got a baby girl!

[jd93]

I just got a ittle girl degu...I need some name ideas please! She is from the flea market. I've just introduced her to my older male momo...he tryed to mate w/ her! I don't want them to have babies so they'll stay separate for now!

thank you!

JD

[rsnooks]

Do you know of her age?

[deguconvert]

I don't know if you have come back to read your other post, jd93, but just in case you look only at this one, I am copying what I wrote on your first post over to this one too. I do so, because I think you need to be plainly aware. Especially since you have already purchased a female and have already tried to put them together.


Hey, jd93. The members of this forum have become quite well acquainted with each other, and we are all very dedicated goo lovers and owners. As a result, we tend to be very defensive of their well being and future, actively seeking to improve situations we come across, and help out when we can. It's not that we are looking to shoot you down, as much as protect degus and prevent potential difficulties that we have seen come to pass through personal experience.

You don't need to defend yourself to us, but it would be helpful to understand your motivation in wanting a female, pregnant or other wise. If is solely for the reason of wanting more, there are other ways to go about having them, and that is what is being suggested as an alternative here.

Just to lay out what could happen: Degus can produce many babies, a litter every 90 days, to the great detriment of the females health. The female is most fertile within the first 24-48 hours after delivery, and the male is more than willing to oblige the favor. The male is such a great help to the female in caring for the new pups, that most times he is not removed in time to prevent an new pregnancy. (The act of . . . conception shall we say. . . happens very quickly) Pups need to stay with mom up to the age of six weeks. A group of degus can blossom from 2 to a hundred in an amazingly short time. Papa is NOT adverse to impregnating his daughters. If a female pup is in conditions of excellent food and nutritional availability, good housing, and all things are optimum, she can be fertile and ready to conceive as young as 6 weeks of age. SO . . . if your male and a new female had a little of say 7 pups, four of which are female. You have the best of foods and housing so those four girls are pregnant when they are six weeks old. Your numbers will explode. Start with 2, say 95 days later, you have a total of 7. Mom gets pregnant the first hour after delivery is finished, then 122 days later you unknowingly have 4 pregnant six week old pups and a mom 22 days pregnant. At 185 days mom has 9 pups, and at around 212 days your four young females each have say 5 pups each. Suddenly you find yourself with 35 degus. Maybe that seems like it wouldn't be too hard to handle, but there are owners here on this forum that can tell you how VERY difficult it is to prevent another pregnancy being started after the birth of pups. Papa goo is VERY good at doing the deed undetected by their human owners.

I hope I haven't caused you annoyance, but truly we are looking to prevent unwanted degus. It isn't fair to you or to the pups that you may unexpectedly find yourself caring for, and potentially swamped with more than you can do or afford.

[jacky]

I have to agree with deguconvert Its not easy to find homes for Degus, Yes you may be lucky to rehome a few but then what? Last year I heard about someone who bought two 1 male one female she thought the pet shop would buy any babies that they had ( when it came to it they only use their own breeders) In the first litter there were six girls mum was expecting again and before long so were the six girls over the months she managed to rehome only 12 of the babies and when a local rescue were called in there were over 140 degus some in a terrible state due to the inbreeding. We never found out how many they saved but I know that a lot were distroyed because they were blind or deformed. I understood that the owner could face prosecution due to neglect. I HAVE TO ASK IS IT WORTH THE RISK OF MAKING EVEN MORE DEGUS HOMELESS OR WOULD YOU BE BETTER TO KEEP THEM APART AND JUST ENJOY YOUR PETS WITHOUT THE WORRY OF BRINGING MORE UNWANTED DEGUS INTO THE WORLD. If you want more babies then why not take on some of the unwanted babies that are around and keep one cage for the girls and one for the boys.