Sexing degus

[northernstar40]

If I try to get a clear picture of there "parts" and post could someone with more experience please help me and trying to sex the newbies Yogi and Boo-Boo? I think I have a male and female again. (grrrr) We tried last night got one pretty clear picture but my daughter was feeling a little strange taking pictures of there private parts and snapped the second one to quick and all I have is a picture of a tail. (LOL) ;D
thanks!

Peg

[diet otaku]

i can do my best, but really the best i could do with mine was put them side by side and go "well, they're the same." so we know they're the same gender, and we're almost certain they're both boys, but they could turn out to be both girls (even though i'm sure i saw rumble's thingy pop out). meg's sketches posted in the Q&A section of the site are actually quite helpful, in not only judging distance between the parts, but size of the "nubbin" as i call it. females seem to have a slightly smaller nubbin, while males' more resembles the sheathed thingy you see on dogs - longish and rounded at the end. one person had mentioned to me early on that there might be a way to make the thingy pop out if they're males, but i haven't found any info on how yet.

[smlmamlgirl]

Degus are indeed difficult to sex, but once you know the difference, you'll never have a problem again. The first problem is that they are wiggly! So if you can lure them out onto your hand and then peer up from beneath them, then it makes it easier. But sometimes that doesn't give a very clear picture.

Ideally your degus trust you sufficiently that you can hold them (at least for a short time) and turn them over.

The most prominent difference between male and female degu genetalia, as both are externalized and the males have internal testes, is the distance between the prominence and the anus. With my males there is almost a centimeter (Canadian!) of space.

The other difference is that female gentalia is more conical, and the males are not only longer, but appear more like an uncircumcised penis.

A hint that might give it away is that males (very quickly) lift their legs and spray urine on the backs of the female(s). Although this behaviour won't be apparent until the male reaches sexual maturity which is very late compared to most mammals- anywhere from 6 months to a year, the most common time frame being nine months.

Once you identify a male there just a part of your brain that just recognizes 'oh- penis! Got it' I know that sounds silly, but it's true!!! Remember-the key is distance from the anus and length and shape of the genital protrusion.

Hope I wasn't too cryptic.

[diet otaku]

yep, i finally got mine sorted out and now there would be no mistaking a male or a female. if you can get a really close up look, you should actually be able to see the female's thingy between her anus and urethra. there's another thread with a great diagram:
MALE:
o (urethra)

| (anus)

FEMALE:
o (urethra
- (girl bits)
| (anus)

[smlmamlgirl]

I agree with diet otaku's diagram....only compress the spaces for the female parts by half. It's a very squished version of just what diet otaku depicted.

[diet otaku]

yeah, ASCII isn't very flexible for drawing, LOL! the female bits are all smooshed together, no space between them, and the male bits have a few millimeters to a centimeter between them.

[ra]

A word of caution when sexing your babies - carefully hold their tails at the base closest to the body and gently straighten out the baby. I thought I had mostly females until I discovered the babies were curling up a bit when turned over on their backs causing the males appear to be females! As it turned out Mocha had 5 male babies and 3 female.