Taming Dolly

Dolly and Demi's owner contacted us regarding their female degus who were extremely shy and, as a result, weren't handled often. 

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Arrival:

Upon arrival, it was clear both degus were self-barbering and barbering. There are numerous misconceptions and causes about barbering and self-barbering in pet rodents. The causes vary drastically between species and individuals.

Some consider barbering to be stereotypic-behaviour. Stereotypy is usually seen in animals and describes abnormal repetitive behaviour patterns without an apparent goal. Studies have shown such behaviours can be cage-induced, particularly when animals are deprived of motor and mental stimulation.

Other studies have shown barbering can be a dominant-behaviour, the animals at the top of a hierarchy will barber animals lowest in the group hierarchy.

There is even research that suggests a fibre-deficiency in herbivores can contribute to barbering-behaviour.

Based on Dolly and Demi's group dynamic, housing, and diet, we think their abnormal behaviour stemmed from numerous roots. It was going to be complicated and time-consuming to correct.

Separating Dolly and Demi:

Dolly and Demi required a lot of lifestyle amendments. 

They required:

• Dietary amendments: Dolly and Demi had previously been fed fruity hamster muesli. Hamster mueslis are very unsuitable diets for degus. Degus are physiologically unable to tolerate dietary sugars due to a divergent insulin structure. They're highly prone to developing diabetes mellitus. Hamsters are also an omnivorous rodent, their diet consists of both plant-based material and meat-based material, whereas degus are strictly herbivores and their bodies are anatomically and physiologically designed to eat only plant materials. Their diets are not interchangeable.
• Housing amendments: Degus are one of the most active pet rodents. Dolly and Demi were deprived of a running wheel in their previous home. Lack of enrichment can cause abnormal behaviours to develop.
• Taming/socialising: Dolly and Demi weren't tame. We've noticed degus can be particularly slow to trust and can take a long time to settle into a new environment.

It's generally not advised to separate degus for long periods as they soon become unfamiliar with each other, however, Dolly wasn't progressing at the same rate as Demi. Dolly was becoming increasingly overwhelmed as taming-sessions intensified.

Demi wasn't barbering Dolly as intensely.

There became a point when Dolly was so terrified she would scream until we went away. She inflicted severe bites on humans and was becoming increasingly aggressive towards Demi. We decided Dolly required one-to-one work.

Bite penetrated to muscular layer within the hand, causing the development of a haematoma. A course of oral Amoxicillin antibiotics containing Clauvanic acid was required because the reaction was spreading, and in direct contact with blood-stream.

Dolly sent "wheep"-calls whenever she was around people.

"Wheep calls are usually vocalised with an open mouth and pinning back of the ears, typically broadcast. Used by juvenile to adult males and females, typically during environmental concern or alarm.  

Followed immediately by periods of silence and vigilance in the subject, all other degus in hearing range respond immediately by fleeing/hiding and/or freezing. 

Used as an alarm call to warn conspecifics in auditory range of potential or immediate danger".

Taken from Degutopia 

Taming:

The approach we'd taken for Dolly wasn't suitable for her - we got too intense too quickly. We decided to contact some very experienced degu owners and rehabilitators for advice.

We were confident Dolly could be tamed to a point of feeling safe within her home. 

Dolly was trusting enough to take tempting treats; an enormously positive sign for a prey animal.

Behaviour experts believed that Dolly had lost almost all trust in people, but we could use food as encouragement and a reward for positive behaviour. At first, we spent several hours sitting by the cage. When Dolly was ready, we started resting our hand within her cage (it took nearly 2 hours before Dolly was brave enough to come over and smell us). Eventually, Dolly was learning to associate our hands with treats - something positive.

We put aside around an hour a day to build Dolly's confidence.

After several hours of confidence/trust-building, Dolly allowed us to hold and stroke her for the first time.

Rebonding to Darren and Demi:

When Dolly was separated from Demi, we bonded Demi to our recently castrated degu, Darren - post about Darren.

Once we were confident Dolly would be able to continue to build her confidence without regressing, we bonded Dolly to Darren and Demi. Degus are highly social rodents and live in herds in the wild.

Dolly and Demi still aren't the tamest of all degus, but they're both happy and live their best life with their new friend, Darren.