Hi - I've posted this in the emergency section as well because I don't know where to put it.
This is my first post and I wish it was a happier one - our two male degus that we bought from the pet shop turned out to be one male and one female and the inevitable happened. Mum gave birth a couple of days ago, but unfortunately passed away tonight with an infected womb despite the vet's best attempts to save her.
We've been given cat milk which we have to make up to hand rear them and feed them every two hours.
However, we have a few questions which our vet could not answer and we wondered whether anybody has any ideas or other advice they can share -
1. We have temporarily separated them from their Dad as this only happened a couple of hours ago and we have just got back from the vets. Should we be doing this? We have them in a separate smaller house at the moment which is being heated from underneath by a garden propagator, as we can regulate the heat on this.
2. If we can't put them back in with Dad now, will we be able to put them back in at any point?
3. We are trying to keep them as warm as possible and mimic the sound of their mum. Should we keep handling to a minimum?
4. Any other advice?!?
Any suggestions gratefully received.
Many thanks to you all in anticipation of your help.
Sorry i haven't seen this sooner but been away for a few days. I'm so sorry you lost the mother it must have been heartbreaking
As your hand rearing them you can throw the whole handling thing out of the window as things have changed and they need to be handled inorder to be fed. Hand rearing is hard work but rewarding and it may seem hard now but when the first few weeks are up it will be all worth while.
I should think dad would look after them to a degree so you could try him with them and see how he gets on. He will teach them to be a degu, like sand bath and what to eat etc.... The sooner you do this the better otherwise he may reject them. If he rejects them then keep them seperate for their own safety.
Please let us know how you get on with them and any questions don't hesitate to ask _________________
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