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| Patron, one of our male Degu. |
/ˈdāɡo͞o/
noun
- 1.a ratlike rodent with a long silky coat, found in southern South America.
- Now, how WE normally describe a Degu to other people, is a rodent like creature that looks appears as if you magically mixed a Gerbil and a Chinchilla OR a Gerbil on Steroids. These little critters are originally from Chili but have become a not so popular exotic pet across the US and UK. I say not so popular, because I rarely come across people that even know what I'm talking about when I say we have 9 Degus as pets.
- Wikipedia does a pretty decent job at going through all their particulars, so if you are intent on learning the Ins and Outs of Degu, follow the Rabbit hole here!
- While my husband and I were dating, he accidently introduced me to Degu. A friend from work had bought a pair a few years back, however they just didn't have the time to dedicate to them. Degu are pretty social creatures and enjoy the company of each other as well as their human caregivers. Ours will start chirping for attention, food, or treats regularly. Christmas was right around the corner and my husband came over one weekend and asked me if I thought the girls might enjoy a couple of Degus. At that time, I only had Koda our dog and the girls were asking for pets of their own. I had NO CLUE what he was talking about and promptly began my investigation into WHAT was a Degu and HOW the heck was I going to take care of them. The BEST website that I came across as far as how to care for Degu as pets was Degutopia.co.uk (Also another Rabbit Hole to follow).
Just by doing a couple google searches, I became our resident Degu expert and I instantly fell in love with the critters even before they came through the front door! In College a friend of mine had bred rats and I LOVED the pair of Sisters I had gotten from her, so I expected that my girls as well as myself would thoroughly enjoy Degus. So, without hesitation I told him to bring them home. Our first two females came to us in a small cage with limited enrichment, an exercise wheel that was entirely too small for them and they were being fed a Guinea Pig diet. While it isn't terrible for them and can do in a pinch, I have since found a better diet for our Degus. I eventually went online and searched out several Etsy shops that could make me cage accessories for our new girls and went to work looking for an affordable, larger cage. My searches brought me to Facebook Marketplace, where I looked up critter cages as well as bird flight cages. The bird flight cages had proved to be an amazing option for them.
We promptly named our new girls Ruby and margaRita. These two ladies were scared of us at first and it was rather difficult to get them to visit with us outside of their cage. Through patience and lots of peanuts, they both came around and now my daughters are able to reach in and get them out of their cage any time they please.
More research brought more interest and I found sites and photos and breeders of Degu in many different BEAUTIFUL colors! Degu naturally come in a color called Natural Agouti, like the photo above of our male Patron. Both Ruby and Rita are Natural Agoutis so I went on the search for a Sand colored Degu and a Blue colored Degu. The breeder I found that had a Sand had a Blue, but he was spoken for so since I didn't want the Sand to be lonely I went ahead and bought the brother of the Blue, that was Agouti. Boy was I happy I did because that male Agouti has been my little buddy and the one that has bonded to me the most, Patron. We named the Sand colored Degu Pyrite, he has also been a fun little guy to have around, fearless and friendly but a picky eater. Patron is also fearless and even more friendly than Pyrite.
I joined a few Facebook groups for Degu enthusiasts, which brought introduced me to a breeder with BLUES! He was over run with babies and needed homes fast. We traveled to Iowa and had THE BEST Family Mini Vacation EVER (but that's for a different time). I bought a half brother and sister. We named the pair Pepper and Rosemary. Rosemary was placed with Ruby and Rite, who took her in like a long lost sister and Pepper was introduced to Pyrite and Patron who accept him with open paws as well.
If you thought at this point I would be happy now that I had my blues, you would be WRONG. I found out that they could have WHITE patches, so for Christmas last year my husband found me a little White patched boy we named Phantom. I didn't want to over crowd the cages so I bought another and introduced Pyrite to Phantom who became his instaBuddy.
After Phantom I just had ONE more color I REALLY wanted, I wanted another female to give us 4 total females and I wanted a BLACK! So far, I'm still waiting out for her... however...
A few weeks ago there was a lady close by pleading for someone to take on her two males, another blue and another white patched... how could I possible resist, especially since they came with their cage, accessories, food, the whole shebang. These little guys we decided to name Pascal and Pharaoh.
Every single one of our NINE Degus has a different personality. Each has a certain person in our family that they gravitate more towards. And each had their own set of likes and dislikes when it comes to treats, however they ALL agree that peanuts are THE BEST!
So, this brings me to the title of the previous post. Since acquiring our new guys, I have found it necessary to order them a new exercise wheel, theirs is entirely too loud. AND I am working on mixing their feed special, adding a complete pellet as well as seeds, dried herbs, and dried flowers. Keep checking back as those packages arrive as well, I'm hoping to post my Degu Feed Recipe to help other US Degu owners, since gets rather expensive importing the awesome Degu feed from the UK.
If your still with me, have a great day dear followers!
/ˈdāɡo͞o/
noun
- 1.a ratlike rodent with a long silky coat, found in southern South America.
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