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My goo might be pregnant?

2129 Views 6 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  TheDreamer12, 
T
I bought two degus' from Buckle's about two months ago. They were six months old at the time.The cashier that was helping me assured me that they were both boys. I named them Dexter and Connor. I put my trust in him, until I noticed my degu, Dexter, start to gain a bit of weight around the core. So, I decided to make sure that Dexter was indeed a girl. I did some research online and discovered that it is fairly simple to sex a degu.

I decided to check and see if the cashier was right, and it turns out he was wrong. Dexter is a female and Connor is a male. I'm worried she is pregnant. The only possible father is Connor due to the fact that he was her only house mate at the store and at my home as well. When I got them they were close to the same size, but until a few days ago I hadn't noticed that Dexter has been steadily gaining weight since I got her. I checked underneath, and the small slit underneath her cone that is the vulva has a slight discharge, and I'm assuming it's the plug that protects the small fetuses from damage in utero. I'm about seventy-five percent sure she is pregnant.

Anyway, I was wondering what I should do differently to make sure she is taken care of. They have a small wooden house that I've recently put a towel in to make it extra comfy for her, but I don't know what else to do. I've stopped handling her as much as well. I feel as if she needs more fluff in her bed to make it comfortable for the possible youngers.

Any advice? Any advice you all can give me would be greatly appreciated.
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T
Also, when it comes to seperation, when should I do that?
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D
you have to be carful they get really anxious when seperated, the best thing to do is move the boy into a cage next to the girl. Don't worry about the pregnancy though just avoid handling the mother and babies for the first 2 weeks. Hope everything goes well. If you get stuck try degutopia, it has a lot of information on the pups :)
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A similar thing happened to me except my four girls were actually three girls and one boy, and all three females were pregnant (hence, 16degus).

I have the following advice:
• Join a dedicated degu forum so that you can be helped along the way by experienced degu owners (DeguWorld forum, Degutopia, etc.)
• Don't handle Dexter – it could cause her to miscarry.
• Get Connor neutered. He can get Dexter pregnant as soon as she gives birth (or so I've heard) and that is dangerous for her health. Also, if he is neutered, he can help raise the babies – degu males make excellent fathers. If you don't want to have him neutered, then he should be put into a separate cage – not ideal for him but I had to do that with mine.
• Do NOT separate the babies from the mother before they are 6 weeks of age. However, you MUST separate the males from the females sometime after 6 weeks of age and before 8 weeks of age. I took the litters of babies to the vet and he helped sex them properly. Then I put the male babies in with their father, and the females each in a cage with each of their mothers. (One of my three females miscarried, the second one had 6 babies but one passed away and the third had seven babies.)

Good luck. And make sure to get all of the support/help you can from other degu owners.
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T
Thank you, 16degus.
My goodness. 16 degus? How do you tell them all apart?

Here's a quick update:
Dexter is indeed pregnant. I've done as much research as I possibly can, and I like to think I'm prepared for babies. She seems as if she'll pop any day now. All she does is lay in her makeshift hammock all day, and only gets up to eat and drink and occasionally socialize with her mate.
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I know definitively who 10 of them are (the other 6 are iffy) because they have distinguishing characteristics (Azure has a bald tail, Makoto has what looks like an earring hole in one of his ears, two of Peridot's daughters suffer from vasculitis so I can tell who they are from their ratty ears, etc. etc.) and all have names.

Let us know when the 'event' happens. Good luck to Dexter. :)
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T
I will definitely be posting baby pictures. :D
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