Hi there,
Hopefully you can help....

We have 4 Degus, 2 sets of sisters, we bought them together and they initially got on fine, sometimes having the usually battles, but nothing of concern.
We got home one night and 2 of them were having a right battle, it was clear they were not going to back down, becoming locked in a ball and biting each other.

We were left with no option but to split them into 2 groups of 2, buying them a cage etc for each group. Apart several goes to try to re-introduce them, it was clear they would not re-introduce.

All was fine, for some 6 months, however one of our Degus died suddenly with no signs of any problems, they are all aged about 2, but it looked like the only explanation was a sudden heart attack (has anybody else experienced this) ???

My questions is what to do next as I now have a set of 2 and 1 on its own which I read is not good. Should I try to reintroduce the 1 to make a set of 3?

Can anybody help me please?


Simon

Hello?
Does anybody use this forum?


Simon

Hi Simon,

I am very sorry for your loss.

Do you think the degu that is on its own will get along with the other two? Was it one of the ones that was fighting?

Although I have not had experience with an odd number of degus (I have only two), I would think you could either try to reintroduce them carefully. But first I would put their cages side by side to see how they interract with each other. Alternatively, you could try to get a new female degu to join the one on her own. Probably a young degu would be best. My experience was that introducing a young girl (two months old) to an older one (two years) was easy as there was really no competition for dominance.

As it seems you did not get any reply to your post sooner, I would also suggest two alternative forums of which I am a member and which have much email/correspondence traffic: www.degutopia.co.uk and www.degus-international.org