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Post by chipanddaledegu on Mar 24, 2016 18:13:12 GMT
I am concerned that one of my two "male" degus may actually be a pregnant female and need some help judging. Can any one help
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Post by uglibug on Mar 24, 2016 19:23:51 GMT
It can be nearly impossible to tell until very late in the pregnancy, they carry very well. Do you weigh them regularly? A steady weight gain would be a good sign. Also she will start to look very round and you may be able to see or feel nipples down her sides. Behaviour wise she will start nesting in earnest about a week or so before she gives birth.
If one of them is male and the other is female they need to be separated before she gives birth, she is very fertile just after they are born and you could end with her pregnant again, not good for either you or her. Could you get pictures of their bits and post them? We will do our best to tell you whether they are boys or girls.
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Post by bouncy on Mar 24, 2016 19:52:07 GMT
Obviously not a great idea to handle "her" if you think she's pregnant, but could you lure each onto a glass dish to look at their bits? Initially, I would just check whether their bits look the same for now. If you're not sure, take a couple of pics and post them on here
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Post by yasmin on Mar 25, 2016 15:36:34 GMT
Can you post pictures of them for us to see?
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Post by chipanddaledegu on Mar 25, 2016 21:05:46 GMT
Can you post pictures of them for us to see? I do not know how to post pictures but I will try
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Post by chipanddaledegu on Mar 25, 2016 21:08:57 GMT
She/he has started making a small burrow and has gained lots of wait in this last week. I can see her nipples getting larger and more visible. She has also gotten nippier more recently is this part of degu pregnancy too?
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Post by skardsen on Mar 26, 2016 1:38:33 GMT
It's sounding quite likely you've got a pregnant degu. You can use a site called imgur.com to post pics here. Just upload them to imgur and use the BBCode link to post directly here.
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Post by uglibug on Mar 26, 2016 8:06:16 GMT
It certainly sounds like she is pregnant. Do you have a spare cage for dad? He will need to be separated as soon as possible, she sounds about ready to give birth. Being grumpy and bitey is normal. Try and leave her be as much as possible, she will deal with labour etc on her own, just make sure she has plenty of nesting material.
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Post by Maravilla on Mar 26, 2016 9:58:54 GMT
If I understand you right, you still don't know if it is a he or she. Before all the next possible steps I would check this first. I have heard of degu girls that had been living in mixed groups and that looked very pregnant (that much that several very experienced degus owners thought they were pregnant and shortly before giving birth). Nevertheless, they were not.
As there is a chance that it is a pregnant she, you have to be really careful when handling her.
BTW, how long are they living with you right now? And where did you get them from? Is there a chance that both are female and got pregnant before moving to your house? If this is possible (= they are living less than 3 month with you), I would check both of them.
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Post by chipanddaledegu on Mar 26, 2016 16:30:03 GMT
I have had them for just over 3 months
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Post by Bexi87 on Mar 26, 2016 19:58:59 GMT
If you are still struggling to get the pictures uploaded feel free to email them to me and I'll upload them for you I think we need to determine if you have a boy and a girl, or two girls as this will obviously impact housing arrangements!
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Post by chipanddaledegu on Mar 26, 2016 20:17:43 GMT
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Post by chipanddaledegu on Mar 26, 2016 20:22:58 GMT
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Post by yasmin on Mar 26, 2016 23:37:38 GMT
Looks pregnant to me. Therefore a female, and your other one is probably a male if you have had them for more than 3 months (gestation is 3 months for degus). From looking at the pics, she is likely to give birth any day now.
Can you send a picture of the other one's privates? What we need to see is the size of the gap from the anus to the cone. If the other is a male, he needs to be separated from her in order to prevent him from getting her pregnant again so soon after giving birth which would be very dangerous to her health because she will need all her strength to feed the babies – not to supporting any new ones inside of her. She could die from it.
If the other one happens to be a female, then she can stay in the cage to help raise the little ones.
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Post by chipanddaledegu on Mar 26, 2016 23:50:35 GMT
I have determined my other goo is the male because I have actually had the for four months.
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Post by chipanddaledegu on Mar 26, 2016 23:52:16 GMT
Also I have some questions about baby goo proofing the cage as my bar spacing is to wide
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Post by savvy on Mar 27, 2016 0:05:55 GMT
Personally I would use a plexiglass around the bottom of the cage, either that or a wire mesh but I'm not experienced with baby goos.
Do you have the sort of cage that you can separate down the middle?
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Post by Maravilla on Mar 27, 2016 6:37:06 GMT
Urgs, yes, this looks pretty "big".
Baby proofing does not only include bar spacing (not only on the bottom; babies are becoming active from day 2-4 and will explore everything without any fear!!) but also everything else: water bowl, taking out the running wheel, securing everything where they could fall. Degu babies are crazy little things, nothing compared to mice or rats who, at the same age, are still blind and deaf. They jump and run... we used to call them "bouncy balls" as it is exactly what describes the behaviour of a healthy little degu.
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Post by winic1 on Mar 27, 2016 12:43:48 GMT
She can get pregnant again within 24 hours of giving birth, so the male needs to come out of that cage NOW. As for babyproofing, think of them as tiny toddlers that will be running around the cage. So you need to secure the wire sides higher than they can jump and get a grip on. Move anything that makes a tight space they could get stuck in. Change or move anything they can drown in, fall into and not get out of. Fix/change/remove anything they can fall off of and get hurt (high ledge--put on an edge or block access to it, rope ladder or hammock--lower it or remove etc). They are fully active like an adult goo within days, but not so skilled and of course tiny, which means they will have a harder time getting up and down big obstacles.
It seems like a lot of changes, and a lot of stuff has to come out, but they grow quickly so you'll be able to put it all back within a couple months. Just got to get them through babyhood.
Both an exciting and alarming time, I know, when my kids were smaller we brought home a young male hamster, and two weeks to the day later "he" gave birth and raised 3 babies, so we went from one hamster to four in just a few weeks. Not exactly what we had planned, but it was fun after we got over the shock.
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Post by chipanddaledegu on Mar 28, 2016 3:42:21 GMT
Ok so today I separated the male and as my special Easter suprise 4 babies were born
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