Hey my 2 6 month old brothers have suddenly just started fighting. Dobby keeps humping and biting monty really hard, so he squeaks. I took monty out for a few minutes to check he was ok and as soon as I put him in back into the cage it all kicked off again. At the moment Monty has flattened himself to the floor of the cage and is crying really high pitched call. Dobby is sat on the next shelf up. any advice on what I should I do? Really worried about my boys.Dobby is happily eating his bamboo but monty hasnt moved and is just crying really badly.
really concerned any advice?
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Degus aren't normally neutered unless someone wants multiple sexes together
. There's no evidence that neutering actually calms them down (it might, though, who knows), just like cavies.ooh my bad i thought they where taking about a rat >_< sorry but adleast i learned something new about degusDegus aren't normally neutered unless someone wants multiple sexes together
Sorry took so long to reply.
The cage is half a 6ft something rat cage. I think its about 3.5ft-4ft. It just the 2 of them, they have platforms and rope and a bath and a wheel and loads of tunnels and toys, plus there toilets. They also come out to play when ever I have a spare minute, try to let them run free for aslong as they wish. usually about a hour and this week we introduced them to our guneia pigs and they had a free run together. But that was after the first incident and before this one. So I do not think it could be that.
No blood but the strange thing is I have just cleaned them out again today, (I do it every sunday and thursday) And again they had a little fight when they both went back in it out of there tank they go in when I clean them out. Once again monty is hidden in the tube and Dobby is running around being normal.
Its v strange. It has only happened the last two times I have cleaned them out and had them for just over a month now. They were already 6 months when i got them. I adopted them from a pet shop rescue bit as their original buyers returned them because they didn't get on with the females they wanted to mate them with.
Lol that is quite alright. I did have rats but never neutered them as they were female. I do not think my vet would know how to or agree with neutering something so little lol.
If there's no blood it sounds like typical bossy male behavior. Hopefully they'll settle it themselves. Is the fighting usually related to cage cleaning? A fix for that is to clean half the cage at a time instead of washing out the whole cage at once. Degus are scent-based animals when it comes to territoriality so a newly cleaned cage can set off fights. It doesn't smell like either degu now and lacks any territorial markings so they fight for territory all over again.
Thanks I will try leaving some to sprinkle back on top of the clean stuff on Sunday. But if they aren't drawing blood and keep making up after a hour or so then I'll just accept their little ways lol.
I clean their toilets, clean and brush their shelves twice a day so they are very used to some of their scent bein taken away. They don't appear to mind being clean, I think they prefer it that way on a twice daily basis.
Thanks again.
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