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Post by epicninjakitten on Jul 18, 2011 10:44:27 GMT
Hello everyone. I have a lot of questions about my Degu's behaviour. Any comments on your opinions or anything you know would really be helpful and I'd appreciate it a lot! ;D So I got my Degu's I guess...a couple of months ago ish. & they've been fine up til recently.. they've been eating loads of hay, jumping around their cage, being really active, not chewing anything but their hay and the wooden toys I put in their cage. but over the last couple weeks, they have been fighting all the time, chewing their plastic wheel, chewing the cage bars, chewing each other, and they do this thing where they're fine then all of a sudden they'll run round their cage squeaking as loud as they can. At first I thought it was just because they were scared because a car was driving past our house quite loudly revving their engine or something, but they've started to do it when it's silent. I can't think of anything that's causing it! I'm really worried. Also, I've found that one of them (Peanut) when I pick him up, he just lays on his front, on my hand. elevated only by his front paws. What's going on?! But when I put him back in the cage he seems fine.. he never used to do that when i picked him up..he'd run right up my arm and sit on my shoulders and stuff. I've also noticed recently, they do a sort of chewing motion really fast. like chattering their teeth. are they supposed to do this? I forgot to mention, I have dropped Peanut twice... not on purpose or anything, but it was from quite high.. like a whole metre. He seemed fine afterwards, like running around and i fed him some treats. but I wanted to mention incase it linked to anything they were doing. please tell me if im being paranoid, im just really worried. Help meeee ~~~~~ ~~~~~
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Post by potnoodle94 on Jul 18, 2011 11:42:01 GMT
the fighting sounds like a sudden dominance issue, my boys are roughly the same age as yours and they had a sudden change in behavior like you have described, so from my experience i am guessing that it is just dominance at the moment to sort out who is top boss. hmmm, if you have dropped him before (although its not your fault) they do usually go quite quiet around you until they can properly trust you again. they may not know that it wasnt on purpose so they are on high guard when you handle them, just incase, if you see what im saying. i know its not nice, but you will just have to re-train them or something to gain back that lost trust. he is probably sitting still because he thinks that if he is not moving you can drop him so he will just lay still where he finds comfortable. i think, if i remember correctly, chattering teeth is when they are annoyed, or something like that, mine do it if you touch their stash of food, hehehe. i think you may be over reacting just a little bit, im sure you guys will be fine but as i said i am just an amateur quoting from little experience hope this helps xx
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Post by epicninjakitten on Jul 18, 2011 11:45:05 GMT
the fighting sounds like a sudden dominance issue, my boys are roughly the same age as yours and they had a sudden change in behavior like you have described, so from my experience i am guessing that it is just dominance at the moment to sort out who is top boss. hmmm, if you have dropped him before (although its not your fault) they do usually go quite quiet around you until they can properly trust you again. they may not know that it wasnt on purpose so they are on high guard when you handle them, just incase, if you see what im saying. i know its not nice, but you will just have to re-train them or something to gain back that lost trust. he is probably sitting still because he thinks that if he is not moving you can drop him so he will just lay still where he finds comfortable. i think, if i remember correctly, chattering teeth is when they are annoyed, or something like that, mine do it if you touch their stash of food, hehehe. i think you may be over reacting just a little bit, im sure you guys will be fine but as i said i am just an amateur quoting from little experience hope this helps xx Okay thank you very much! Oh okay.. hmm, hopefully they aren't annoyed at me ^^; Alright then, I do tend to get very paranoid about stuff lol. Thanks again~
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Post by potnoodle94 on Jul 18, 2011 11:55:37 GMT
Your welcome i think what i am saying makes sense :S its been a long day hahaha. I'm sure they are not mad at you, just being cautious. try hand training them again and giving him treats and stuff, persuade him back to the good side lol. I can get quite paranoid too. especially because my lil Oreo had to go to the vets because he had hurt his back leg and wont walk on it i got extremely worried that he wouldn't be okay but its nothing serious so all is fine. Your welcome, anytime
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Post by deguconvert on Jul 18, 2011 21:15:45 GMT
I think the tooth chattering, gnashing, grinding . . . whatever you wish to call it . . . is just something they do. Our three boys do it all the time, and I used to worry about it a lot. Are they stressed? Are they mad? Are they going to fight? Are they planning to bite me? On and on I fretted. Then one day I realized . . . why am I driving myself insane??? They do it all the time, have been for months now, and NOTHING HAPPENS. Phew!! I took a moment to laugh at myself . . . much needed . . . and let it all go. I think you need to breathe in and out and know it's just degu weirdness. As usual.
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Post by philbailey1806 on Jul 18, 2011 22:55:34 GMT
Hello epicninjakitten, I have to agree, i think you're being ever so slightly paranoid lol, I thnk potnodle is right, Peanut just needs to trust you again, but it will happe much quickly second time round than the first time believe me.
Also, the teeth grinding is just something degus do, but it depends on the context as to whether they are reeeeeeally not happy with you, or they are having a good time, stressed out and frustrated, or just relaxed. You know your pet better than any of us so what your insinct tells you is probably the right answer. Hope this helps!
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Post by potnoodle94 on Jul 19, 2011 11:15:32 GMT
what i do with my boys is make sure the bath is dry, but a towel over the plug and sit at one end and watch them run around on your lap and explore. all the other rooms in my house have many places to hide which i seriously don't want them to do, so i sit with them in the bath, its fun
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Post by fishstikk on Jul 23, 2011 16:17:17 GMT
Hello everyone. I have a lot of questions about my Degu's behaviour. Any comments on your opinions or anything you know would really be helpful and I'd appreciate it a lot! ;D So I got my Degu's I guess...a couple of months ago ish. & they've been fine up til recently.. they've been eating loads of hay, jumping around their cage, being really active, not chewing anything but their hay and the wooden toys I put in their cage. but over the last couple weeks, they have been fighting all the time, chewing their plastic wheel, chewing the cage bars, chewing each other, and they do this thing where they're fine then all of a sudden they'll run round their cage squeaking as loud as they can. At first I thought it was just because they were scared because a car was driving past our house quite loudly revving their engine or something, but they've started to do it when it's silent. I can't think of anything that's causing it! I'm really worried. Also, I've found that one of them (Peanut) when I pick him up, he just lays on his front, on my hand. elevated only by his front paws. What's going on?! But when I put him back in the cage he seems fine.. he never used to do that when i picked him up..he'd run right up my arm and sit on my shoulders and stuff. I've also noticed recently, they do a sort of chewing motion really fast. like chattering their teeth. are they supposed to do this? I forgot to mention, I have dropped Peanut twice... not on purpose or anything, but it was from quite high.. like a whole metre. He seemed fine afterwards, like running around and i fed him some treats. but I wanted to mention incase it linked to anything they were doing. please tell me if im being paranoid, im just really worried. Help meeee ~~~~~<3~~~~~ Reading this made me laugh and think about when I first got mine, I had all the same "problems". Today, Gus, jumped out of his cage onto the floor, well, more slid down a sheet of newspaper, he's fine. I think because they're quite jumpy animals they can land from big distances with little to no damage, just a little shock if they're not used to it. We had a plastic wheel, however, they chewed it so much it was unusable so we put them in their balls and let them have a run around for a while. I'm saving up for a metal wheel they can't bloody chew. Apart from that, yes, they are very chewy animals and will gnaw on anything and everything. Our other degu, Shawn, likes to just sit and relax on us. He often sits on his back legs and curls his arms up like he's carrying a handbag in front of him with 2 hands. It's nothing to worry about, some are more active than others. When we put them both on the bed to have a bounce about, Gus is very active while Shawn tends to have a little play then come sit next to us for a while. Stop worrying, if something is really wrong with them you'll be able to tell.
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