Degu Rat

mouse rat degu or rabbit?

which one should i get/ adopt as a pet?

What one you should adopt is one you will be able to properly take care of. You need to do a LOT of research about all of them to see if you can take care of them.

Degus are the hardest to take care of. Then rabbits. I've never had a mouse (though I was going to adopt some, but we ended up getting hamsters instead) or a rat, but they are fairly 'easy'. They still need to be taken care of properly, though.

My person opinion is degus. They are great. (I do have two bunnies, too. They are adorable, as well. And my bun has wry neck, so he's on a medication now.)

First thing is degus are severely prone to diabetes. So they can't have much sugar! Their food has to be sugar, molasses, cane sugar, beet juice, fructose, etc free. They can not have hamster, gerbil, rat, mice, cat, dog, rabbit, etc food.
The food they should have is either chinchilla pellets with NO dried fruit, seeds, colored treats, etc or guinea pig food without the same. Just pellets. You can also mix chinchilla and guinea food together, but degus are VERY picky eaters. If they only like, for example, the guinea pig food, they will only eat that and leave the chinchilla pellets strewn across their home.

There are some degu specific foods out there, but a staggering lot of them are dangerous to them. If it has fruit, peanuts, seeds, any colored pieces in it, it is NOT good for them! People just don't get that, and end up having their degus die at 4 years old; if they're lucky.

You can look here for some kinds people have found for their degus:

http://www.paw-talk.net/forums/f12/world...

The kind I recommend is Sun Seed Sunscription Vita Degu Formula.

Degus need to have a fresh supply of Timothy Hay every day. Not alfalfa. Only give alfalfa to them as a treat. It has too much calcium in it as an only option. You can also add some Orchid Grass, Bermuda Grass, and Brome Grass to their diet, but always to be sure to keep plenty of Timothy Hay.

Degus, as well as other animals, can not have iceberg lettuce. That's the light green kind you can see in the pre-packaged salads we buy from the store. It has no nutritional value, and is best to just not feed them it.

Degus are able to live around 11 years, but often live to 8-9 years, or even younger because people don't know how to take care of them.

When you adopt a pet, you are committing your life to them. If you are not able to do that, then don't adopt one.

Degus are very social animals, and should be kept in pairs or more. Unless you can spend 5+ hours a day playing with one lone degu, you need to make sure they have friends.

Degus are climbers and chewers. They need tall cages to climb in. Aquariums are not decent for degus, unless you can get an extra tall cage topper to put on it. Even then, it's still not good enough, since their pee is high in ammonia, and builds up fast in them.
No plastic caging, or they'll be out and about in no time. Degus also can get something called bumble foot, which it basically a sore on their feet from walking on wire caging with no place to relax their feet on. So always be sure to have areas where a wire floor is not showing.

Again, degus chew. They chew EVERYTHING and ANYTHING. Whatever you don't want chewed up, keep it away from their cage. And even more importantly,they need to chew on wood. There are tons of wood chews out there, but most of them are toxic. Here is a list of TOXIC woods, which should be kept far,far away from them:

http://www.btinternet.com/~p.long/deguto...

The only woods you should allow them to have is apple, kiln-dried pine (MUST be kiln-dried), hawthorn, and hazelnut. Be 200% sure that it is organic, untreated with no pesticides, chemical treatments, or paint.

Again, degus are HIGHLY social animals, and should have a friend, unless you can spend hours a day playing with the lonely degu.

Depending on their personality, degus can cuddle. But generally, they'd rather run around and explore. I've had 23 degus, and only about four of them will actually like to cuddle. The rest would rather jump off my shoulder and go under the bed or couch or behind something and chew.

Do not ever pull a degu by his/her tail. It will fall off, you'll have a bloody mess, and they will forever be tail-less. It will mess up their ability to balance themselves, and will probably get depressed because they lost their tail. Would you like to have your leg pulled off? It's essentially the same. Be careful about that.

There is only one mass-produced book out there about degus, and it if full of misinformation and outdated. Stick to the few websites out there with valid info about goos.

I recommend you look at these sites to further figure out if you are able to care for a degu properly.

http://www.degurock.moonfruit.com/

http://www.degutopia.co.uk/

http://www.paw-talk.net/forums/f12/

While Paw-Talk is a forum, not a site, in the Degu threads, there are quite a few people who have had degus for many years, and are willing to answer any question you have. It's a very friendly place, and many animal lovers congregate there.

Good luck adopting a forever friend.
-Jessica

Tags: degu and rat, degu rat cage, degu rats, degu vs rat

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 10th, 2011 at 7:41 am and is filed under Supplies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.