New litter advice needed

[john]

We recently had a supprise ..... 6 new degus in our cage... ;D

We have 5 female Degus. The cage that they were in was very small. Ideally it was ment for one hampster. This was an interm measure until we get our larger cage built. In the process we now have a small litter as well. We moved mom and the litter out .... fearing that the new pups would be hurt by the other females. In this I mean that they seemed to be stepping on them a lot and mom seemed to be busy shooing them away.

By moving her i think it may have stressed her a bit in the beginning. I think she may miss the others. However, right now she seems content to be nursing. I am wondering that in a couple of weeks once the cage is built will it be a problem to reintroduce them all back together? Ideally is it ok to separate them for while?

[divegirl]

Hi, I am no expert, but unless you have only recently bought your original five girls and the female could have been pregnant when you got her, your immeadiate task is to sex them all!!! Or you'll have more than 6 new babies!!! Had the cage been big enough you could have left the mum and her pups in there as all the girls would 'babysit'. As for reintroducing them, wait for more expert advice from someone else.
Good luck
Lisa x

[Degumagic]

Hi
When mine had babies i left them in with other girl as they need help looking after them. As the babies can't stay warm on their own they need mum to sit on them and if she needs food and a rest the others will come and keeep them warm.
I would put them all back in together as the others will look after them and help mum.

Also as divegirl said check the others are all girls, if you do have a boy you might get caught out like i did (as she had them as night) and straight after she gave birth the male mates with her and you will end up with more in 90 days.
Hope this helps.
oh and make sure she has lots of tissue to make a good nest with. i put in torn up bits of kitchen roll and she was very happy making a good warm nest. If you do keep them apart put food bowl close to her and water so she doesn't leave them for to long.
Good luck

[ra]

Separating the mom from her four other female cagemates would stress her as explained above. However a single hamster cage would be awfully small for five adults and six puppies.
She really could use some help though. Perhaps you could put one or two of her former cage mates in with her and the babies. That way she'd have some help but not be so crowded.

Best thing would be to accelerate the building of your permanent cage to put everyone back together.


Have you had your girls long? I agree with the above posters, you really want to be certain they are in fact all females. Then you will want to sex and separate the babies after they are weaned at about six weeks. I was so worried about not ending up with another unexpected litter (I thought I'd bought a single male Degu! Eight puppies later......) I sexed and re-sexed our litter til I thought my eyes were going to fall out!! Had my sister confirm my last separation too!

[john]

Hi again

We origionally had 2 males. Peanut and Squeak have been with us for the past 6 years. They had a fairly large cage. 6ft tall with some runs. We desided that that cage would be big enough for some more. However, the new Degus were too small. The fencing we used for the cage was 1x2. So they kept getting out. Thats why we desided that a smaller temporary one would be good enough for a month or so till our new improved and much larger cage was built.

I got the sexes sorted out. Were it stands ..... out of the 5 supposed males that we got ..... we actually had 3 males and 2 females....on with the litter as it turned out. . I managed to separate the males and they are now all in the big cage with peanut and squeak.

There was a bit of a fuss at the beginning so i removed Squeak....he was the dominant male. Peanut didnt mind the new arrivals. Then I put squeak back in with the coloney. He seams to be all right now. The over all sounds they are making is of happiness. Especially from the 3 new male arrivals to their new larger environmnet.

I still havnt put the other female in permanently. I did try and there seems to be a lot of commotion in the cage right now. I am going to watch them this evening and hopefully overnight. I will let everyone know how this goes.

Thanks so far for all the advice.

[john]

Thanks for all the advice.....

The two females worked out quite well. You were right...she took to helping with the babies.....it is actually quite cute to see.

As for the males....they seem to be getting along quite well also.

All is well that ends well ;D

[Erica]

Well done, John!

You seem to have sorted it out nicely. I would love to see a picture of your 6 foot tall cage once you recover from all the excitement.

I've gone through three litters and suggest that you make sure that Mom can keep the babies away from drafts for the first week. I gave extra grasses and hay and when she left the nest to eat she would cover the babies with hay.

One of my older female degus was a very helpful with the newborns and the other two just ignored the babies until they newborns were 3 or 4 weeks old. It's a great sign that your girls have settled in already.

Enjoy! Have fun watching the babies! ;D