comes to sexing degus or is it all about the genitals?

[Aimeelou]

There are no real behavioral charactoristics between males and females, but with males, they beat thier tails when they get exited and ready to mate.
To be safe, try putting them in a clear glass jar so you can look underneath them.
Aimee

[deguqueen]

thats a great idea except i think they are too clever to get into a glass jar...they are nervous about coming out of the cage if someone is in the room...they always keep their back feet in the cage and sling their front half of their bodies out...the slightest noise and they bolt...

[thatllbe]

my parent degus had 3 litters and i have four daughters living all together with mum and dad - i couldn't ever separate That'll Be and Sweetpea up because they are so close esp after all those kids LOL...
so the only other alternative i had was to have him neutered - £51.50 - at my vets and he was back with me the same day i had to keep him in a separate cage (i had an old birdcage with no levels to it) until his stiches dissolved which was about a week - and they were all really happy to have him back - that was about 3 years ago now... i gave the sons away to friends and family.