Anyone else have a Degu?

[duckncover]

I'm dying to talk to someone about Degus...They're like the best pet ever!


Mine's name is Momo...He wants a buddy and/or girlfriend. All he ever does is stare at my gerbil but Gonzo the gerbil hates other rodents.


He has the biggest cage out of all my pets. It's a 5 1/2 foot tall parrot cage. He lives in a 2 bedroom apartment(2 wooden boxes stacked on each other)

He never bite anyone, which is a big accomplishment for any small animal. He is roughly 2 years old now. His birthday is in August.

Momo is the best pet I've ever had the pleasure to have.


He's just so much different than any other rodent. Most will run away if you try to catch them but he walks right up my arm. He'll also grab things out of my hand, even if they're not for him...lol!

He loves shiny things and keeps a stash of banana chips buried in his house. His job is being a paper shredder! His past time is sleeping in pockets!



BTW his full name is Mozart.


Well I hope everyone loved my little biography of Momo.

 

[nicodemuschickenfan]

I love degu's. Never had one before but hope to someday. Good name btw.

 

[cwc362]

What is a Degu? This is one i've never heard of!!!

 

[Akane]

The south american version of a squirrel. Had them and never again. Very few actually make such good pets. They have to be raised just right. Most are so neurotic you can't handle them at all. Think of something more hyper than a gerbil and you'll be close. They also require a very specific diet to live a long life. They are basically born diabetic. No sugars, no pellets with molasses, no fruits, etc.... Current degu pellets on the market are not adequate. I was using a brand of guinea pig pellets ordered online. They are also chainsaws with fur. Mine chewed through the plastic edge on an aquarium and then proceded to actually eat the glass... I had to line their cage in metal. Not like they didn't have things to chew on. This is their cage before I doubled the height, added 2 wooden bird houses, five 2'-4' long cholla cactus branches, and a 5gallon tank as a sand bath:

They were cute though and there are more pics of them if you want to browse http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v244/aqh88/degus/.

My favorite uncommon rodent so far has got to be duprasis
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v244/aqh88/duprasi/
They do lean towards being nippy though unless you know how to handle them. Amazingly intelligent creatures. I bet they beat out rats. They are just so lazy no one can really test their intelligence.

Set a duprasi in a maze and it will probably curl up in a cute fuzzy ball and go to sleep.

 

[sandypaws]

gerbils and the like.. are ILLEGAL to own in CALIF

 

[Wifezilla]

Gerbils are evil. I had some cool hamsters as a kid, but gerbil were always MEAN!

 

[nicodemuschickenfan]

Odd.. I always preferd gerbils to hamsters. Must be personal taste I suppose. Thank God he created so many different animals for so many different people. lol

Sad, I hear they don't like ferrets there either.. Shame.

 

[Akane]

I had some wonderful gerbils but I have never found any like them. Too many people have failed to breed for temperament and fail to handle them as babies. Partially because the parents have bad temperament. My gerbils the parents let me help raise the pups and helped me clean the cage. When they had a litter I would clean all around the nest, partially make a new nest, let Rasheeka move the pups to the new nest along with any bedding she wanted to keep, then she'd pile all the dirty bedding where I was cleaning, and I would finish cleaning the cage. If they escaped I would find sheeka and Amir sleeping on my pillow. They always wanted handled and would argue over who got to climb on my hand. I only got bit once by a pup and I would start getting the pups out and playing with them before their eyes were even open. They were still hyper like all gerbils but incredibly tame and friendly. Sheeka was even trained not to get off the furniture so she wouldn't try to leave the room and would run around my bed and down the windowsill without setting foot on the floor.

Degus have much the same problems but even greater. They are not handled enough as pups and they are not bred for temperament so they are actually even more likely to bite and less likely to be tame. Mine never became tame despite daily handling for years and tons of treats. I still had to lure them into a box or take the entire cage apart to catch them.

 

[Picklestix7866]

One of the science teachers in school has a degu. He sometimes lets it run around school in a giant ball. lol.