TREATS and other edibles for your Degu!!!

I have fed my girls (yeah GIRLS, thanks for all your help sexing my new babies) fresh dandelion, grass and wild strawberry leaves from my own garden. They go nuts for them, and it even stems the start of World War III with a lot of squeaking and brawling, but hey, that's degus for you! . My question is, how much of these foods can I feed them?

Thank you Deguconvert! I will ensure any greens are totally dry and preferably a little dried up! ;D How would I recognise bloat?

I know that lethargy and a bigger stomach are usually the result of bloating on a degu. They may also show signs of pain if you pick them up and you should isolate a bloated degu from others. Read about it the other day when looking for an answer to someone else's question.

Oh, I better go easy on the fresh greens then! That is rather weird though - don't degus eat fresh greens in the wild???

emz is correct, wild degus mostly consume grass, seeds and roots.
They also eat herbs, small flowers and tree bark.

I remember reading a few places that said degus are native pests in Chile.
They get together in large numbers and raid the local farms and crops...its like organized crime ! So they do have a certain level of contact with veggies that are grown there.
I also remember reading that they will occasionally snack on wild berries and other small fruits they find.

So while their diet does not consist mainly of vegetables/fresh greens, we must remember that our degus consume degu pellets (which contain hay and small amounts of herbs).
Depending on the country we are residing in, it can be very hard to find ingredients to simulate their natural diet.
I use vegetables like cucumber, zucchini, lettuce, celeri, and small carrot chips to supplement my degus' diet. It provides them with more vitamins and also gives them an opportunity to eat fresh foods as opposed to eating dried food pellets most of the week.
So while vegetables should not consist of their main diet, I believe they are important.


We must also remember that while natural diet is important, wild degus are not at all healthy.
They still suffer from illness, diabetes and liver disease. The amount of seeds they eat can quickly augment their risk of being atteined by liver disease.

A group of degus that has frequent encounters with berry patches or other small wild fruits, can become diabetic. These problems not only affect captive degus, they are also prone to these conditions in the wild.

Its also noted that wild degus rarely make it past their 1 year.
This not only has to do with predators but we can also assume diet and bad health has a part to play in this.

Anyways, this is another example of me straying from the subject...hehe

@ marmotta
Emz and I thought you were reffering to vegetables.
Sorry for misunderstanding. In that case, follow deguconvert's advice.
Dont refrain from giving them grass, herbs or flowers...thats not what deguconvert is saying.
Just make sure that if you rinse them, you dry them out afterwards.

Something I like to do when I collect dandelion or red clover plants is to rince them very well under lukewarm water and then dry them in the salad spinner. I give my degus a fresh portion and store the rest until its crisp and dry. The degus like them both ways : )

wow thats a huge list thanks for posting this ive booked marked it and i plan to print it xx

Yeah, I always forget this one, even though I regularly buy it for our boys. They LOVE it. Like sunflower seeds, it is fairly high in fat, so needs to be given in moderation.

Strawberry leaves are probably high in sugar (higher than most leaves), being a fruit and especially being one known for its sweetness, so keep those to a minimum. And I've mentioned this elsewhere in a post you made about their pickiness, but don't give in to their whims about food...balanced diets are important to degu health. A hungry degu will eat food they don't like rather than starve, feel free to offer them the odd porridge oats treat but don't let them get away with eating what they want. Picky degus get switched over to nuggets (although I personally give them nuggets with a little "mix" thrown in for variety...they actually like the nuggets for some reason (it's what they were fed as babies, that's probably why) :-)