Degus Bickering & Q's

[andreaS15]

Hi Everyone.

As you most have read, i am fostering 5 Degus. 3 are females, Mom & 2 daughters, and the other two are Dad & Son.

Dad and Son bicker and slap each other a bit. I noticed the son who i've named George has a wheepy eye and is irritating it more by scratching at it. It is our guess he may have had it scratched in a toss up with his Dad.
It looks fine, and isn't wheepy when he is not scratching it, or when he is sleeping. I'm sure it would heal up faster if Degu's could wear cones :p

Is there anything I can do to help him with this eye?

Also, how do i know when the Degu's are no longer friends and should be seperated?
There is a bit of mounting going on, lots of squeeking and sometimes they 'slap' one another while standing on their back legs. No bites or real agressive chasing, and they do sleep together most of the time.

[DorkyChantelle]

It doesn't sound to me like they need to be seperated at this point. The "boxing" on their hind legs is pretty normal and isn't a huge concern unless it's causing injuries (and the degus get along for the most part). A real fight would be the degus just going into a frenzy and attacking each other (looks like a ball of teeth and claws bouncing around the cage, lol). My boys have had to be temporarily seperated a couple times after doing that (mostly because they've caused pretty bad injuries to one another). They've always been able to be reintegrated together (knock on wood) and get over whatever was bugging them. Every degu is different though and some can hold a grudge forever. If they NEVER get along, I would seperate them. But for now they sound fine

As for the eye, hopefully someone else will answer that. Degu injury care is definitely not my strong suit (I always panic and get scared and they turn out to be fine). Good luck and I hope the squabbling dies down!

[Amethystbelle]

That sounds just like normal male degu behaviour to me. They do bicker a lot more than females and can fall out over thin air if it suits them. The time to seperate is if the agrression really starts so you would be looking for a grunting noise and a lot of tail wagging, teeth chattering and screeching and the fighting would go from being playful and only lasting seconds to a full on scuffle with them in a ball and fur flying. As for the eye i would keep a close eye on it, if you think it warrents bathing a little i would just use plain tepid water on a little cotton wool and wripe it over a little but if you think it looks ok as it is i would leave it