Think we're a victim of poor sexing?

[fenix2k]

Hi all

First post, wish it could be better.

Well, we got 2 degus a little while back - gorgeous creatures!! Love em to bits. Recently we decided to get them a play-mate and saw this lovely blue degu in the local P@H store (i know!) which we fell for so decided to take the plunge and introduce her to our pair.

You can probably see where this is going if i tell you that our pair we originally "sexed" as boys (another P@H store, they didnt really know - seemed like they were guessing). I was a little unsure of the sex of ours and given this fantastic site - and degutopia, i came to conclusion that ours were indeed boys!

This is where i get annoyed as the supposed degu "expert" advised that the ones in the shop were girls and they couldnt give us one if we had boys (obvs). So we wanted to double check and return home before committing. I thought it was close so id get her in the store to verify, who then advised us that ours were in fact girls (along with agreement from her manager)! So we got the new degu, new cage and new innards.

This was saturday, since then they have been out of sight/smell so in the interest of getting them to know each other i put the cages so they could see and smell each other today. This is where it gets interesting. Our pair went a little nuts with each other! fought like they never have before! I intervened before they drew blood. Tried again about 30mins later when they had calmed down - same result.

This leads me to the following questions:

1) Would same sex pairs fight with other in this manner when being introduced to the new ones scent??

2) If ours are girls - if we left them to it, would the fighting subside?

3) One piece of behaviour we witnessed that i havent read about is a "thingying of the leg". Ours (and her but less) kept thingying their legs and sometime "marked" the other degu. What is this an indication of?

Suffice to say I am less than happy with P@H so went in tonight to have a word - we are at least getting a new cage from them so we can take the pair of females at another store and get them introduced to our now lone little girl .

Thanks in advance

Chris.

[fenix2k]

Small update: Just tried again and while there is interest on the touching sides of the cages, much less fighting between my pair.

I keep checking them (sorry guys!) as im second guessing myself now!

I know its been asked on more than a few threads here - but any sure fire gender behaviours / physical attributes would be much appreciated!

Chris.

[deguconvert]

Have you had a look at the "How to sex your degu" video? I have included a link below.

deguworld.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=talk&action=display&thread=3145

Have a look at this and then look again at your original pair. If possible look at the lone degu, and any others that you may bring in. If you can make a decisive gender diagnosis, it will help with what may be going on with the fighting. If your pair are males . . . and the lone one is female . . . the smell of a female can send sexually mature males into aggressive, testosterone flooded, combatants. Let us know what you determine and we can go from there.

[fenix2k]

Thats the issue at the moment.

Ive looked on here and degutopia for the sexing digrams and ours seem to be "in between". Their parts arent so close that they are clearly female, but then again they arent so far apart that they are clearly male!

If ours are boys, would the fighting be constant and fully agressive in the presence of the female?

I may take some pics and post them here.

[fenix2k]

Ok, popped the cages next to each other again today.

Same results, although fighting a little less frequent (seemed to only happen when all 3 were in "contact") - also took pictures this morning of the bits - will try and post them later.

I have come to the conclusion that we have gender confused goos!! I am leaning towards ours being females - but they seems to fight with each other whenever they are on the same level as the new arrival.

There is also hostility towards the new girl - trying to bite her through the cage sides, with some minor lunging towards her.

The cages are now returned on top of each other - and they have calmed down again (they are the P@H degu cages - so there is fair gap between the bases).

I am now so confused. They seem to be exhibiting behavior i would expect if ours were male, but i am now believing they are girls. Also, given their cages proximity normally, there is no abnormal behavior, so this leads me further to believe that the pair are girls who can smell the other but cant see her so aren't feeling threatened.

Any suggestions at this point would be greatly appreciated, we dont want to have a lonely goo.

Chris.

Ps, their names are: Chuck, Morgan and Ellie (new arrival).

[deguconvert]

Will wait to see the pics, but until then, just keep them as is. It will keep the tension low, and no one will get hurt. Once we have a good idea of sex, then we can start thinking of methods to deal with the aggression. Do you know their ages?

[fenix2k]

chuck and morgan are around 6-7 months old. Ellie is 9-10weeks.

[deguconvert]

Hmmm . . . well . . . still need the pics to help . . . but at least we know that Chuck and Morgan are in their sexual "teens" so to speak. That can, and does, greatly increase the signs of aggression for a time.

[fenix2k]

Been very busy lately! work and home gone nuts!

Anyway - update.

Havent been able to get pics up, but i dont think there is any need to at this point, given that now any sight/smell of ellie - chuck and morgan quickly end up fighting. So regardless of gender i dont think introducing them is wise (fyi, their behaviour is becoming more clearly male).

So we have 2 new arrivals (i wasnt about to leave ellie on her own)! Anna and Sarah!

They are actually girls, settling in nicely. 12 weeks old, so pretty much the same age as ellie. New girls been here for a week now and are jumping out onto hands already. Such a cute pair! One brown and another grey.

P@H at least took some responsibility and they supplied me another cage with which to keep them (3 large cages in a 2 bed flat is quite funny!). They are currently sitting back to back and are getting used to each other nicely. Ellie seems quite keen to play with the new arrivals!

I wonder if we will stop at 5???

Chris & Kerry

[deguconvert]

Congratulations on your new pair!! I hope that all three girls will be very happy together. Chuck and Morgan will regret their abusive behaviour. LOL!

[gemmagreaves]

Hi when you went into pets at home did you need your receipt to prove you had bought them from there? a work mate of mine has just had unexpected babies! she bought her goos about 2 months ago and doesnt have a receipt or anything. she also bought them in kings lynn and now lives in lincoln - was just wondering if the lincoln store would provide her with a spare cage to separate her boy and girl degu into? especially as mum will most likely be pregnant again!

also, would like to add i think your other 2 originals are boys! i always check ours now weve got 26 as we dont want any more! and the other day i had a mini panick attack as one of our boys appeared to be a girl. then i checked his brother who also appeared to be a girl. i sexed them as boys a few weeks ago and confirmed with my other half that they were definitely boys then and he hasnt moved them about at all, but when i looked again i noticed that the skin between the 2 'bits' was actually slightly wrinkled. i was a bit concerned and thought about taking them to the vets but if you have the same problem then it might be quite common. i mean, they're definitely not girls as their 'bits' arent close enough together. hmmm.