Help Me Sex My Degus!

[carissa]

Argh I'm going insane with the gender confusion around my degus. Nerys is my oldest -- bought this one about 1.5 to 2 years ago, told it was a girl. Had a second one which I purchased to keep Nerys company -- sadly that one is no longer with me. I bought two others off a family that couldn't keep them anymore due to health reasons. They were led to believe they had a female pair. I got them home, flipped them over and used the images on degus.org to determine that one was a boy and the other was a girl. I double-checked Nerys to find it was a boy.

Now today I was cleaning their tank and did a quick gender check on them as I moved them, and I think Nerys might actually be a girl. And I had actually grabbed Cuddles (boy) twice, thinking he was Nerys. They both have short tails -- Cuddles has a wee bit of fluff on the end, Nerys doesn't.

So I with hubby's help I photographed the genitalia of all 3 degus and a side profile to help me identify degu genitalia with degu. I organized the photos in the GIMP. It's quite a large file, so I'm not going to upload it here, but you can click the link to look at it and tell me what you think.

Here's my thoughts right now:
Tweety : Female
Nerys : Female
Cuddles : Male

Here's the image link: familygeek.com/DeguGenders.jpg

Thanks Cari

[Eamon]

I don't have much expirience in lines of sexing Degas, but from what i do know I'd say you're right. Cuddles does seem to be the only male of the three.
You best separate them if he's not castrated(which he's probably not, since his old family thought he was female) or you'll be having pups all over the place...

[carissa]

cornelia said:

You best separate them if he's not castrated(which he's probably not, since his old family thought he was female) or you'll be having pups all over the place...

Although it is my plan to separate them as soon as possible by gender, I've actually had them together like this for a few months. I'm thinking that Cuddles isn't sexually mature yet.

Also I've noticed that the girls like to huddle up together. It's quite cute.

[ra]

I believe you are correct. How old is Cuddles? I think the males are sexually mature between 9 mo to a year.

[carissa]

ra said:

I believe you are correct. How old is Cuddles? I think the males are sexually mature between 9 mo to a year.

I think Cuddles is 1 - 1.5 years old.

On other notes... I can then get the male pair of degus at the pet store ... they've been there for 3 months and noone has asked about them. The owner knows me and offered them both to me at 40% off ... and he doesn't even make a profit on selling them normally.

And I found a single female for sale nearby. So now I can bring my total of degus to 3 per gender. I just need to grab another tank topper from the eBay seller I bought the first one from and a new water bottle. I already have a 2nd aquarium and a wheel.

Thanks Ra & Cornelia for your help!

Oh, Ra ... Nerys is getting a little on the skinny side. She used to be a plump little thing. Do you know anything to help fatten her up again? Or should I take everyone to the vet?

[annelise]

Another way to sex a degu, but it has to be done very gently (and the animal has to be used to handling): hold him (try first with the ones you think are males) on his back and gently push back the sheath of his 'penis'. If it is really a male, the penis willl come out (and if you continue pushing back it is actually quite long!), however if it is a female nothing will happen. I always use that method when in doubt, no possible error if you're doing it right. You can also try palpating the testes, but you can easily get mixed up with fat rolls if your females are on the plump side and mistake them for males!

[ra]

carissa- if nerys is getting thin she may have a tooth problem. I would take her to the vets for a checkup.

annelise - great information for confirming sexes.

[carissa]

ra said:

carissa- if nerys is getting thin she may have a tooth problem. I would take her to the vets for a checkup.

Any idea what are common tooth problems and what kind of tooth problem might be causing her to get thin?

[ra]

If her teeth are wearing un-evenly it can throw her bite off making it very difficult for her to chew her food. If her teeth aren't wearing down enough same problem. If it's un-even wear or too long a tooth the vet can snip some tooth off or file the offending tooth (teeth)down. I've seen posts where a broken tooth caused difficulty eating too.

I don't know if Degus' grinding teeth are anything like horses but if they are the back molars could develop sharp edges which cut the sides of their cheeks and tongue making it painful to eat. I think this may apply to Degus too.

She may have a sore spot in her mouth somewhere too. I worry about my girls - they could get a splinter from chewing on the plastic shelving even from chewing on wood.

[diet otaku]

you've definitely got 2 girls and 1 boy on your hands there. degu males become sexually mature at about 1 year, so if cuddles hasn't tried mating with the girls yet, he probably will soon. if you're going to have groups of opposite-sex degus, they should be far enough apart that they can't smell each other, otherwise the males will continually fight with each other over the females, even if they can't actually get to the females.

[carissa]

ra said:

... the vet can snip some tooth off or file the offending tooth (teeth)down.

*shudder* that sounds like something evil like nails on chalkboards ... can we (as degu owners) tell from looking at them if this might be the case? Does this process hurt the degus? Do they have to be put under or can it be done while they're awake?

dietotaku said:

if you're going to have groups of opposite-sex degus, they should be far enough apart that they can't smell each other, otherwise the males will continually fight with each other over the females, even if they can't actually get to the females.

Thanks for the helpful information diet otaku! I didn't know about this part. How far away from each other should they be? Any recommendations? I think I will end up keeping the groups of opposite-sex degus, since it would be unfair to just give up some of my babies since I only want gender Z.

The girls are huddled together in a group usually. Although yesterday I saw Tweety (f) in the mating position over Cuddles (m)? Are they sorta like canines in that they'll try to assert dominance in this manner, irregardless of their gender?