Newest Additions to the Family

So thought it was about time that I shared one of the reasons we have been so busy recently!

As some of you may know from the post Bonnie’s on a Lucky Streak we had two degus, Cain and Abel, at that time. Unfortunately we lost Cain at the start of December which was a huge heartbreak and really dampened the Christmas period for us.

One of the last photos of Cain & Abel together, cuddling on the snugglesafe

As degus are social animals and do best in groups or pairs we spent a lot of time debating whether we could handle the heartbreak of getting more degus after losing Cain. After all Abel seemed to be getting on well by himself and even starting accepting rubs, something which has never happened before (see cute video below)

But we decided it was unfair to not give him the best life we can and that means some company of his own species as we can’t be giving him rubs all day, although I wish! We started looking for young male degus to intro to him, the younger the better as it’s usually easier to introduce babies rather than adolescents. As some people may not know degus are territorial and fight for “dominance” and so therefore you can’t just stick degus together in a cage as they will most definitely fight and some fights lead to death (even in bonded pairs) so that’s why intros are a necessary and sometimes lengthy process.

Bringing the babies home – 15th January

We came across some baby degus on gumtree near us and decided to check them out. The poor babies had no hay in their cage, were eating tesco value guinea pig food and were in a smokey house (nothing against smokers if they smoke outside away from pets). There were just two boys and we knew we had to take them away from that environment and give them the best care and life.

We had been thinking of names for a while but decided to go for Azoth and Durzo as the Night Angel trilogy from Brent Weeks is probably my favourite book series. We set them up in the old Thicket’s cage and the first few days they were soo skittish and a bit lethargic it was a bit worrying. But they eventually came around and now they have such lovely personalities, don’t tell Durzo but Azoth is my favourite!

The introductions haven’t been the greatest of successes so far, Abel seems to be a bit reluctant to accept them. I think he’s been spoiled over the month that Cain hasn’t been with him that he’s a bit reluctant to share again. He was the lower status in the group with Cain so maybe he’s happy not being the bottom of the degu pile being by himself.

Regardless we will keep trying the introduction process (swapping cages, sharing scents, supervised play time etc) and see how its goes in future. At the very least he will have some company of his own species nearby and also we are so happy to have brought the babies home as they are just lovely little critters. I think I will always have degus throughout my life as they have the best personalities!

So between the intros, caring for the degus & Bonnie and both of us starting new jobs recently we have been kept busy! I have enjoyed keeping up with all the blogs I follow but hoping to do some more regular posting, commenting etc so here’s hoping I can stick to it!

 

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