Introduced 2 new Degus... HELP!

[rsnooks]

Hi,

After having our 2 male degu's for 6 months now, we decided to introduce 2 new male degu's to the family.

We thought that before we instantly seperate the cage into 2 parts, we would try and introduce them directly on neutral grounds (our bed lol).

At first it went well, then after about 5 minutes it turned into a huge fight between the 2 pairs.

We then decided to put the old 2 Degus (who started the fight) into a travel box and the other 2 degus into excercise balls untill we could sort something out.

We have now seperated the cage into 2 halves using wire mesh and have got the 2 pairs settled again.

They are now generally squeeking, growling and biting the wire mesh that is seperating them.

Can anyone give me some tips on how to get these 2 pairs atleast co-operating with each other instead of going at each others throats?

Cheers,
Reiss.

[deguconvert]

When did you get the new pair? You will need at least a week where they are separated and getting the chance to smell each other through the wire. When I introduce new goos to my original goo, he (Reep) made all kinds of nasty blue goo language through the bars. The first three days thats what most of the day contained. Blue goo language. It started to slow down as the week went on. I made a point of taking out Reep and giving him lots of cuddles during that week. The new ones I was primarily working on hand training them, so no holding and cuddling as of yet. At the end of that week, is when I started with the neutral territory introductions. That went along fairly well, and before long they were together.

Are your new goos babies? Your original goos will be in their aggressive adolescent stage about now, or just past it. If your new ones are babies, they will get adolescent in behavior around their forth to fifth months. If you have succeeded in getting them together before that time . . . expect to see new fighting break out. Once the new pair are adolescent they will try to change the power structure of things and will fight for dominance. It can be really trying and stressful, but it will come to an end. Hopefully with everyone together and happy.

But for now . . . give them at least a week before trying neutral territory. Maybe choose something like a bathtub for your neutral ground, where you can also use a spray bottle to squirt water at any fighters, and a towel to dry them off.

I hope things go well for you!

[rsnooks]

Cheers for the quick reply.

We only got the new pair a day ago (one of them already has his tail damaged).

They are definately much younger, but i wouldn't say that they are babies as they are pretty much the same size as our first pair.

The first "original" pair keep trying to get at the new pair through the wire as suggested and the one with the damaged tail stays hidden during this while the other of the new pair chatters his teeth away while standing directly where the old pair are chewing as if he is trying to protect his brother.

I will try as you suggested by leaving it a week before trying again.

Any other suggestions will be great too ^_^

[jolie]

Use a sand bath (chinchilla dust) that both pairs have used and marked in. That way they will all smell close to the same. When you try re-introducing them, give them the sand bath. If all goes well, they'll all roll in it, and be fine with each other. If not.... try, try again after short 'recovery' periods. Patience!

[kerry]

hi, there are lots of posts on here about introductions, you could also try and put some vanilla essence in the sand as it will make them smell the same.

[rsnooks]

Hi all,

Looks like the arguments have started to die down abit now.

They still don't like each other very much at the moment but arn't growling or squeeking anymore so i guess thats atleast something.

[Joe Sinclair]

I've never done it, but apparently in extreme cases directly applying a dab of vanilla essence directly onto the degu's noses prior to a meeting on neutral territory will prevent them from smelling each other which is the primary method of identifying "is this degu in front of me for grooming or for biting?"

You see, just like me they can't tell each other apart by sight either! Frankly I haven't a clue which of my degus is which.

[shimmy]

Hi, I'm so glad someone has asked about this beause i've just been faced with the same problem, I had 2 female degus and now i have one who is about 8 months old and i've been looking for a friend for her. i know people had bred some and they were giving all of them away so they let me have another female whos about 1month old. but the young one they have both originally come from the same group of degus just different litters . Do you think this can work or will my older one just attack the younger one? i like your suggestions and i think i'll try them

[Lala]

She most likely will as she won't the new goo, so you're better off introductions from scratch I'm afraid!

rsnooks, there's also the possibility that your goos won't get along, in which case they'll need a new cage. I adopted Punk & Rocket from melmel1987 because her original pair wouldn't accept them

[rsnooks]

Lalaandbean,

When you got Punk & Rocket, did you manage to get them to integrate with Jack and Coke or do you have 2 seperate cages?

I have them all in the same cage but with a barrier between them at the moment and it looks to be OK so far, so hopefully i will be able to get them to get along.

[melmel1987]

Lala couldnt introduce them again becuase she found out her two "males" were females. But from my understanding of the introductions she tried before hand, they didnt get on amazingly well.

But they were always kept in seperate cages, the same as when i had Punk & Rocket and Axel and Houdini. I wouldnt have even considered keeping them in the same cage but seperating it, due to the terratory scenting. They will pee at eachother through the mesh and try and steal terratory and it usualy ends up irritaing each pair. Completely seperate cages are the best way, but close to eachother so they can still see eachother.

The problem is you mainly get a dominant one in each pair and when introductions are done you will find the submissive two will usually get on just fine and not really be fussed but its whe the two dominants meet that there are issues, both refuse to back down.

It is true that in cases they will nver get on, and unfortunately you are left with two pairs of goos in seperate cages that will never get on.

Its a shame but sometimes they just dont want to be friends or share their terratory. I wrote something similar to introductions on another thread int his section about an hour ago with tips and stuff think "sunshine" posted the thread originally.

Hope your intro's go well.

[rsnooks]

Hi,

They seem to be kind of getting along at the moment but im still going to leave it awhile before i try and introduce them properly again.

On another subject, with the 2 new degu;s, one of them has bitten the remainder of the smaller degus "dead" tail off (which was already half gone when it was in the pet shop).

Do they do this to get rid of the "dead" part of the tail on purpose or was this caused by a fight between the two?

When i say dead part, its like the scabby/boney part of the tail that was left after the fleshy part was removed.

I'll try to get a picture to show what i mean.

Also, does loss of part of the tail also affect their balance?

[deguconvert]

Yes they will bite off the boney end of a dead part of the tail. Yes it often does affect their balance to a degree. The more tail missing, the more the effect.

[shimmy]

My degus are now getting alot more vocal, but it seems quite bubbly like the original two used to wen they met back up after running off their seperate ways. im guessing the introductions are going well so far, they've shown no signs of agression, and the smaller one follows the other one. what signs should i look for before actually letting them together atm Tosca runs loose and i put the smaller one behind bars so they can see and sniff eachother?

[rsnooks]

Hi,

I tried to reintroduce them again last night in the bath.

Got them all to know each other for 10 minutes each one at a time.

Then got the two "new" ones to spend some time with just the "submissive" one from the old pair, this worked fine.

As soon as i put all four together, about 2 minutes in (which looked like it was going well), the dominent one of the old pair suddenly lashed out at our new pair (but only the one with the tail, the one without a tail gets left alone...).

At first i let them have a little fight as it looked like a normal fight for dominance, then it got nasty so i had to seperate them again.

Today i am going to put them both into two seperate cages instead of in one cage with 2 parts and hopefully try again next week.

I have been using the Vanilla Essence and it doesnt work (seems to just make them more hyper than usual).

Do you think i should use it daily instead of just for the meetings?

[Lala]

I suppose you could use it daily, I introduced them daily for around a month with a vanilla sand bath each time anyways.

What you've just described seems to be more or less what mine did! Seemed to get along fine for the first couple of minutes then all hell broke loose and it was either Coke or Rocket that usually started it while Jack & Punk tried jumping out of the bath!
Then, as mel said, I discovered Jack & Coke were female - not male as I was told and so the pairs are in separate cages now!