cookiedegus
Burrowing Degu
Fly high my sweet girl Maja [url=https://postimg.org/image/dwub0fayl/][img]https://s6.postimg.cc/3zja7d3cx/heart.gif[/img][/url] you won't be forgotten.
Posts: 183
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Post by cookiedegus on Apr 18, 2021 17:29:00 GMT
hi, i have some experience with degu pregnancy, but i always wondered (gonna expect maybe 7 babies or more -may5:15-) those things:
1. When to allow babies in sand? I have a sand bath at their cage and idk if to remove it or not, it's quite tall doe.
2. What to do if i find a dead baby?
3. How to know if moma is in labor?
4. How long does it take to deliver 1 baby?
5. How to know if moma already fed babies?
6. Is it true that pregnancy can affect their lifespan?
7. When do babies can eat normal food?
8. When can I change the cage (after birth)?
9. How to know if moma is in labor and has STUCK babies? What to do then? Vet at home or can i take her?
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Post by savvy on Apr 18, 2021 18:21:03 GMT
I don't have personal experience of degu babies but I may be able to answer some questions.
1. When to allow babies in sand? I have a sand bath at their cage and idk if to remove it or not, it's quite tall doe. The sand bath will need to be removed until the babies are a few weeks old. You will need to removed everything in the cage that they can fall over, off or into. If the bar spacing is wide enough for them to fit through then you will need to wrap it in cardboard to prevent them literally walking straight out of the cage.
2. What to do if i find a dead baby? Remove it carefully, check it for injuries to see if you can tell how, when or why it died. Hopefully you will never need to do this. Think positive.
3. How to know if moma is in labor? She will stay in her nest, although you may not know at all, some degus give birth in secret and their owner weren't even aware they were pregnant until they see the pups. Yes, it does happen and a lot more frequently than you'd think, lol.
4. How long does it take to deliver 1 baby? Not sure.
5. How to know if moma already fed babies? They will instinctively feed as soon as they are born. They are born fully formed and active.
6. Is it true that pregnancy can affect their lifespan? Back to back pregnancies, yes, definitely.
7. When do babies can eat normal food? When they are ready, which if memory serves is at about 4 weeks, you will spot them eating.
8. When can I change the cage (after birth)? Can you clarify what you want to change? Is it the layout or the substrate?
9. How to know if moma is in labor and has STUCK babies? What to do then? Vet at home or can i take her? You will know when there's something wrong. She will be very distressed, possibly panting, and not looking well at all. You will need to get her straight to a vet if this happens, no matter what time of the day or night it is, you cannot wait. There's nothing that can be done at home as she may need surgery to help deliver the baby.
I hope this helps, I know there are members on here whose degus have had pups so they may be of more help.
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cookiedegus
Burrowing Degu
Fly high my sweet girl Maja [url=https://postimg.org/image/dwub0fayl/][img]https://s6.postimg.cc/3zja7d3cx/heart.gif[/img][/url] you won't be forgotten.
Posts: 183
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Post by cookiedegus on Apr 18, 2021 18:58:37 GMT
Thanks for a very quick reply! I got my questions answered. about 8, the substrate
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Post by savvy on Apr 18, 2021 19:02:54 GMT
If there's any soiled bedding from the birth, remove just the soiled bits, but leave the rest. The substrate should only need a spot clean.
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Post by winic1 on Apr 18, 2021 20:55:04 GMT
If you think you will be seeing babies born soon, then right now would be a good time to do a good cleaning, so then you can just leave it alone after the babies are born. Then keep it as clean as reasonably possible until the babies come.
And remember, babies are SO tiny, but fully active, right away, so they might fit out the bars of the cage unless you cover the lower part with cardboard so they can't get out. The wheel, the sandbath, anything they could climb into and not get out of (which means they can't get back to momma to eat and stay warm), get stuck in, get stuck behind, climb up on and fall off, ANYTHING they might find a way to get hurt on, in, from, should be taken out of the cage.
If you have water bowls, babies could climb in and drown, so you need to make sure the adults are used to drinking from water bottles so that any water bowls can be removed. If you have water bottles, once the babies are getting big enough to eat and drink on their own, make sure that at least one bottle is low enough for them to reach.
Momma degu will need extra food while she is nursing the babies, and once the babies start nibbling on food, then they will quickly need lots of food to eat so that they can grow properly. A growing baby degu can eat more food than an adult.
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cookiedegus
Burrowing Degu
Fly high my sweet girl Maja [url=https://postimg.org/image/dwub0fayl/][img]https://s6.postimg.cc/3zja7d3cx/heart.gif[/img][/url] you won't be forgotten.
Posts: 183
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Post by cookiedegus on Apr 20, 2021 6:34:38 GMT
Thank you so much! I will keep that in mind:)
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Post by katdavis071 on May 6, 2022 5:44:26 GMT
Hi, we just had an unexpected pregnancy. If we remove the wheel so the babies can’t get hurt how do we manage the energy of the mother and her older daughter? They seem super antsy.
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Post by deguconvert on May 6, 2022 6:47:29 GMT
Hello, Katdavis071, and welcome to the forum!
Can you tell us some information about your cage and the surface space available? What kind of cage do you house them in? Do you have multiple levels, and are they complete levels? What is the bar spacing for your cage? Pups are extremely active from birth and will just walk right through any bars that are more than a centimeter apart. Knowing these may enable us to make some suggestions about a wheel . . . whether it can be in the cage on a separate level, or whether you will need to plan opportunities for them to have wheel access in a different location, or something else, will depend on your cage, your home, and what you feel comfortable doing.
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Post by bouncy on May 6, 2022 17:51:06 GMT
One member had a play pen, where she was able to let the older goos out to let them run in the wheel, but it depends on whether your wheel is on a stand?
Ditto the other questions, though. There's lots of considerations now you have extras!
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gabba
Warbling Degu
Posts: 27
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Post by gabba on Aug 27, 2022 16:31:10 GMT
Hi again. So ont 23rd day, my degu had 3 babies. Two boys, and one girl.
Mommy is gray and daddy is brown/ginger. One boy looks like mommy and other boy looks like daddy. But the girl has gray body and ginger head.
I noticed since they started to walk around the cage, the girl is always shaking, no mater what. This is second time my degu gave birth. First litter had 3 babies too, but nothing like this happend.
I am still learing these little things. Is this thing normal, will my baby girl grow out that or no?
We will keep baby girl and give away two boys. Two boys will have new friends, because the person who will take it, have a lot of animals and big cages for boys and girls.
So if she doesn't grow this out, should I take to the vet? If yes, when should I take her?
I may rumbled alot, said way more than thing tharlt are important. And again, if my English is bas, sorry.
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Post by deguconvert on Aug 27, 2022 19:25:35 GMT
Hmmm . . . is she smaller than the two boys? Have you picked her up at all? Does she feel cool to the touch? Since pups are unable to regulate their body temperature until they are four weeks of age, I wonder if she is feeling chilled. There may be something else that is going on, but I don't know what it will be. If it continues, it might be that you will want to have her seen by a vet. That could be a challenge in Lithuania. We have had other members from Lithuania and they reported that it was difficult to find a vet that is familiar with degus.
Do you know if she is getting equal opportunity to nurse? I wonder if it might be an idea to weigh her and her brothers every two days two days to see what they are doing for weight gains, and be able to ensure that she (well, actually all of them) is gaining at a good rate and is clearly getting all the food she needs to thrive.
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Post by bouncy on Aug 28, 2022 22:20:28 GMT
I agree your little girl sounds like she's having trouble keeping warm. Do you have a snugglesafe or other heatpads you could put in there? You may need to keep a close eye on her so she doesn't stay away from mum or dad too long.
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gabba
Warbling Degu
Posts: 27
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Post by gabba on Aug 29, 2022 9:03:41 GMT
Hmmm . . . is she smaller than the two boys? Have you picked her up at all? Does she feel cool to the touch? Since pups are unable to regulate their body temperature until they are four weeks of age, I wonder if she is feeling chilled. There may be something else that is going on, but I don't know what it will be. If it continues, it might be that you will want to have her seen by a vet. That could be a challenge in Lithuania. We have had other members from Lithuania and they reported that it was difficult to find a vet that is familiar with degus. Do you know if she is getting equal opportunity to nurse? I wonder if it might be an idea to weigh her and her brothers every two days two days to see what they are doing for weight gains, and be able to ensure that she (well, actually all of them) is gaining at a good rate and is clearly getting all the food she needs to thrive. I answer late, I am sick. All babies walk around the cage. She doesn't feel cold to touch tho. She is the only one baby who comes when I open a cage, and she wants to be picked up. I have a vet that loves rodents, she did surgery (neutering). We are at the same vet for over 10years. So when I got degus, we went to her. If your friend needs vet that knows everything about degus. Its in Vilnius "velveta" or "valciuko klinika" its the same vet. But everything else is fine with babies. They started climbing a bit, and dad is always looking incase babies need help.
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gabba
Warbling Degu
Posts: 27
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Post by gabba on Aug 29, 2022 9:07:21 GMT
I agree your little girl sounds like she's having trouble keeping warm. Do you have a snugglesafe or other heatpads you could put in there? You may need to keep a close eye on her so she doesn't stay away from mum or dad too long. They have a lot of toys in the cage. Some of them are dog toys. And mom likes to put them in the donut oustide their nest. Its hot now, So I try to keep our room in shade, because I don't want them to overheat.b Attachments:
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Post by deguconvert on Aug 31, 2022 18:54:57 GMT
They are so very CUTE!! Thank you for posting the photo!
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Post by bouncy on Sept 1, 2022 1:06:31 GMT
Oooh! You're going to need a bigger donut soon!
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Post by savvy on Sept 1, 2022 1:29:19 GMT
I just love the back leg sticking out of the degu pile, lol.
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Post by bouncy on Sept 1, 2022 9:27:29 GMT
I just love the back leg sticking out of the degu pile, lol. Man spread! First it was public transportation, then donuts!
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gabba
Warbling Degu
Posts: 27
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Post by gabba on Sept 2, 2022 18:31:30 GMT
Oooh! You're going to need a bigger donut soon! Two boys will have a new loving home. Girl who will take them already has 3 girl degus and 1 boy in separate cage. So lonely boy will have two new friends. Same girl has few horses, two dogs, two cats, 3 guinea pigs and 2 rabbits. They really love animals and she showed me all of them. And from the first litter, I gave aways two girls. And The girl who took thems always makes tiktoks of them, so I always see my babies one way or another and I am really happy I found such good homes
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gabba
Warbling Degu
Posts: 27
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Post by gabba on Sept 2, 2022 18:35:34 GMT
They are so very CUTE!! Thank you for posting the photo! Dad loves his kids more then mom does. Mom doesnt really take care of them, she just feeds them. But dad alwaye there if they fall, he makes sure that they are always ok
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