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Post by alexgtr on Jan 20, 2015 13:37:20 GMT
Hi all,
Me and my girlfriend are new owners of a pack of 8 Degus, we picked them up about a month ago. There are some around 5months old all the way up to a year and a half. We have never had any before and decided we would rather rescue them than buy them from a breeder. We were looking for 4 maximum but ended up with 8. They came in a fairly large cage but was no way big enough so we just bought a huge 4 level cage (weighs a ton too and i'm not little!) which they moved into yesterday and they absolutely love it, they have plenty of floor space and can run around together. It was the first time we have seen them playing chase which was nice.
One thing I am now worried about is what we are feeding them. We was told the Science Select Degu food is the best stuff but I have just read some people don't like to use it due to lack of calcium and phosphorus.
What should we be feeding them? The people who were taking care of them (they had loads and look like they knew what they were doing so I don't really doubt them) before we took them said to feed them the Select food but also gave us a bag of this mixed leaves, seeds, dandelions etc, I have read that is what they should be eating.
Please can you advise what food I should buy and where to buy it from as I am really worried that they will end up with this dental disease...
Cheers
Alex
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Post by deguconvert on Jan 20, 2015 17:59:53 GMT
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Post by deguconvert on Jan 20, 2015 18:01:47 GMT
Umm thought of something else to ask you about . . . have you had all your degus sexed, so that you know you don't have mixed male and females.
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Post by alexgtr on Jan 20, 2015 20:59:57 GMT
Thanks for the reply, I will check them links out.
No, but the people that were looking after them seemed to know what they were doing, they had cages every where they must have had about 30-40 degus and had been doing it for 8+ years.
I do want to double check as i know what their bits look like but dont want to start picking them up as i read its not a good idea, but we have had them for a month so i think its probably about time?
We moved them into their new big cage yesterday so they are a bit funny with us, even the very confident one is scared of us at the moment and their not taking food from our hands, even their all time favourite, porridge oats!!
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Post by deguconvert on Jan 21, 2015 16:49:33 GMT
Give them a few days to get familiar with the new cage, and to make it smell more like their own, and they should be more like themselves. One trick that is often recommended on here, for having a better look at degu bits, is to use a glass jar with a few treats inside it to occupy the degu's attention, and from there be able to have a look, either through the glass, or if the tail and hind end are near the rim, to gently lift the tail and look. Lots of "looking" going on, lol!
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Post by alexgtr on Jan 22, 2015 15:35:34 GMT
I caught one of the larger ones that went on a humping spree while I was standing there. She crawled on my hand when I had some food so picked her up and had a look, she was definitely a female. I do have faith in the guys we got them off, but don't want to try handling them too much as the two that are the most tame don't like you picking them up they jump back in the cage from your hand.
I think their will need to be a lot more perseverance with them, especially with such a large pack, one gets scared they are all scared!
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Post by deguconvert on Jan 23, 2015 3:54:55 GMT
LOL! I know all about the "one gets scared, they all get scared" effect. I had a large group of females for a while and they were the same way. Females and males alike go nuts for the humping thing. It is a dominance stance and so is not gender specific. In fact . . . my little four and a half month female poodle had a giant humping party on top of our smaller Bichon/Shih'Tzu. So . . . well . . . there ya go.
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Post by moletteuk on Jan 23, 2015 13:50:37 GMT
Wow eight!!! Kudos to you for taking this group on! I bet they are fascinating to watch.
I understand that Supreme have improved the calcium content of the Selective Degu product so it depends whether you have the improved recipe or not. Have a look at the bag, calcium should be around 1% and phosphorus around 0.5%. It is still a grain based food so you should look to add in a grainless product, something like JR Farm grainless guinea pig or Pre Alpin. We recommend mixing two or three different products, you are looking for low grain content, no sugar, high calcium, good calcium phosphorus ratio, and inclusion of vit D supplement. JR Farm products are available online from Zooplus. Pre Alpin is available from Thetortoiselady.
The diet should really be based on natural plant forage, all things like grasses, hedgerow plants and weeds, safe garden plants, flowers, tree leaves and twigs etc. We only recommending keeping a percentage of commercial food in the diet for simplicity and to avoid having to supplement vit D which is not available naturally through diet. So have a browse through the diet sticky area and think about different ways that might suit you to provide enough forage. Many of us go out picking plants from hedgerows and dry them out for a year round supply and also supplement with JR Farm mixes and Readigrass etc.
The other important diet supplement is high calcium oil seeds. You can buy a premade mix of these from Ratrations.com and they also do a second treat seed mix.
Dandelion and burdock roots and dried veg also make decent treats.
We can help with the best things to order if you want to put in a Zooplus order. Let us know about which Science Selective you have.
Do persevere with the sexing checks!
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