How to get degus to sleep?

[jamiee]

Hi, I'm having some issues with trying to get my two boys to sleep.  Normally, at around 6-7pm, they have a small nap, and cuddle up asleep for a while, but they wake up after this. I need to be asleep by around 10pm, but they often are not quiet until 11pm, so I end up getting no sleep. They also wake up several times in the night, and stay awake for a long time after they wake up. Is there anything that I can do to make them sleep earlier, or maybe prevent the early naps?

[Kins]

How light/dark is it in the room they live in?

I find that I have to keep the main light on in the room my degus cage is in in the evening this time of year (I turn it on when I get home from work). This means they stay up a bit later as it is light and when we go up to bed, around 10pm, I turn their light off say goodnight and they settle pretty quickly. I never hear them in the night but they are in the next room. Although I think I'd hear Dave particularly as he likes to chew his wheel in a very noisy manner!

[deguconvert]

Do you have them in your bedroom?

[jamiee]

Yes I go have them in my bedroom, but I have nowhere else to put them, so moving them is not an option, unfortunately. The way I do it at the moment is that I turn off the light about 45 minutes before I go in the room and go to bed. So, is this wrong? Would the best approach be keeping them awake so that they don't sleep and are active until the light is off?

[moletteuk]

You will probably need to experiment and see how long it takes them to go to bed after the light is put out. I will say that I think young degus have more erratic bedtimes and are more likely to be up and active a few times in the night, so I don't think you can really expect a perfect solution to this. I would strongly recommend getting some earplugs! The swimming type ones block out a lot of noise.

[Karma]

what worked (most of the time) for mine was to get a very definite routine .... light on all evening to encourage them to play and be awake and then we would play for 30-45 minutes (mental, and physical with running around and tricks), wheel was taken out (otherwise the one would never go to bed), give fresh food and hay and then lights out and bedtime. I found they would sit and eat for about 20-30 minutes which gave me enough time most nights to settle and fall asleep - whether or not they continued playing I don't know but without the wheel it normally was quiet enough I didn't notice.

If I missed the playtime though it would take them about 45 minutes to settle enough to go to sleep - those nights I normally would just relax, keep my eyes close and wait for them to settle - tried not to get tense or upset, not as good as sleep but still feels better than being awake.

I would really suggest trying to work with them before bed - I taught mine to jump over obstacles and would get them going and running over a few in a row to get them moving and hopefully tired out - really did seem to make a difference.

[jamiee]

I am worried that if u take the wheel out at night, they will fight as they have nothing to do.

[moletteuk]

I agree with Karma that routine can help, mine get hay at bedtime, which encourages them to sit quietly and settle down ready for bed.

It's a case of suck it and see for the wheel, if it is the wheel in particular that is noisy then it's definitely worth trying.

[jamiee]

Thanks everyone for your advice. The best plan I have worked out is to keep the light on until I sleep, and take them out for a bit at around 8:30, and then give them a small bit of food and fresh hay. I find that this works very well, so thankyou all for the great advice.

[animalmadchloe]

ours are in a pretty good routine as well, light on and lamp on when i get home, we usually go to bed about 11 pm so there lights r switched off at 11 i say good night and leave the to it i never hear them in the night and when they hear me get up in the morning then they usually get up, weekends they lay in if were not up lol lazy beggars, have you tried using a heat pad at bedtimes? maybe using that for a few weeks encouraging them to sleep at a set time? then they might fall into a routine?

[jamiee]

They have slowly gotten back into their routine. It now takes only 25-45 minutes for them to go to sleep after I turn off the light. I have also made a big breakthrough with getting them calm, by chance. I was playing music in my room when I had them out. It was quiet, slow music, and the degus sat and listened to it, then they started grooming each other, then they snuggled up together for a few minutes. I use earplugs, so that I cannot hear them when they are up in the night, but they do often get up in the night for a few minutes, but seem to settle again soon after.