The degu is a palm sized south american mammal in the family Octodon Degus. Their fur is a wild rabbit brown and they have large pear shaped ears. These exotic animals are commonly found in the lowlands of Chile and extend upwards into the region of the Andes mountains. They inhabit rocky areas and live in large colonies. Recent genetic research on guinea pigs (which are in the same family - Octodon) has indicated that degus are not really true rodents as previously thought but are actually more related to rabbits than they are to rats or mice. Degus are relatively new to the united states where they have been inbred from an original group of about 10 animals. They were brought to the states for use in diabetic research due to their unusual intolerace for sugar and their diabetic tendencies. Degus are very active diurnal animals. This means their peak activity time is in the early morning and the early evening. They love to run, jump, dig and climb. They will also spend hours on a wheel if you provide one. I reccomend at least a 10 to 11 inch wheel which is solid (not made of bars or they can break their tails). Degus are not solitary animals and do not do well in isolation from their own. They should be housed in pairs at the minimum or in breeding groups of one male to 3 or 4 females. If you have a solitary pet degu look immediately for a companion for him. You can house same gender pairs without any trouble. Signs of depression are lack of appetite, listless or nervous crouching in corners and a dull frumpy coat of fur. Long term health problems often result from degu isolation and depression. If you want your degu to live a long healthy life, get him or her a friend ASAP. Since degus are social colony based animals they have a special means of communiating and create some interesting sounds. Their sounds vary depending on the situation. Various descriptions of these sounds can be found around the internet. Most describe them as everything from "weeping" to "warbling". The two most distinct sounds you are likely to hear is the barking or chirping the male makes after breeding or the female makes when threatened, and the whistling or oscillating noise the degus make when courting.
Degus live about 4 to 8 years in captivity which is a good length of time for most small cage pets. In their natual enviroment though they live up to 15 years. Degus are not mongamous and one male generally rules the roost with a small harem of females. The male will dig an intricate tunnel system and pile up a huge mound of dirt and other debris in front of the burrow. This is used as a trophy case for his conquests and he will spend a good deal of time sitting atop it. Whenever other males are attacked, he will take items from their mound and add them to his own. The decimating of a male degu's mound will greatly lower his status in the colony. The females have an exceptionally long period of gestation, which is about 90 days and do not appear pregnant until just shortly before giving birth. Because of concerns regarding miscarriages it is reccomended that one refrain from handling the female until after the birth of her babies. You can make the pregnant female happiest by providing her with shredded pieces of toilet paper or newpaper with non-toxic ink (Wallstreet Journal). She will spend all her spare time gathering these pieces together and lining her nestbox with them. Degus usually give birth to between 4 and 6 fully furred babies. The baby degu matures extremely fast and they will have their eyes open and be walking on their own in just a matter of a few days. Baby degus are ready to be weaned at just 4 to 5 weeks of age. During this time I generally leave the male with the female since I have never had an incident of agression against the babies by the father. The fathers seem to want to assist with the care of the young and often will babysit them while the female goes out to dinner by herself. LOL.. If there are other females in the harem, they will often assist the nursing mother with her babies and seem to enjoy a cooperative effort in rearing their young. The female degus appear to be sexually mature at about 4 to 6 months of age. Males seem to mature faster than females and will begin competeing with each other at about 2 months of age, they should be seperated from the females at this time to avoid fighting. Young sibling males can safely be housed together for companionship provided there are no females present for them to fight about. The female degu is ready to mate again immediately after delivering her babies and generally has about 3 to 4 litters per year. Degus can be housed in glass aquariums or multilevel wire cages. The minimum cage or enclosure size should be no less than 15 gallons PER animal. Yes I said - PER single animal. I know that's a lot, but degus really do need a lot of room. A 10 gallon desktop aquarium is just not gonna cut it. Multilevel wire cages are good because they provide degus with lots of vertical movement for climbing and exercise. If you choose this housing option though be sure to watch for bumblefoot. This is a condition degus can develop from constantly standing on wire flooring. You may want to wire plexiglass or metal to the wire flooring on each level to help prevent this problem. Provide them with hidey boxes to nest in, they like to be down under something to help them feel safer. I reccomend wooden breeder boxes similar to the ones used for breeding large parrots. Be sure they have many non-toxic wooden items or branches to chew on because they need to grind their their teeth down so they will not grow into the mouth and cause problems. Degus are prone to mouth infections so it's especially important to make sure they do not get mouth injuries from overgrown teeth. Degus enjoy taking dust baths much like their close cousins, the chinchillas. If you don't provide the dust, they will make it themselves by pulverizing their shavings and then rolling in the shaving dust. So do them and yourself a big favor and just get the chinchilla dust, put it in a large bowl in their cage for them about once a week and let them have a good roll around in it. Degus require diets that are low in fats, carbohydrates and sugars. Since they are more closely related to guinea pigs and rabbits than any other animal, it is reccomended that you feed them a 50/50 mixture of chinchilla pellets and rodent block/guinea pig pellets. Since excessive fat can lead to liver disease, a high seed/nut diet is NOT reccomended. Please do not feed them gerbil/hamster mix or peanuts/sunflower seeds. Degus have bodies which are fine tuned for the metabolizing of marginal foods like bulbs, hay, bark, grasses and leaves. They do not handle high carbohydrate foods such as corn or pasta very well. Likewise, degus have a LOW tolerance for high sugar foods like fruits and raisins. They are extremely suseptible to diabetes since they are not able to metabolize sugars well. Stick to rodent block, chinchilla and guinea pig pellets and you should be just fine. You may want to provide hay or straw for your degus to eat and use as bedding. Timothy Hay is extremely good for this purpose. Foods you should avoid giving them are nuts, corn, raisins, fruits and sunflower seeds. These things are no-no's. Degus don't get all the fluids they need from their foods so you need to provide a lot of water for them. They can go a week without water in the wild but we don't reccomend you let them go that long. Provide fresh clean water in their bottles at all times. Some experts reccomend offering hyperclorinated water at least once every other day to prevent mouth diseases. I have never done this myself and my degus have never suffered any ill effects from this omission. The best way to avoid mouth diseases in my opinion is to make sure they keep their teeth worn down by having plenty of stone or hard wood items to chew on. Also take care to cover their waterbottles completely with metal soupcans on both the top and the bottom. Degus think waterbottles are the coolest toys and they will eventually give in to the temptation to chew them up so don't give them the opportunity. Otherwise you will be replacing waterbottles every day.. Degus will shed their tail if they are grabbed by it. For this reason you should not try to pick up a degu by it's tail. Shed tails are a defense mechanism which will allow the degu to escape from a predator if caught by it's tail. The tail will not grow back if this should happen so take care to scoop the animal up from beneath instead. Degus do not appreciate being grabbed. In their natural enviroment degus are prey for foxes, owls and hawks. It's probably no surprise then that a degu commonly freaks out when you take the top off their cage and swoop down to get them. LOL.. Try to be gentle, and provide a box in their cage or enclosure where they can seek shelter. I also find it helps to put their cage up off the ground by several feet. If you have a waist high table or shelf to put them on, they will feel better about this than being down at ground level where everything is above their heads. I reccomend housing them away from loud noisy areas where they can be stressed by birds, pets, tvs or phones. Speak to them in calm soft tones and don't make sudden fast movements. Don't buy a pet degu from a noisy petstore if you can help it. Even if it's been cared for well, the noise level and lack of personal handling in such an enviroment will not have done the degu any good. If you MUST get a degu at a petstore, get them as young as possible (just don't get one under 5 weeks old) so that they have had less exposure time to the noise and can get used to being handled by humans before their wild instincts take over. Check the degus for signs of illness (dull coat, cloudy eyes, runny nose, coughing etc). Especially check the animal's mouth and teeth. A degu's teeth should be yellow, not white. The fur should be thick and shiny with a good sheen. Don't buy degus which are inbred. Ask the breeder about their stock. Make sure all the parents were unreleated. If possible try to see the enviroment in which the animals are bred. Animals from cramped or dirty cages will not be as healthy as animals from large clean enclosures. Also enquire about their diet. Animals which have been fed inappropriate foods are predisposed to health problems and a shorter lifespan. If you are looking for a pet which will sit calmly in your lap or allow you to hold it for extended periods of time, I don't reccomend a degu. Although degus will come to recognise your face and voice they are not likely to seek out contact with you like a hamster or gerbil. They don't like to be restricted and prefer to explore things on their own. If a pocket pet is what you're looking for then you'd probably be happier with something less exotic. Click Here for Links to Other Degu Information Sites!
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