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Post by annanatya on Dec 23, 2019 23:44:15 GMT
Hi! My 2 male degus kept humping each other all day! Literally! They have like 5-10 minutes pauses and they start again! I've never seen them do it so often what is happening today? I don't know if they're establishing dominance anymore because they should've established that already i mean they've done it like 50 times at least, no joke. Has this ever happened to someone else? Or can at least someone tell me what this behavior means because they've never done it so many times in 1 day
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Post by savvy on Dec 24, 2019 2:52:18 GMT
I've done a bit of research by reading back over your previous posts to try to establish their ages etc.
Two males humping is perfectly normal dominance behaviour, but there could be other factors at play here too.
From the dates of your previous posts it is possible that they are still in adolescence where dominance behaviour can reach a peak as they challenge each other for control. This will settle when they get older.
The winter months are also the main breeding season for degus so humping can get a bit intense. This won't settle down until springtime.
As long as there is no fighting and no injuries, there is little you can do apart from letting them get on with it.
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Post by deguconvert on Dec 24, 2019 7:48:59 GMT
Ditto . . . though . . . it would be nice to know their ages for sure. Adolescence typically lasts from age 6 months on up to 18 months . . . there are occasional degus that will last up to 24 months, but those are not so common.
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Post by annanatya on Dec 24, 2019 8:43:00 GMT
Okay so when i got them, the man at the pet shop didn't mention their age but they were pretty small so i'm guessing they were a couple months old. And i've had them for 1 year so they're one year and a couple months old
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Post by moletteuk on Dec 24, 2019 15:06:35 GMT
At that age and at this time of year their hormones are really raging.
Watch out for one of them getting really fed up and then watch out for aggravation escalating into scrapping or fighting. Do they tend to get along well normally?
Extra space, extra supervised play time out of the cage, providing a wheel each may help them burn off energy in more savoury ways. Single degu ledges like 'lava ledges' can help them get away from each other too.
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