Goosemoose Pet Portal - RIP Chakotay, I wasn't expecting this.

It is with a very sick feeling in my stomach that I write this.

Chakotay was a young male degu, one that I took in a week and a half ago to pair with my "failed" foster degu The Doctor. He was living in crowded conditions with over-bred parents whose owners liked rodents but weren't sure how to take care of them properly. Nice people, but should have stuck with hamsters. They took in a pair of "females" and ended up with a mixed-sex pair. The pair produced several litters in a row, which now populate every petshop in the surrounding area. Finally one of them decided she'd had enough and rehomed them to the best of her ability on craigslist, including the parents. She tried to sex them properly and got them to homes.

She'd been feeding them a mix of gerbil and chinchilla food. They used hay as bedding, because they knew they needed hay...not quite the right purpose, but at least they had it. This boy was very fat, the fattest I had ever seen.

Face to face introductions begain yesterday. It went very poorly so I immediately seperated the two and switched their cages. The plan was to switch them from cage to cage to destroy any territoriality towards haveing their cage smell like themselves and get them used to the other degu's scent. I would then reintro them after a nice long dustbath. It worked fantastic with my original goos, and I had high hopes.

Unfortunately, there was no way to know that although I've used this cage for degus 3 months old and up with no problems, the new foster could fit through the bars. There was no reason for me to believe he could; despite being young he was the same size as the Doctor, who has lived in this cage for a little while with my other goos after destroying the FN pan. I think that he was so chubby it hid his small skeletal frame; the actualy measure of where they can fit. I cover the sides with birdcage panels to keep the cats from bugging the cage contents, but the panels aren't strapped down for keeping degus in.

I woke up this morning to a dead degu by the kitchen table. At first glance I thought it was one of the cats toys, but I was suprised that I didn't recognize it. Then I saw the tail...I had just switched cages for the first time last night. I thought maybe I mislatched the door, but when I got in the room everything was perfectly set up. I had said goodnight and chatted with him before bed, so the only way he could have escaped was fitting through the bars; it's a very sturdy cage.

I feel very sick to my stomach. Part of me feels very guilty for not even thinking about the possibility of slipping through the bars. I've had a degu do that before in the FN, but I've always caught it in time before disaster. My only blessing was that there was no blood whatsoever. There was just a body with a broken neck.

I had such high hopes the he would be adopted into a good home that could take better care of him than his original owner. I feel horrible that it ended this way.