prolonged aggitated squeaking

[Sunshinemeg]

I have a query of my own that I thought I would see if anyone else had any experience with.

As you know I have 4 males living together.

My two baby males often squeak and chatter when the adults have a fight, as if to say, they are fighting, please stop.

last night my two older degus had a fight over the sand bath, resulting in one of the babies getting very upset and squeaking loudly.

The adults have long since calmed down, but Houdini is still making one heck of a lot of noise! I know its not a "successful mating" noise, he happily took a treat, and ate it while still squeaking, and seemed to quieten down over night, but today its just as noisy, the other degus are looking very fed up with him, and im not sure what to do now.

Anyone else experienced anything like this and have any ideas?

[Erica]

I had experienced that as well when I had 4 males living together. Your squeaking boy might have received a bite. You've had degus for so long that you probably know that you may not see the bite but it's VERY painful.

My boys had a serious fight after a few days of continuous squeaking where, unfortunately, one of uninvolved degus received a fatal bite. I wish that I would have separated the squeaker sooner for a day or two to let everyone calm down.

Soon after, I expanded their cage, moved their cage a little further away from the girl's cage, added another food dish, gave them a larger dust bath (a good old Corningware dish) and more sticks. I should have added a second wheel sooner.

I've found that my boys are a little more aggressive than the girls so now I take their noises quite seriously.

I suggest that you keep a close eye on them and think about expansion (i.e. wider cage so that they can run away when they feel threatened) or have them live in pairs with a buddy that they get along with.

That's my 2 cents.