New to degus - worried about their behaviour

[diabloandchico]

Hello to everyone!

Here are Valentina and Fabio writing from Italy. We are very new to degus, we've had two of them only for tree weeks and we're still knowing their behaviours. Diablo and Chico are two beautiful and very active degus. They've been curious and very sociable with us from the first day, especially Diablo who is very trustful. We already love them a lot!! We also already read lot of threads from your forum, it has been very helpful for us so thank you a lot for all of the work!

Within the first days, we noticed that Chico was sneezing a little so we took them to the vet for cheking them out. The vet found them well but it seems that Diablo had a bit of mucus in the little nose. So she gave us a syrup and we gave it to Diablo for a week, waiting for the result of the exam she did for knowing what bacteria was. The other day she called us and said to give to both of them an aerosol therapy with Fluimucil. Yesterday night we did the first time, and it went ok. But today Chico was very sleepy and a bit less active than usual. We did the theray again this morning and after that Chico was like terrified: he refused the pellets we use as treats, and he was like freezed, moving less than usual and not running in the room, and also staying in a place in the sun. After a few time (like half an hour) he started running in the room and moving again, coming to us like usual (he's always more careful than Diablo).

I can't tell if there is something wrong with the therapy itself, maybe is it a collateral effect of the meds? Or it could be just a scared behaviour...? Since of course they don't like to stay in a box for ten minutes with aerosol running...? We are also a bit worried than they'll be scared from us while we are still building trust. But on the other side we would like to finish the therapy since they sneeze from time to time.

Thank a lot for your suggestions!

[teemu]

I am not sure about the aerosol therapy, as I have no experience with it, but what you describe sounds like her being scared and on alert afterwards. If they are young, and it's all still very new to them, being put in a strange box and made to breathe strange stuff against their will could certainly spook them. It's regrettable, but it's also not something that will permanently sour a relationship. You might want to see if there are ways to get her in the aerosol box without stressing her out, such as luring her in with treats.

On a sidenote, may I ask how you keep them? It sounds like they get to move freely around the house, unless I'm misunderstanding something? I would advise you to be pretty careful with that, since degus can bite electrical wires and get into places they really should not go into, and this is especially troublesome with new, scared degus who don't trust their owners yet. So definitely be careful about that, and possibly limit their free-range time until after the therapy is done and they will be more comfortable.

(Sleepiness sounds a bit concerning after the therapy, so I would also advise you to watch them very carefully for signs that the aerosol is causing them some sort of health issues.)

[savvy]

Welcome to the forum and the weird world of degus. Diablo and Chico look gorgeous and so contented in that photograph.

The behaviour you describe is perfectly normal for a degu being medicated as they do hate it, and the freezing you describe is a fear response. However, degus are very smart and will realise you are only trying to help them. Also 3 weeks is not a long time for a degu to adjust to a new home, with new smells, new sounds and a new human, so you will need to be patient with them while they get to know you better.

Talk softly to them while sitting close to their cage, offer treats on the palm of your open hand while resting your hand inside their cage. Any trust building will have to be on their terms and their time frame. But you need to keep up with the meds as your vet has recommended.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask, we're here to help and degus are a steep learning curve.

[diabloandchico]

Thanks a lot teemu and savvy for your answers! Glad to be part of the amazing and weird world of degus

We know 3 weeks isn't a lot for them to adjust to a new home, and for us to know well their behaviours and their unique personalities. I have to say I expected them to be more fearful, instead they're being very curious and open to us and our hands from the very first day, especially Diablo. Yesterday night, when they did the therapy for the first time, they did not show the fear response. But I think you're right and it could be a fear response! Since today Chico was trying to escape the box (in which they had sticks and hay) through my sweatshirt I may have scared him since I was scared in first place.

Anyway while I was writing, Chico started to move again like usual and he also came near to us to do a brief nap. Now they're doing their usual nap of the afternoon, but if Chico will be weird in the next hours I'll call the vet for asking if is it ok to continue the therapy.

As teemu asks, they stays in a closed cage and when we are at home we open an extention room I built for them; they have toys and wheels within the cage and the room. We are training them to go outside freely, just in one room we adjust to be "degu safe" with wires etc. They are learning actually very quickly to return to the cage (or our hands) using the pellet they love as a treat.

We are putting all ourselves in loving these two, but since we are newbie we are afraid to do mistakes, I think it's normal... And I may worry a bit too much, my bf is wayyyy too calm compared to me

Thanks for your reassurance again! I'll write again if it happens something more.
Have a good day or night (depends on what side of the world are you writing from

Ps: sorry for my shaky English, hope haven't done too much mistakes!!

[diabloandchico]

To be clear, just when we are at home and very careful to their movement --> We are training them to go outside freely, just in one room we adjust to be "degu safe" with wires etc. They are learning actually very quickly to return to the cage (or our hands) using the pellet they love as a treat.

[teemu]

Okay, that sounds totally fine. Having a degu-proofed room they can play around in is a lovely idea

Can they freely move between the cage and the room when they are outside? They will feel a lot safer if they can return home as soon as they feel suspicious of anything.

About the sniffing and mucus, is there any draft in your house? That can irritate them quite easily. Another possibility is if there is dust, or if the substrate or hay they have is dusty.

[deguconvert]

Hello, and welcome to the forum, Diabloandchico! It is a delight to meet you, and I think your English is lovely! Please do not apologize.

I was going to mention dust that may originate from food sources or substrate, just as Teemu has done. Dust can be problematic for them, and can cause respiratory issues. It depends on the degus and how sensitive they are to dust. A draft, as Teemu also says, can be an issue as well.

I look forward to getting to know you!

[moletteuk]

If you have any doubts about medication it's always worth giving the vet a call to discuss.

This actually seems like an interesting medication that I've never come across before. It seems to be for dispersing mucus so the body can get rid of it more easily. It could be very useful for degus who are badly congested, fully blocked nasally and needing to mouth breathe. Unless your degu is in this situation I would think this medication is not totally necessary as it doesn't seem to be actually treating the cause of the sneezing and mucus, so it may be worth discussing the cost-benefits of this in your situation with your vet.

Possible causes of sneezing and mucus in degus are bacterial or viral infection, allergies or reaction to dust and/or chemicals. The first things to do are eliminate artificial fragrances in the house and make the cage as low dust as possible by switching substrate or doing a trial of going without substrate.

[gabba]

So I am new to degus. When we bought them they said both are boys. Turnes out one of them is a girl. So she gave birth. But since then male degu keeps squeaking every morning 4am-7am for about 20mins to an hour. And It's impossible to calm him down. He never did that before... We have them since april 10th.
And the squeaking only began when babies were born. What does it mean? I have a video of him, just idk if it is posible to post it here

[savvy]

Welcome to the forum.

I'm afraid I have some really bad news for you. The sound the male is making is called barking, and they do this after they have had sex with the female. Degus like to advertise their conquests. You need to remove the male immediately, although I suspect your female may be pregnant again already.

Please, please read this section carefully, deguworld.proboards.com/thread/23456/information-sheet-pregnant-degus-care if you have any questions, trust me there are no silly questions when it comes to degus, we will help if we can.

[bouncy]

Hi, and congratulations!

Please read everything in the link below:
deguworld.proboards.com/thread/23456/information-sheet-pregnant-degus-care

Have you separated your two degus? Quite often, barking like that can be a reaction to something outside (like a dog walker), or an announcement to the world that he's just had sex.

[savvy]

Housing the male in another cage or if possible divide your current cage so they can see and hear each other, but not physically reach each other.

If you can let us know the dimensions of your current cage, we may be able to advise on how to safely divide it.

[gabba]

Jun 10, 2022 11:40:09 GMT savvy said:

Welcome to the forum.

I'm afraid I have some really bad news for you. The sound the male is making is called barking, and they do this after they have had sex with the female. Degus like to advertise their conquests. You need to remove the male immediately, although I suspect your female may be pregnant again already.

Please, please read this section carefully, deguworld.proboards.com/thread/23456/information-sheet-pregnant-degus-care if you have any questions, trust me there are no silly questions when it comes to degus, we will help if we can.

Idk if I'm going to reply this correctly. But I read that daddy degu should be with kids with mummy degu. So I didn't seperate them. First birth was with 3degus. My and my bf don't want to seperate then, so we will go to the wet to castrate the boy. We don't really have a choice for it. Where we bought degus, they will pay for it, because it was their mistake. For now we want to find home for two degus, and we want to keep one baby. But idk if mum and son can have babies. We have two baby girls and one baby boy.
Do if we keep a boy, we could have babies again. But if we keep a girl, idk if anyone will take boy and a girl

[savvy]

First of all, male degus shouldn't be neutered until they are a year old. Once they have been neutered, they retain residual sperm for 8 weeks.

You should only keep one male, even if he's been neutered, in a group of females as they will fight over the girls. Male degus can impregnate any female, it really doesn't matter if they are related or not.

A simple solution would be to keep dad separate from mum and the babies until the babies are 8 weeks old, then the girls can stay with mum and the boy can go in with dad so you have two single sex groups.

Bear in mind that in three months, you may have a second litter of pups and back to back pregnancies are really hard on the mum.

[gabba]

Jun 10, 2022 12:21:24 GMT savvy said:

First of all, male degus shouldn't be neutered until they are a year old. Once they have been neutered, they retain residual sperm for 8 weeks.

You should only keep one male, even if he's been neutered, in a group of females as they will fight over the girls. Male degus can impregnate any female, it really doesn't matter if they are related or not.

A simple solution would be to keep dad separate from mum and the babies until the babies are 8 weeks old, then the girls can stay with mum and the boy can go in with dad so you have two single sex groups.

Bear in mind that in three months, you may have a second litter of pups and back to back pregnancies are really hard on the mum.

When we bought them, they were no longer babies, and it took longer for them to get used to use. In my country non logical thing arr happening. So for now we don't have any money for new cage. Prices are rising and salary isn't. We didn't knoe that we would have more degus. We won't be able to keep all five. and I'm so sad about the fact that we will have to give away two babies, when they are ready to the new home. We could only keep one. Its hard to decide witch one to keep, boy or a girl. If we had more money, we would keep all of them. I really don't know what to to. 

[moletteuk]

A son will impregnate his mother. You cannot keep two males with one female because the males will fight, potentially to the death. So, you cannot keep father, mother and son together.

As you have already realised, it would also be irresponsible to keep one girl and try to rehome a brother and sister. It would also be irresponsible to keep both girls and leave one boy alone. It would also be questionable to neuter dad when we have to presume he is less than 12 months old.

In my opinion, Savvy has mentioned a great solution which is to put the boy with dad when the boy is 6 weeks old and then keep the females together. (Dad should be removed immediately to reduce the chances of another pregnancy.)

Perhaps you can persuade the pet shop to provide another cage instead of the cost of neutering.

All of this ignores the strong possibility that mum is already pregnant again.

I would urge you to think very carefully over what we are telling you as things can get out of control very quickly indeed with ongoing pregnancies. I understand how important financial considerations are, but if you don't make the right decisions now, the situations may get much worse.

[gabba]

Jun 10, 2022 13:18:23 GMT moletteuk said:

A son will impregnate his mother. You cannot keep two males with one female because the males will fight, potentially to the death. So, you cannot keep father, mother and son together.

As you have already realised, it would also be irresponsible to keep one girl and try to rehome a brother and sister. It would also be irresponsible to keep both girls and leave one boy alone. It would also be questionable to neuter dad when we have to presume he is less than 12 months old.

In my opinion, Savvy has mentioned a great solution which is to put the boy with dad when the boy is 6 weeks old and then keep the females together. (Dad should be removed immediately to reduce the chances of another pregnancy.)

Perhaps you can persuade the pet shop to provide another cage instead of the cost of neutering.

All of this ignores the strong possibility that mum is already pregnant again.

I would urge you to think very carefully over what we are telling you as things can get out of control very quickly indeed with ongoing pregnancies. I understand how important financial considerations are, but if you don't make the right decisions now, the situations may get much worse.

I understand, thanks for all advice. Thing is we wouldn't pay for neutering, the pet shop will, cuz it was their mistake. As I said, we would love to keep all, but we can't, so we want to to find loving home for the babies. We have a bit time untill we can seperate babies from mum. So what should I do, I don't really know.


• we can't keep all 5 degus, it's all because of miney problem 

• Can't keep the baby boy and give away two girls.
• Can't keep a girl and give away boy and the girl.. (but what if there will be a person who would take boy and girl?)

•For now I can't seperate mum and dad.


This really shouldn't have happened.. We were told their are both boys. But as turnes out we bought and a girl who was already pregnant. 

some say to givr babies to the shop. But 'kika' the shop, is not good with animals, so I no longer want to support them, and give even more animals to abuse. 

I am so lost. As you give me advice, it seems It will be hard you to take decision. 


I still may not know everything about degus, I'm still learning and taking the best care for them. 

So I came here, to ask what to do, This don't want to make a mistake with what is going on now

[moletteuk]

I understand - what I suggest is that you get the pet shop to pay for the extra cage since it is their fault that you need it - they pay for the cage instead of the neutering. Then you divide into a male group and female group and keep one and rehome the other.

[deguconvert]

Hello, Gabba, and welcome to the forum!

I want to assure you and your bf that we are not standing against you. We know that life makes things terribly difficult, and right now the whole world is full of chaos and distress. We recognize that you find yourselves in a difficult place, especially since you must make decisions that feel like no matter what direction you turn, you may be endangering the small animals you have come to love so dearly.

My fellow forum members have been trying to gently tell you that you are facing a greater difficulty than you realize. I know that we are really sorry to have to share such distressing news, for we can tell you love these littles ones very much . . . we love them too. I know that you want to give them the very best life and home that you can, but you are facing serious limitations.

Please allow me to tell you things I learned from personal experience.

In captivity degus have a more nutritionally dense diet, which results in female degus being able to conceive by the age of 6 weeks old. Male pups can impregnate females as early as 8 weeks of age.

In my home, we brought home two, vet certified, males to be companions to two we already had that were grieving the death of their alpha male in the group. They were quickly accepted, which was a relief, but 90 days later we understood why they were so quickly accepted, when both degus proved to be females with the birth of two litters of six pups each. Which we didn't discover for a day or two, as they were well hidden in a deep nest.

Degus females are at their most fertile for the first 24 hours after giving birth. Which gave our two boys all the opportunity they needed. 90 days later, we had a two more litters, both were 7 pups each. We had successfully rehomed the 7 of the pups and kept 5 females due the very large cage we had, and by this time we had the two males in their own separate cage. When the pups were 7 weeks old, we took them to the pet store that had used a vet to incorrectly certify that our females were males. Which we thought was a success . . . until we realized one small pup had escaped the transfer and had hidden in a small closet for two days before being discovered. It was a male. We put him in with the females for about a week, while we modified the male cage so that he could have his own space in there, while the other two males got to know him. While he was there for that one remaining week . . . he was busy. Before we knew it . . . all the females were showing signs of pregnancy, and sure enough they were. Seven litters, with six pups in all but one . . . and that litter was 7 pups. Now we had 2 adult males, 1 less than three months age male, 2 less than a year of age females, 5 females of about six months of age, and 43 brand new pups in the home. A total of 53 degus to house and feed for the next 6-7 weeks, at which time the pups are of the right age to rehome. It took more like three months to have them placed, and by that time, the pet store was unwilling to help.

Their numbers can swell so very quickly, and I think it is almost assured that your girl is already pregnant. If you keep your male with her and the pups, the likelihood that he will impregnate the two daughters is just as high.

I know that is a lot of information to process . . . and you are already agonizing over the options before you. It is a difficult place to be.

[bouncy]

We certainly don't want you to feel bullied! I think it is a mix of language, and trying to explain the problems and choices clearly.

Degus must have other degu company. Boy degus will always try to have sex with others, even other boys, so it is very important to keep females and males apart. As soon as a girl has given birth, she can become pregnant again immediately so, every three months you may have up to 8 new degus!

Yes, it is important to keep the babies living with an adult so they can learn how to be a degu (they have no idea!). To begin with, this must be mum before they eat normal foods but, after that, the boys can live with dad. This MUST happen by 7 weeks, or you'll have more babies.

To neuter a boy, he must be at least 1 year old. This is not like a dog, because the bits are inside the belly. Because of this, the surgery is expensive. It can cost more than a cage. If you want to keep both adults, they must be separated. If you don't want to give the babies to the pet shop, you have options:

A) Put the boys with dad and the girls with mum and keep two groups

B) Put separate Like A, but find a new home for one group

C) Wait until your boy is 1 year, keep in a separate cage next to your girl, have him neutered and then let them live in the same cage after 7 weeks, and find new homes for the babies

Degus need a lot of space to run, but not height for climbing! They like it, but are not good.

There are no other animals like degus. Most people here have had other rodent pets, but we have all had a lot to learn. We are here to offer help and advice, from experience and research, and you can ask lots of questions. We will try to answer, but we will never tell you what you MUST do unless there is a danger. At the moment, we are worried your girl will immediately have more babies, making a bigger problem for you, and your girl will be unwell being pregnant all the time

Good luck!