Some further introduction questions

[andrewg]

Hi!

Been about a month since I got two new male degus, they are about 4 months old now, since the beginning of the introduction process they have been in side by side cages and swapped daily.

My oldest degu, Auron and the two new degus Flip and Flop I am trying to get to live in the same cage. I have arrived at a point where a meeting on neutral grounds between Auron and Flop is fine, they sniff each other and then seem to groom each other and they don't fight or make any noises other than the warbling. I am assuming this means they have accepted each other. Auron and Flip on the other hand are a different story, although the fighting seems to have gotten less over time, they still growl at each other and argue through the cage bars and when I put them in neutral ground together they chatter their teeth and end up doing some boxing.

Anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do next? How long should I let them box? They tend to arch their backs, fluff up their fur and shake their tails a lot then generally start boxing after a few minutes. Obviously they are not seriously trying to kill each other, which is a good sign I hope. I appreciate one month is still not enough time to know for sure whether they will ever get on, but should I let them box for a long time? I'm really worried about one of them getting hurt

[deguconvert]

Well Andrewg, I think you are making excellent progress. If I were you, I would start putting them into the cage together and watching to see how they do. The boxing thing is nothing to worry about at all. It sounds to me like they recognise each other as dominant goos, and so they will have to work that out. That may well involve a little bit of blood drawn. Should that happen, they will need to cool down apart from each other . . . but don't give up on them being together. It is a bit of a violent process to win the right to dominate. You need to allow them a bit of room to do that. Really, things sound pretty normal and good to me.

Our goos went through the tail shaking, teeth chattering, fur fluffing demonstrations, and then they had some very nasty fights. I lost count, to be honest, of the number of times I washed away traces of blood. They were SO stubborn about their fight that it took almost four months to get it settled. But it IS settled now, and the two fighters are now the two closest.

If you can . . . keep taking DEEP breaths and let them have a round or two( maybe more ) to get it out of their systems. Separate if things get really scarey, and keep trying. See what happens if they are in the same cage. Please let us know, I am very interested to hear!