Thinking about adopting P@H degu - Need advice!

[daveuk]

Popped into Pets at Home in Folkestone today and in the adoption center they had a single male degu.

We asked for some information regarding the degu and was advised it was the store putting him up for adoption because he was a bully!

He was brought into store when he was 14 weeks old, but he bullied and terrorised the other degus that were for sale, so he was removed and placed in the adoption center. He is now roughly 18 weeks old.

The man did say he was very people friendly, which I could tell straight away, as when I placed my hand into the cage he came straight over and started to touch and sniff!

The question is, I cant really bear the thought of a degu being rehomed on its own, however if what the man said about the degus behaviour is true, would he ever change? Although I thought single degus was always a no-no.

We have two male degus which we rehomed off here! Wolfie and Brownie and they get along great. They have their own custom cage which I built (pic below).

Ive been reading up on the intergration and was thinking if we were to go ahead, I could mesh part of the cage off, so the new degu would have the top shelf and shelf with the branch on. Wolfie and Brownie would then have the bottom of the cage and also the other single shelf. Obiviously not idea as its basically halved their living space, but hopefully would be no more then a couple of weeks of the intergration worked.

Just after other peoples views, help and advice!

Edit - Link to our current cage > deguworld.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=downloadattachmentpage&board=Cage&thread=8977&post=67266

[Bexi87]

My Hugo was up for adoption at PaH, he too had been separated for bullying and was people friendly.

I took him home and he now lives with my 5 girls very happily, I don't know if he would have been as happy with boys but I have never seen any aggression from him so I think it was just a case of PaH not having the knowledge, space or time to try and reintroduce him.

[blossombrooks]

Intros are tricky (as I've been finding out) so just want to warn you it may take more than a couple of weeks. With him being young it could work ok plus the longer he's been alone the easier he'll accept being put with your two. It may work just fine but I found softly softly was the best approach. P@h seem way too ready to separate what they see as 'problem' degus, makes me so cross! They don't seem to realise the problems caused by separation. 

[daveuk]

Thank you both for your replies.

Looks like ive got a bit of DIY to do to the cage in the morning before taking a trip out to P@H!

I would rather put the time and effort in then see P@H rehome him on his own.

[blossombrooks]

Best of luck! Let us know how you get on. 

[harpic01]

Hi my last goo came home form p&H as a "must live alone" - he had a bad few weeks with the other 4 goos but is now one of the group so it can be done - they must not be on their own and yes he is human friendly because he is very lonely and craves any attention bless him. P&H do not know how to look after goo's are regularly have 3 for sale and we all know 2 are going to get sold and one left over - i have to grit my teeth every time i go in to get supplies as we have no other pet shop nearby

[daveuk]

We had to put off adopting because our two boys had had a fight and injured one another! Looks like they have made up though as their the best of friends again now!

We popped back into P@H today thinking someone would have adopted him by now, but he was still there. They had put him in a smaller cage and he was looking pretty sad.

As out two had sorted out their problems, we went straight to B@Q, bought some chicken wire so I could divide the cage, went back to P@H and adopted him!

P@H stated he shouldnt be placed with other degus as he tried to eat the last group he was with! They tried tr-introductions (Hmm, yeah ok!) but it didnt work.

Got home seperated the cage and so far so good! They have sniffed through the mesh a few times, but apart from that nothing else.....none of them seem overly interested! (Is that a good or bad sign?!)

Will post some pics later!

[chelseaash]

Good luck, i'm going to attemt introduction soon, 3 boys and 2 rescue goos!
Would be brilliant if you can introduce succesfully, poor goo needs buddies

[amie]

Not seeming overly interested is what I'd call a good sign. Like "I couldn't really be bothered if you're there or not!" lol.

People over react (especially pet shops) when it comes to fighting between animals. They don't know enough about the species they're dealing with to judge whether a degu/other animal is infact a bully. They see humping and boxing and are like "that one's picking on the others.... let's seperate them". All for nothing.

I remember with my rats Annabelle and Rosey, they were about to seperate them when I bought them because they fighting too much. From what I could see, they were just wrestling. Rats can be pretty intense play fighters. They absolutely deck each other!

I think a lot of lone animals in pet shops have been wrongly seperated personally.

[daveuk]

Looks like Wolfie and Brownie have had a good fight. Quite a few cuts around the noses, neck and sides. All I can put it down to is that when I cleaned the cage out today it removed the scent?

They seem ok at the moment, both very quiet.

I was hoping their fighting had finished the other day.

[blossombrooks]

Aw glad you got him! Like amie says I think not being interested is good, there will come a point where they go 'omg did you see him next door?!!' but hopefully they'll be ready for a proper greet then. When I intro'd Dougal the girls couldnt care less that he was right next to them but when they were running around the room they'd notice him and be really nosey and vocal.
The cage clean could have set the fight off but don't blame yourself, it's hard when there are new scents around. Be sure to put lots of dirty bedding back in to remind them who was boss before. Make sure they have a bath too, I found if my two were unsure of each other after a clean out a bath really helped (didn't today but that's degus for you, unpredictable little monkeys ).