Females and males fighting.

[cookiedegus]

Hello,

My degus live by ratio 1,2,4; 1 boy, 2 boys and 4 girls; Suddenly yesterday they started fighting; the boys are known for fights, but girls never fought in their lives! The degus are about 1 and a half years old.
Their injuries look a bit concerning to me, especially Milka's. Could I do something to prevent infection? or it wasn't a bite and something is wrong?

This is Hugo or Whitey. He's a child of Canelle and is the strongest male. His nose got probably scratched and it bled a bit first hours.

ibb.co/TkMd4Fk

This is Marshmallow, he's got quite the personality, he likes to spin around, he was given antibiotics some sort when he was about 8 months, but it didn't work, he also seems to not control his toenails but his balance is amazing now. He has a scratch directly on his whiskers. You can't see it very clearly, but it has blood around a bit.

ibb.co/4dYxcB8

This is Sakura, she's the lightest and the most active degu i've ever met. She loves to run but she's sometimes pretty aggressive. Her ear was bitten by Milka, they were chasing each other every cage level trying to hide from each other and "screaming" and showing teeth (mostly sakura).  sorry for the image, shes moving a lot so i cant really take a good one.

ibb.co/M8yMj4j

This is Milka, she's one eye or two blind since she was 7 months old, but she adapted to it pretty nicely I'd say, tho she still falls sometimes. She has pulled fur at the back, which i suppose its because of the chasing. I have no idea why Sakura would bite her, because that's her child, and why such a spot?

ibb.co/7b2XPS8

[deguconvert]

I KNOW I have probably asked you multiple times, so I apologize that I am doing it again . . . would you please remind me of the cage sizes for each group?

[moletteuk]

If the girls are now fighting when they didn't before, the usual causes are not enough space, or hormones causing an issue. When some female degus come into heat they can be very agitated for several days and it can really make tensions run high. They may chase and mount their cagemates which gets annoying for the cagemates so after a while they can get annoyed enough to fight or at least snap and throw they odd bite. The fur pulled on the back would support this theory although it could just be chance that a scuffle has ended up with a bite/pull there, dominance issues would also result in mounting and chasing the rear of a degu. A degu in heat will also usually run more than usual in the wheel and eat a bit less, so it's worth looking out for these signs.

If the boys are aware of the girls, then fighting in the girls could quite easily spark fighting in the boys.

I can't really make out any of the injuries except the bite on the ear. I would keep a very close watch of this injury due to it being in a very sensitive place, perhaps it would be worth spraying with antiseptic or dabbing on some kind of pet safe antiseptic. Perhaps you could try to get a closer up image of Milka's injury if it concerns you?