Contact‐promoting behavior, social development, and relationship with parents in sibling juvenile degus (Octodon Degus)

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Abstract
This study describes infant socialization in captive parent‐young units of the caviomorph rodent Octodon degus. Types of parent‐young contact (huddling or squatting) and social interaction (body nosing and accompanying behaviors) are described and their ontogenetic trends examined between postnatal Days 1 and 46. Fathers spent less time than mothers in contact with the young. Mother‐young contact decreased postnatally, whereas the amounts of mother‐young and father‐young social interaction, measured in terms of body‐nosing exchanges, showed a continuous increase postnatally; sibling interactions also showed a continuous increase. Father‐young interactions tended to be dominated by the father. Young reared with the father cohabiting huddled less with their mother, and engaged in less body‐nosing, than young reared in the father's absence. Observations suggested that paternal control of the young may curb juvenile interactions. Young observed without their parents in an unfamiliar enclosure did not groom or “play” as in their home cage with parents present, but engaged in relatively more vocalizing, neck‐nosing and forepaw‐clasping.