Well "she" is actually a "he"...Now what?

Jingles has finally become tame enough for me to pick "her" up, and today, upon doing so, I realized that "she" is actually a "he"

I actually don't have a problem with Jingles being a boy, considering he is turning out to be quite a sweetie, and i hear that males are great pets, but now that I've discovered his true gender, I've started reading and I keep reading that male: male degus fight to the death as they get older. Is what I'm reading incorrect? I certainly hope it is because I don't want two of the opposite gender. Jingles is a baby/young and I found a place nearby that has other babies available right now. Since the two will be so young, I'm hoping they will get along as they age if they grow up together. I don't want him to be alone and get depressed. Any advice from more experienced degu owners? Is it true that males will eventually fight to the death?

Thanks!

Where did you read that? Mice do that but not degus.

Males can get along fine as long as the cage is large enough (most aren't) and has multiple food dishes (since a lot of degu fights happen during feeding time).

The important thing is to introduce them properly (and aim to get a younger male if possible). After quarantine, the two degu cages should be kept next to each other (not close enough that they can reach each other through the bars, though) and bedding/dust baths should be swapped between the cages. You can even switch the degus around between cages. With males, I recommend doing this for at least a couple of weeks. You want them to get used to each other's scent. If they seem calm about this, try the first introduction in neutral territory (a bath tub works well) and keep it short (a couple minutes). If that goes well, they should have daily meetings of a few minutes, slowly becoming longer. You can also get a scented dust bath (or scent it yourself with vanilla extract) and offer it to both of them.

If a week of meetings goes well in neutral territory (no aggression at all...some arguing is sometimes normal but in that case I'd keep working with them), put them together in a large, freshly cleaned cage with their dust bath.

Quote:





Originally Posted by Sasami







Where did you read that? Mice do that but not degus.

Males can get along fine as long as the cage is large enough (most aren't) and has multiple food dishes (since a lot of degu fights happen during feeding time).

The important thing is to introduce them properly (and aim to get a younger male if possible). After quarantine, the two degu cages should be kept next to each other (not close enough that they can reach each other through the bars, though) and bedding/dust baths should be swapped between the cages. You can even switch the degus around between cages. With males, I recommend doing this for at least a couple of weeks. You want them to get used to each other's scent. If they seem calm about this, try the first introduction in neutral territory (a bath tub works well) and keep it short (a couple minutes). If that goes well, they should have daily meetings of a few minutes, slowly becoming longer. You can also get a scented dust bath (or scent it yourself with vanilla extract) and offer it to both of them.

If a week of meetings goes well in neutral territory (no aggression at all...some arguing is sometimes normal but in that case I'd keep working with them), put them together in a large, freshly cleaned cage with their dust bath.





That's good to hear! I was about to say, I've seen tons of videos on YouTube of people having like four males together, but I thought maybe they were all brothers. There are quite a few degu sites that are incorrect then. I did go pick them up a very large cage the other day, and I might try to make them a sturdy cage divider so they can share the same space without sharing the same space lol. Is that a good idea? The intro process sounds a lot like what I do with rats. Luckily, all my rat girls are pretty accepting of newbies though lol. Thanks for the advice! I really appreciate it

The divider could work once they've gotten used to each other a bit but I wouldn't use it right away. I've seen degus try to bite each other through the bars when they didn't know each other.

Would you mind PMing me the links to those websites? I like to keep track of what kind of info is out there, hopefully to make sure people find more correct stuff . Sounds like I need to write up a guide on introducing degus.

We have a family of degus because we got sold a boy and a girl instead of two girls. We have four boys now and two girls and they never fight at all. However i have found that the female degus are tamer and Larry, the dad, is very agressive and does occasinally bite. But i have never read that any where. :)