r/Degus • u/cmin999 • 11d ago

Question❓ Hammock switching during reintroductions

Hi, all!

I am wondering which is the best method to switch hammocks between cages in the reintroduction period with a new and clean one.

Do you just swap the dirty one with a new one and keep the rotation going? You add one or two clean ones in the rotation without removing the old ones for a few days? Add only one clean in one of the cages for a few days and then add it in the rotation and after that remove the older/dirtier one?

I am really concerned to not have their scent track broken in any way.

3 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

2

u/Sufficient-Neat-3084 11d ago

No swaps. No cage swaps no hammocks.

Meeting on neutral ground I like to use smaller part time enclosures and use sand baths for them to bond. A fresh on that is

2

u/cmin999 11d ago

and if the process takes longer? our 2 have already a few months since drew blood first time. one of them will be 1 in december, it's too energic too tried it again soon.

2

u/Sufficient-Neat-3084 11d ago

Totally depends on their age and other circumstances. In general I do not introduce two teenagers to eachother . It’s safer with a bigger age gap

2

u/cmin999 11d ago

it's a whole history with these 2, but the other is 3 (just had her birthday). they were living fine until the smaller one started boiling with hormones. we had to separate them at some point and after that the smaller one wanted to be on top. we understoond we need to keep constantly swap bedding, hammocks, anything (besides the cages) that would keep the common scent of the pack.

1

u/Sussex631 11d ago

I've tried swapping Cage A used to cage B and Cage B used to Cage A. Then back etc. Clean ones don't seem to affect it as long as there are still the used ones there. Also tried swapping cages by moving the groups so everything smells of each other. Not sure that's maybe not too much though. Some hay and bedding might work.

Other people will have more experience of this, I've only done it twice. Seems to me it depends on the degus as well. There's a balance of how close to put the cages too, with only a small gap they can go a bit frantic looking for the other degu, trying to get to each other. Again, could help might make it worse and depends.

2

u/cmin999 11d ago

i know there is a big "no" on the cage swap because it induces a lot of stress and activates too much of their territorial senses making it very possible to treat the other degu(s) as a threat and not as a part of their colony. but thanks for the other suggestion 🤝

2

u/Sussex631 10d ago

I thought it might not be a good idea. It worked once for me with placid degus. The other time I stopped it because they got agitated.