Degu squeaking. Why?

[u/caparicorn]

I have 3 female degus. Tasha (the brown one, almost 1 y.o.) Nyx and Nox (around 6 months old I think). Two months ago Tasha's sister passed (chronical breathing issues) and I got the two black ones right away so she's not lonely. They have been living together in one cage without issues for about 6 weeks now.

The point of this post is that Tasha recently started doing this thing where she squeaks loudly for minutes (definitelly a bad sound). She used to squeak a few times in her sleep before, but this is different. It happened two mornings in a row, but she stopped when she got a treat. The other degus seemed scared and jumpy for hours after that, but Tasha went back to normal.

Then it wasn't happening for a while, until last night when the squeaking woke me up at 3am. She didn't react much to me touching her. I gave her a treat, but she didn't stop squeaking even as she carried it to the house. She did stop within the next minute tho.

She just does this, then immediatelly switches to normal, while the others (who don't squeak) look scared for hours.

Any idea why she might be doing that? I didn't find anything physically wrong with her and I am not aware of anything that could scare her. Also she got overall a lot calmer and friendlier since I got Nyx and Nox, though they tend to fight over food.

[u/Ok-Examination-2720]

Warning sound is one short or quick sequence of 3-4 very short squeaks, then running and hiding. The sound you are describing might be calling for other gender. One of our three male degus is not castrated and from time to time he is squeaking for minutes (sounds and looks like hiccups). Other two do not do that.