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Post by squirrelygirl3 on Feb 13, 2006 18:36:41 GMT
maybe I will. 'The babies and adults chattering is incredible. I miss them already, but it was for the best. I drove 1000 km to take them to a good place where all 12 could be housed together for the next 5 weeks. Petland >:(was way too excited when I called them... "We'll take the babies" ( to sell at $25 a pop - uh "how about no" , and such gems as "how did they get pregnant?") My degus pictures are already on the net on the Purina Pet Finder site. Bittersweet..
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Post by ra on Feb 13, 2006 21:45:53 GMT
Thank goodness for the kind shelter people. Petland would have made me nervous too. I really hated to take Mocha's five boys back to the pet shop where I bought her but had no interested parties when I tried to re-home them. I was only able to re-home a pair of the girls. I did take the time to talk to the pet store owner at length about the special care of Degus. She seemed genuinely concerned that she hadn't been doing right by her Degus. I trust the private pet shops more than the large chain stores but really wish I could have found homes for them myself.
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Post by squirrelygirl3 on Feb 14, 2006 0:42:28 GMT
I will see what I can do about the video. How do I put this nicely? I was a little melancholy when I took the pictures and video, b/c I knew that we were going to the shelter the next day. I had a bit of wine, and was giving several toasts to the degus. The narraration might be a little shaky.... But the pups are so cute, and they seem to move at once, as a little army of degus. It's very sweet, but i think that it took me over an hour to change the litter in the cage yesterday, working around 12 degus. Apparently they are in a much bigger cage. I think that there is even a real tree for them. The adults seemed to need some sanctuary from the pups. I commend anyone who has the resiliance to last 6-8 weeks with adults and pups.
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Post by Aimeelou on Feb 14, 2006 9:12:14 GMT
I realy feel for you squirrelygirl, having that many pups is one thing, but i know the heartache of having to say good bye You have done the best thing for them and be sure that they will find a lovly home as they did yours. All the best at this hard time x
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Post by squirrelygirl3 on Feb 14, 2006 23:52:41 GMT
The plot has actually thickened again. The ladies form the shelter counted 11 pups. There were 9 at my last count. Pisco? They are checking Pisco out to see if she is lactating. Babies everywhere. 3 litters? This would bringthe total number of degus from my 3 up to 14. Maybe I had 2 more dugus in my car? The degu's cage at the shelter is amazing. Toys everywhere. 3 wheels, including a mini wheel for hte pups. I was sent a picture. It is not a typical shelter, thats for sure..... I am sure that they are loving their new digs. I have a nice picture of Pisco with the pups that I am going to try and post. Pisco is the one that supposedly wasn't a mother.
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Post by squirrelygirl3 on Feb 15, 2006 22:34:17 GMT
It gets even crazier.... Pisco is so little and the genitalia was so ambiguous on her that I didn't give it much thought. I would say that she is pretty inbred. After looking at very detailed photographs, Pisco is a male. Pisco is now housed by himself in a bachelor pad. He gets a lot of attention, but there is the distinct possibility that Cocoa and Yolanda have been bred again... This means that Yolanda must have had a multi day labour... Poor thing. She is the only real mother to all 11 pups. I pray that she has not been bred again. This also means that the shelter could be faced with 1/2 Pisco and 1/2 Cocoa pups. I couldn't imangine a more insane combination. The progress ofthe 14 degus can be followed through the shelter: www.chaoticexotics.ca via the aadoption centre link. BABY PICTURES! They are nice enough to give me updates on "my" degus.
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Post by ra on Feb 16, 2006 15:17:16 GMT
Oh squirrely, it's not funny but could you imagine if you had been able to keep your three "girls" you'd be wondering what the heck was going on! I'm pretty sure the next round of babies would have got you wondering about Pisco though!
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Post by ra on Feb 16, 2006 15:22:42 GMT
I checked out the rescue from your link. They do look like a very special group of people to me. A wonderful place. They took really nice pictures of the Degus and the babies.
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Post by squirrelygirl3 on Feb 16, 2006 18:03:00 GMT
I think that I am going to pay "child support". 14 degus... plus the distinct possibilty that the real girls have been bred again. These people have hearts of gold. Aren't the pups beautiful? :DI didn't name them. Apparently I didn't even count them. The photos are going to be updated often as the pups grow. The cage in the photos was my old cage. Thier new cage is enormous and pretty much wall to wall toys. There are even special toys for the pups. Hopefully little Pisco (aka"the retarded degu") is shooting blanks...
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Post by diet otaku on Feb 16, 2006 20:37:16 GMT
so they think that pisco impregnated cocoa and yolanda? or that pisco impregnated yolanda and cocoa didn't actually have any babies?
on the plus side, if pisco had mated with either of the girls while in your care, you would have heard about it. if you didn't hear the mating call, he didn't mate.
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Post by squirrelygirl3 on Feb 17, 2006 0:59:49 GMT
Yolanda and Cocoa definately each had pups. There are 11 pups between them. I witnessed both births. It seems logical that Pisco would be the papa, but I only had them for six weeks, so this was a pet store coupling. Pisco is tiny and a bit deformed as well as not quite all there. I don't know if he could actually sire pups. I checked and he definately looked like a girl to me. Thanks for reminding me that I did not hear any "post copulatory squeaks". I really hope that poor Yolanda is not pregnant again. Cocoa is not a good mother, and has left all 11 pups up to Yolanda to deal with. ( I noticed this, and the ladies from the shelter say the same thing) Yolanda is a very tired degu. The ladies from the shelter have 14 degus to place. Degus O'plenty in Alberta! I don't think that they need any more puppies at the moment. The very cool thing is that the shelter is having a rodent photo contest. The picture beside it is naturally a degu, and not just any degu, its my Pisco in action. If you enlarge the image it looks very arty, Andy Wharhol-ish. This is now the wallpaper on my computer.
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Post by squirrelygirl3 on Feb 27, 2006 18:19:40 GMT
Although I have no more degus, I am still a proud grandmother from a distance. The baby pictures have been updated on the website: www.chaoticexotics.ca Just click on the pictures of the individual pups, and you will find a couple of newer pictures. My babies! sigh.... No word on any pending adoptions yet. I attempted to post a picture on this site. It's a very cute one with Pisco and the pups, but I am too ignorant to compress the file and even rotate it properly.....
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