Is my degu pregnant, please help (BIG UPDATE)

[parker]

I think they are both male which means I will have to give them up and find mama a cage mate.

Quick question, mama has gotten really fat again really fast and is nesting like crazy. The babies are about a week old today and she never nested this much since they were born. Is there any reason for this ? She is running around and eating and drinking like normal.

[savvy]

Can you get her vet checked to see if she is still carrying pups?

[parker]

Is it possible she is still carrying ? I'll try to get her in right away. What should I do in the meantime ? She did lose weight initially and she did pass afterbirth.

[savvy]

I haven't come across it before after a week, but degus are a law unto themselves. They are masters at hiding pregnancy and illness as they are a prey animal so they don't show anything that could help a predator.

Two pups is a small litter though, so its probable that there's a pup still in there, but my gut instinct says get her vet checked just to make sure its not a pup or an infection of some kind.

Remember to take the pups with you though, as they are still too young to be away from mama for any length of time.

[parker]

Thank you, I will call around and ask if anyone can take her.

[savvy]

Let us know how you get on.

[deguconvert]

Is it too soon for an update?

[savvy]

Any news?

[moletteuk]

I think there are unlikely to be pups stuck if she has passed the afterbirth, but she could be swollen from some kind of birth issue. Does she seem OK? Is she lethargic at all?


If you can get good, clear photos of the genitals we can help you tell if the babies are boys or girls.

[parker]

Sorry for the late update, I finally got her into a vet. The vet said there wasn't anything stuck but to keep a close eye on her and make sure not to stress her out too much. I'm gonna keep feeding her the vitamins and hope she gets better. She is still active and eating and feeding the pups.

[moletteuk]

We don't normally recommend vitamins. Check out our feeding guide which will tell you about forage and supplementary seeds which we do recommend.

[bouncy]

Molette is right. Many vitamins have a toxicity level, and that level isn't known for degus. You can continue to feed the higher calcium seeds, as this will help replenish what mum gave up when producing and nursing her pups, and any excess will be excreted through her urine (it'll look chalky).

[parker]

Her urine has been looking chalky, I'll stop giving her it and look into other options,
as for the babies, they both have gap for days so I'm confident they are both male and I already have a few re-homing options for them