I'm a first time owner, and I have only had my two boys for about two weeks. I did a lot of research before getting them, but one thing I can't really find an answer for is how much hard feed I should give them each day. I have given them 10grams each, with a mixture of Beaphar CARE+ Degus and Versele-Laga Chinchilla & Degus Complete (both of these are pellets, not the ones with mixed veggies and stuff). They usually eat everything up between feedings, and they still eat plenty of hay.

Since I am a first time owner, I am obviously nervous about over/under feeding them, so I hoped to get some advice from some more experienced owners! How much do you feed your degus? And did you increase the portion sizes as they got older? Mine are around 5-6 months old right now.

Also, if you have any other advice you would like to share, I would love to hear it!

Back when they were a couple of weeks old they would stack upon each other and they would cuddle in a huge fur ball, we have them for 2 years now, just wanted to join in because I never shared my Degus anywhere.

Rocket saying hello this morning.

Hi all!

I have four boys, currently we've already separated into a pair and two singles which obviously can't be undone. But we plan to reintegrate one (slowly and with patience).

What happened was that two were fighting, to the point that they were beginning to ball up and spraying with water wasn't ending the fight. We removed who we thought was the aggressor as injuries were starting. A week or so later, we woke up to the three remaining degus all with injuries/covered in blood and two actively still fighting. Again, starting to ball up and nothing would stop it. We removed the actual aggressor this time (the same who started it last time as it turns out) and the two left are much happier.

I was wondering if we did the right thing? It'll be good to know incase it kicks off again!

Also, with time and taking it slow, do we think the first one we removed could be put back with the other two? They are currently in side by side cages and chat between the bars, but we don't want to rush them.

Thank you and picture from when they all got along!

Ive had 2 male degus (brothers) for almost 4 years. They wouldve both turned 5 this year but one of them died. After losing his brother our degu became depressed and lost apetite, unable to watch him be depressed any longer we decided to buy a pair of degu pups. When we bought them they were both no more than 8 weeks old and both male. At first we put the pups in a seperate cage that was near the older degus cage so they can smell each other’s scent. The pups have adjusted pretty quickly to the environment and even to their new owners. We brought them home on 12th of june and the first 2 weeks the older degus was rather aggressive which seemed fine since degus are territorial. We tried to introduce the pups to the older degus in a neutral territory but it didnt go well and the older degus started aggressively attacking the pups so we seperated them. Im starting to doubt if it was a good decision to seperate them during the fight because Ive read that its necessary for degus to show their dominance through physical strength. So we tried the introduction again a few times but they all had the same ending. We obviously stopped trying since it seemed too dangerous. Another problem is that when we let the older degu run freely in the bedroom his cage is in, he always approaches the cage of the pups and attempts to bite them through it, we thought its harmless display of dominance until the older degu bit the pups finger and its now swollen. So whenever the older degu is running freely we try to enable him from biting the pups. I also noticed that one pf the pups is becoming more aggressive towards the older degu which I think is a bad sign because hes supposed to be submissive.
Its been a few weeks since the puppies arrived and I haven’t seen any improvement in their bonding. I would appreciate if someone would let me know what Im doing wrong and how to improve the situation.
Thanks for reading, i need advice asap

Mimi and Strawberry 🥰🥰🥰

They will sleep anywhere as long as they are cuddling

Our Snowqueen snuggling with her daughters. Although no one seemed to happy with the stacking arrangements 😅

(Note: I was asked to flair it, but I only had NSFW or brand, neither applied. So either I don't see them on mobile or the option is missing when posting)

K2 are 9 and the sweetest degus. Dio is 7 and proving the degu level of stubborn is legendary. She was given a couple week prognosis back in March.

Hi, my around 13 week old degu had knocked out one of his upper incisors. It probably happened while he was chewing on a wooden house or cage bars. Should I be concerned? What should I look out for? I also want to mention that I don't really have a good way of going to an exotic pets veterinary clinic since it's far away and the earliest appointment could be in about 8 weeks. The tooth was missing for a few days and for now the bottom incisors are looking pretty even and the tooth appears to be growing back. I'm also monitoring his weight and for now it stays about constant. I'd be greatful for any advice.

hello!! it’s been a while since this sub has been open, i’m one of the new moderators so i wanted to make a quick post to introduce me and my degus! the little guy in the first picture is dinky (my favourite) and the other two are copper and todd :) i’m open to any questions about degus and their care and more than willing to provide tips

Hello! (I have a hard time using reddit so forgive me if it looks weird) About two years ago i bought two degus from a private owned pet store, they were give to the store for rehoming. So no prior info existed on them, one was a classic light beige colour and the other one is black and white pied. The beige one sadly passed away from an illness, he was weak when we got him.

We then bought two "male" friends for my pied degu. The "males" turned out to be females, (this was a huge critter organasation who cared for the them. the vet had said they were males) Anyways this led to two litters of degu babies, 4 brown and 3 white/beige ones. Since none of the black genes passed i assume they are recessive. (also dw we kept a male baby to keep him company and separated them by sex)

To end it, Does anyone else have black a black pied degu? the only other pics i can find online is from a german breeder :/ (i live in sweden)

Hello, since last Sunday, one of my Degus startwd squeaking like crazy, allways betqeen 6 and 7 in the morning. I have no idea why, but its driving me crazy. He is well fed, obviously not hurt, because he doesnt do that throughout the day.

One of my ideas, something startles him, but in past when something startled him, he would squeak for few minutes but he qould gradually go quieter.

This, he just squeaks from top of his lungs for 20 minutes.

My onky idea is abandonment, my wife easnt home for 4 days( she cuddles with him the most ) came back on sunday and next morning it started - as if he was afraid she is gone again? I dont know, but i am losing it, i need to sleep

Got any thoughts?

Hey i have question
So i had two degus. One named Beza ( was 3 years old ) and Bobek ( who is 7 years old ).
Unfortunetly Beza died after long fight with bronchitis. Bobek was always very social and liked humans. She also doesnt show any weird signs of stress. I read somewhere that for old degus like Bobek its better to give her full care because new pairing with somebody younger than her can cause stress and health issues.

Around my place unfortunetly all i can find is some baby degus to take and im worried it will make senior like Bobek very scared. Any advices?

Hiya,

We've had pet rats for a long time now, in total we've had 13.

We adora small animals and have thoroughly enjoyed our time with rats. But, their short lifespans and health conditions has caused increasing levels of stress for me.

We're considering Degus as they live far longer and, from what we can tell at least, are less prone to health conditions.

To help my understanding, I'm looking for general advice. We've looked online, at guides like those from the RSPCA. However, these sometimes can't be trusted or greatly lack in detail.

I'd appreciate any advice, annecdotes and the like you have to offer.

Thank you in advance!

I didn’t put pad inside a cage, because i was afraid of chewing, so it was just over the cage long time. It is very cheap 40W pad (like $10) and and insulation box was around $25-30. I didn’t want to risk and buy any heating pads, that can be placed directly in the cage. Later, I added a foil and it become little warmer on the shelf below. But i wanted to go further and purchased canvas (for painting), got rid of cloth, so it was just a wooden frame, nails, toothpicks, metal wire and foiled insulation (like that is used for placing on the walls behind room heaters), and made this box. Foiled side of insulation is faced inside cage everywhere, except right side of the box, because I have stove there and it overheats sometimes. Because the nails are long, I can move insulation closer or further from heating pad (on photos all insulation is as close as possible to the frame, so it doesn’t lose hot air). It works great: our house doesn’t have central heating, only stoves (on the right), and if i am away and can’t burn stoves regularly, air near degus drops lower than 16 C, but on the shelf under the heating pad it is 20-22 C. The heating pad is plugged through Inkbird device, so it starts and stops heating automatically, when temp sensor inside cage is certain temperature.

If you’re interested in details, I can make one more post with additional photos of the inside, matherials I used ect

the new cage is a lil bare but they got plenty of things to keep them occupied!

Hey everyone, I’ve got two male degus and I’m trying to figure out what kind of setup actually makes sense in the long run.

Everywhere I read people say degus need a large, tall cage with several levels — but when I look at other people’s setups, most of them have wooden floors or shelves. That just seems impossible to keep clean. Degus pee constantly, and wood absorbs everything. Doesn’t that start smelling awful after a few days? I can’t imagine people washing the whole cage every other day.

So I’ve got a few questions:

1.  What kind of cage base and shelves do you recommend to keep it practical and odor-free? (I’m thinking about using metal mesh for the upper levels.)

2.  How do you deal with the smell in general? Anything flat or wooden in my cage gets peed on and starts to stink like manure, no matter what I do. I’ve already had to throw away all their wooden houses and flat surfaces because they just reeked.

3.  About free roaming — I’ve seen quite a lot of videos of people letting their degus run around the room, climb on beds, etc. But mine pee and poop everywhere. If I let them run around my bedroom for 15 minutes, I’d have to disinfect the whole place afterwards. Are those degus in videos actually trained to use a litter box or specific area, or do people just accept the mess?

Any advice from experienced owners would be super helpful — I’m trying to balance giving them enough space with keeping everything from smelling like a barn. Thanks in advance!

I posted here recently about Oswald passing and then Grandma getting sick. Unfortunately grandma passed away in my arms the other day. It was very unexpected. I was on the phone with the vet as she passed away. Nothing could’ve prepared me for such a young girl only 3 dying so early and unexpected. It was a nasal issue. She hid it pretty much until the very end. Please get your degus regular check ups. I totally failed as a degu mom by not doing regular check ups for her bc her death could’ve been preventable if caught early enough. Sadly by the time she showed the symptoms of mouth breathing her condition was fatal. She was just a baby still in my eyes. We held a funeral for her today. She was buried surrounded by family who truly loved her. We played her favorite song “I’m gonna miss you” by milli vanilli and poured out a bottle of cheap brandy over her grave. We are commissioning a gravestone that will come in a couple months. I will miss this girl forever