[16degus]

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.

 

[16degus]

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.