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Post by morton235 on Nov 1, 2018 22:48:44 GMT
Ugh, I totally jinxed it with my last post! A big step back tonight - Riley and Goo had a big spat, with lots of chasing, even some lunging from Riley, super high pitched shouting and boxing Every time I feel just about ready to take the plunge and put them all in together, something happens to knock everything right back! It's maddening! Thanks Moletteuk She looks like a proper little goo now! Although she's still a tad thin, but we're working on it I've put a few more photo's on the online gallery so Bouncy should be happy now haha! photos.app.goo.gl/TCs5MTKd9rR7C8nDA
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Post by bouncy on Nov 1, 2018 23:47:43 GMT
Yay! I was only looking at the original album yesterday! I can see her favourite pastime is chewing the bars, bless her, and she appears to be in fantastic health
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Post by morton235 on Nov 2, 2018 10:21:37 GMT
Is that what that black mark is!? I thought it was just to do with a winter coat or something (Bounce is developing a darker line of fur running up between her eyes). I have never seen her so much as hint at bar chewing, it's not a bald patch or anything, it looks like darker fur. She does want to escape everything and anything, though, so it would track. As soon as I open the cage doors she wants out, as soon as she's in the pen she wants out, as soon as she's held she's looking for a way to leave my sorry butt in the dust. So maybe she is a ninja chewer and is secretly chewing her way out of the cage, like a degu Shawshank Redemption. Should I check behind the Racquel Welch poster? When I was adding to the album I saw the first photos I took of her when she arrived, it's amazing to see the difference! I forgot just how crazy thin she was! I'm so, so pleased with how she's getting on. Seeing her looking like an actual degu again is the best <3
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Post by ntg on Nov 2, 2018 10:29:38 GMT
Gosh she has changed so much since you got her and looks so much healthier now! You've done such an amazing job morton!! The black mark cold be for bar chewing but I think it's probably moulting if you don't hear her in the act
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Post by morton235 on Nov 2, 2018 10:34:04 GMT
Also LOL Bouncy you goo stalker!
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Post by bouncy on Nov 2, 2018 10:42:34 GMT
Haha I've just woken up!
Snoozy is a bit like Riley sometimes - he spent half an hour last night jumping up onto my beanbag and running all over it and me but, the minute I try and touch him, he can't get away fast enough. He's like a giant slinky, or one of those 80s toys with water and a weight inside!
EDIT water snake toy!
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Post by morton235 on Nov 2, 2018 10:48:41 GMT
Thanks Molleteuk! I couldn't have done it without everyones support, so huge thanks to you guys! Just knowing that there are people with knowledge/experience just as invested in Rileys health and wellbeing made a huge difference, especially on the days she wasn't doing so well. So thanks everyone for being awesome I think you're right about the moulting, it just looks like black fur haha. I'll keep an eye out just in case though.
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Post by morton235 on Nov 2, 2018 10:53:05 GMT
YES!! Riley also does an excellent water snake toy impression! That description is so perfect!
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Post by moletteuk on Nov 2, 2018 19:13:13 GMT
She's completely unrecognisable! I honestly don't think I've ever seen such a remarkable turnaround, it's all down to your commitment Moult lines travel up the nose so you'll know which it is soon. I'm the correct age but I have no idea what a water snake toy it...off to google...
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Post by morton235 on Nov 15, 2018 17:31:00 GMT
Bit of a mixed report today. I put all the goo's in the play pen, and Goo and Riley had a shouting and stalking match for about ten minutes. As soon as I put the heat pad in though they actually settled down and snuggled together! The girls are both allowing Goo to mount them, which in all honesty I wish they wouldn't! Goo will not make a good alpha, I was much happier when it looked like Bounce would be in charge haha! It's a development, at the very least. Anyway, they snuggled for a good half an hour, but once they got a bit more lively again Goo and Rileys hostilities returned, although much more subdued than before. I did find a small bite mark on Rileys tail when putting them all back in their cages. None of the goos have ever drawn blood before, and I don't know which one is the culprit but it's likely to be Goo He and Riley go through short spats of lunging at each other, but are ignoring or snuggling for longer periods inbetween. Riley spent half of her time trying to escape the pen, as usual. She is so determined to get out, it makes me so sad But she is also the same with the cage she shares with Bounce, so I don't know how much of it to attribute to her dislike of Goo. I suppose the tail nick could possibly be where she's caught it falling back down after a jump, as she did knock herself on a house/toy a few times (I put a towel down to cushion her fall but she is at it on all sides now). If I put my hand in she runs over and clambers straight up my arm. A bit of a random question: is there anything I can mark a goo with to tell them apart? We're going away for a few days next week and are having a pet sitter stay at our house (we have a dog too). She will need to medicate Riley and although me and Nath can tell them apart easily, it's much harder for a stranger when they're all the same colour!
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Post by savvy on Nov 15, 2018 17:42:57 GMT
If memory serves, someone on here used food colouring on one of their goos ears to identify which one was which.
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Post by bouncy on Nov 15, 2018 17:53:01 GMT
Yeah, we tried food colour on the ears before, but it didn't even last 36 hours. It's taken me ages to train my mum to recognise them based on features like torn ears. Don't take Riley's escapism to heart, it's more about what's on the other side than her being unhappy with her accommodation
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Post by moletteuk on Nov 15, 2018 19:50:08 GMT
I only know of the food colouring. I suppose if that isn't going to work and you really need a clear way, you could carefully snip a little patch into her fur with some small scissors.
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Post by morton235 on Dec 10, 2018 13:54:28 GMT
The bullet has been bitten - three degus, one cage.
The past several intro's have gone really well after I switched the intro place from the pen to the bathtub. Intro's were starting to go downhill but I noticed that even when I put just the girls in the pen things almost immediately kicked off, so changed the setting and it changed things massively. Today I did an intro, and then straight from the intro put them all in the aventura so it wasn't like a 'surprise, here's Mr Goo!' The cage has been entirely cleaned out, with old substrate from everyone scattered over the top, and the upper half of the cage is entirely new to the girls as they've been confined to the lower half and Goo has been in the thicketts so he could see the girls through the bars. Furnishings have been changed around as much as I can to help change the feel and look of the cage from the girls perspective.
Anyway, there are mixed results but I'm wondering if maybe this is how things are supposed to go. They've been in together for about an hour. Initially they ignored each other whilst they explored and for the first fifteen minutes or so, they even all bedded down together and had a snuggle on the heat mat for a bit, but now they are clashing. Mr Goo is very focused on Bounce, since those two are who the dominance struggle is between. There has been lots of shouting by Bounce, and lots of chasing by Goo. Bounce has been very much on the defensive with the chasing.
The chasing of Bounce by Goo is constant at the minute. There will be breaks where Goo goes off to explore, hump Riley or run on the wheel, and during those Bounce and Riley snuggle or she scent marks Riley. When Goo and Bounce see each other Goo chases and Bounce goes on the defensive. The chase is often high speed, with Bounce seeking a defensible position higher up than Goo. They shout at each other, grind teeth, box and tail wag. After it's over and they part ways, they both recover pretty much instantly and do their own thing until their next meet.
Since they've been unable to truly hammer out who is boss during the intro, I figured it would happen in the cage. Since they're not damaging each other and it's all noise, should I be worried? I know they're both displaying signs of aggression but don't want to intervene if I don't have to, I know intro's are rough and they have to sort this out between them. I'm watching the cage like a hawk and have my spray bottle and towel at the ready, and have the next three days off work to monitor them closely.
Any advice would be welcome. This is absolutely nerve-wracking!! Luckily as I'm typing Goo is busy chewing on some toys and Bounce is slobbed out on the heat mat next to Riley. That's good, at least!
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Post by morton235 on Dec 10, 2018 14:29:02 GMT
Update - chasing has ceased for now, at the minute they are all bedded down in the heat mat together. Goo was mostly sat off it looking a bit tense, cause every time he moved Bounce tensed up and shouted at him, but now he's slowly wormed his way into the middle and they're all together! There's been very little chasing since my last post since Goo has been busying himself on the bottom level whilst the girls have been chilling up top, and for the past 5-10 minutes they've all been relatively happy together. YAY!! I CAN FINALLY GO FOR A QUICK PEE!
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Post by morton235 on Dec 10, 2018 16:21:39 GMT
Update - chasing has re-started, it's not as frequent as before but is still intense. They've all been snuggling together without issue for a good half hour, but Bounce and Goo are still clashing. The girls are also clashing and having little spats, but they are few and very short lived. Whenever Goo catches Bounce, it's a scrabble and shouting and looks really scary. They don't appear to be damaging each other but the scrabbles are really worrying
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Post by morton235 on Dec 10, 2018 16:42:49 GMT
I've just split them up Goo and Bounce clashed really badly, and I was worried it'd end up the rolling ball of death. Goo chased her and managed to get past her defenses, and they scrabbled and Goo ended up with a chunk of her fur in his mouth Bounce seems ok, I can't find any blood or wounds so he must have only got fur, but it was scary! I'm not sure how to proceed now. They get along fine one minute, then suddenly they're enemies. I don't know whether to put Goo back in the Thicketts for now and wait a few days to try again. I'm worried it will make things harder in the future because whatever groundwork they've done today will be undone. There were points where Bounce was letting Goo groom and mount her, and they snuggled for a good long while. Goo being in the cage has upset the balance between Riley and Bounce a little too, so if I keep them split that balance may become even more unclear. But at the same time, Bounce is clearly stressed by Goo and I don't want either of them to become injured and I don't want to rush this. I know that I need to be prepared to see a bit of fighting during an intro but think that went too far. I don't know if an hour or so apart will calm things down, or whether continuing after that will make it worse Also, something weird happened with Goo. One of his eyes had a surround of a milky discharge after the spat. I've noticed a tiny bit of this discharge in his eyes before, but just bathed it with water if needed. I've never thought much of it because it always goes just as suddenly as it comes, it's not even there for half an hour it's just there then gone. His eyes are always wide open and bright with no behavioural changes, so I've never taken him to the vets for it. When I took him out to split them up, one of his eyes had a surround of the white discharge, more than I've seen before. Over the few minutes I was healthchecking him for it slowly faded, almost like it was being reabsorbed by his eye. It was completely gone within about five minutes. Is that a stress thing? Is it normal?
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Post by deguconvert on Dec 10, 2018 17:12:05 GMT
Hey, Morton! I've never seen anything like that. If my goos ever had gunk, I usually had to wash it off . . . more like sleepy sand or gunk than anything else. White stuff that comes out and then gets reabsorbed . . . that's weird!!
As for the clashing with Bounce and Goo . . . this may sound strange, but some goos really prefer one over another, and will actively reject the other, to the point of injury and potentially much worse. We had two males and two females together (thanks to the pet store veterinarian swearing they were all male) that we left together for a short time once I learned the truth because we knew the girls were already pregnant by that time. Anyway, at one point, one of our boys decided he really didn't like one of the girls. He would chase her to the point of exhaustion. Initially I thought it was just a minor annoyance I was seeing, but as I spent most of an afternoon watching I could see that he was actively hunting her down and going after her. That is when I took both boys out and put them in a temporary cage, whilst building them a full new one for themselves. This boy had severe cataracts, and he would sniff her out and then lunge as soon as he found her. There was no mistaking by that time that he intended to kill her.
You may seeing something much less aggressive, and I TRULY hope that you are . . . they should be able to get past it. BUT . . . do carefully analyse what you have seen. It is a possibility that Goo has decided that he only wants Riley for a mate and will have nothing to do with Bounce. In which case . . . you have a decision to make. Larger cage for Goo along side the girls, keeping the girls bonded? New friend for Goo as well? What do you have the heart, room, and finances to do if this is the case?
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Post by bouncy on Dec 10, 2018 17:16:12 GMT
I got so excited reading your first few posts, and admire your ability to recognise their need to sort out hierarchy and let them get on with it! From what you describe, that's exactly what was happening, hence the snuggle together in between. They're happy to be together, but can't decide who should be boss.
The white discharge can be a few things. If the fights have kicked up any dust, the eye can become irritated (think hayfever). There's also a chance of infection like conjunctivitis, or a reaction to root problems.
I would go back to your previous set up, keeping the ladies together. Don't lose heart, though!
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Post by natnat899 on Dec 10, 2018 17:49:38 GMT
Hi Morton,
Sorry to hear it’s gone downhill, about the milky discharge - one of my degus had the same thing at one point (just randomly) - when I first saw it I freaked out; it was covering her whole eye. I read up about it, people said it was just a natural reaction to a bit of dirt or something that is irritating the eye. I cleaned it the first time I saw it, and it made no difference so I just kept tabs on her - sometimes it was there, other times it wasn’t and after a few days it went.
Since your degus have been fighting, I am wondering if maybe it’s a scratch?
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