hammy
Newborn Degu
Posts: 7 
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Post by hammy on Aug 23, 2015 7:37:49 GMT
Hi
I'm considering keeping degus as a pet. I've thought about this for a few years but never really seriously. I'm still only thinking of in a years or so's time. I keep hamsters at the moment. The thing is I can't decide between degus and guinea pigs and thought someone on here might help me decide.
I will only take rescue animals and, sadly, degus come up more often than gps. However, most all the cages I've seen for degus aren't particularly pleasing to my eye. I realise that they may be the best ones for degus but they all look so, well, prison like. Cages for gps are a lot more open and less intimidating. I do have a slight issue with keeping caged animals at all to be fair but realise that, currently, this is the kindest thing to do. I wondered if people have ideas for large, less prison like cages. I'm guessing not but thought that here would be the place to start. I'm lucky in that I do have quite a large space (although not quite so large a pot of money!) and, whatever animals I get, I fully intend to give them the best life I can, hence the research first.
The other thing is that I do work full time as does my partner, although sometimes different hours so that gives a bit more time to spend with our animals. All my hamsters get daily time out of cage time, unless they're not interested which sometimes they aren't. One of them practically lives on the sofa with us in the evenings. :-)
Anyway, enough waffle. I'll be grateful for your thoughts please.
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Post by Maravilla on Aug 23, 2015 7:58:10 GMT
Hi, welcome, and great that you are reading and informing yourself with a lot of time before adopting new family members!
First, I only have 2 small questions:
1) Do you have other animals like cats and dogs?
2) How large (surface) is your "quite a large space"?
It would be great to get answers on both questions so we (at least I) could get a better idea on your situation and help you. But on a first quick note: both, guinea pigs and degus, can be kept outside a normal cage, if some things are taken into consideration.
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hammy
Newborn Degu
Posts: 7
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Post by hammy on Aug 23, 2015 8:12:37 GMT
Hi Maravilla
I only have hamsters - 5 at the moment. I will probably like to keep a maximum of 2 if I get other animals so as not to spread my time too thinly!
The space I have available is realistically up to 2 metres x 2 metres on the ground and from the floor to the ceiling - not necessarily all for cage - maybe cage and play area? Do people do things like that for degus?
Outside a normal cage? That sounds good. :-) The C and C cages for guinea pigs look ok but I've not managed to find any 'out of the ordinary' cages for degus. Am very interested. :-)
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Post by Bexi87 on Aug 23, 2015 8:23:26 GMT
Welcome to the Forum. The show is your cage thread might be a good place to start to see what cages people have for their goo's. Some people have metal cages and others build DIY cages. Both are perfectly fine as long as they are large enough for the number of animals living in it  |
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Post by uglibug on Aug 23, 2015 8:25:58 GMT
Hi there. Its good to see you reading up on degus before getting them, I sometimes wish I had done more research but I wouldn't change them for the world now!
A lot of people go for custom built cages which can be made to suit your needs with glass fronts etc. One of our pairs of boy live in a converted aviary, which is a LOT more atractive than a standard rodent cage. As long as you have enough space, and it sounds like you do, a cage can be bought or built to suit you and your goos.
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hammy
Newborn Degu
Posts: 7
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Post by hammy on Aug 23, 2015 8:49:43 GMT
Hi dingle87. Thanks, I've had a look. There are some quite impressive wooden ones aren't there! Not sure my DIY skills will be up to it! ;-)
Hi uglibug. I wish I'd done more research when I first got hamsters. I soon upgraded everything but it would have saved a lot of time, grief and money.
Where do you buy your cages from? And what do you look for? When I look for hamsters cages I search rat or guinea pig cages! What might I search for to find a really good degu cage? I guess aviary is a starting place? Ferrets?
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Post by Maravilla on Aug 23, 2015 8:57:40 GMT
2x2m sounds great!! If you could use all of it for your new animals, they would love it and you too! Some nice cages for guinea pigs (sorry, in German, but it should work for inspiration): site 1, site 2. Those are just some few examples of possible "cages" for guinea pigs which are not the normal cage version. The animals have a lot of space (of you use all you have). As guinea pigs don't climb the walls don't have to big too high, 25-30 cm should be okay. For degus you can make something similar. But there, the walls have to be far higher, 80-100 cm, and you have to protect everything from walls to radiators and floor. I am sending you some pictures of such a "cage" via PM as the pictures are not mine and must not be used freely. So I am asking you not to use them elsewhere. Here you can see another example of such an floor area. Not perfect but it should give you an idea of what is possible for degus as well. |
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hammy
Newborn Degu
Posts: 7
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Post by hammy on Aug 23, 2015 9:03:52 GMT
Maravilla, those guinea pig cages are great! :-) A hamster forum I used to spend a lot of time on always highly rated Germany as being excellent for animal cage size. Every culture does what they think is right at the time but what is right changes all the time. I think Germany are a step or two ahead of the UK.
I look forward to the degu cage pictures.
Thanks
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Post by Maravilla on Aug 23, 2015 9:07:09 GMT
A hamster forum I used to spend a lot of time on always highly rated Germany as being excellent for animal cage size. [...]I think Germany are a step or two ahead of the UK. Well, you only always see half of the truth. In internet you only find the pictures of great cages with a lot of space, no matter which animal you are looking for. But a lot of animal owners still use the small bought cages and think it is okay. So what you see is only a small percentage but I think this is what should be spread to show what is possible. |
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hammy
Newborn Degu
Posts: 7
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Post by hammy on Aug 23, 2015 9:19:55 GMT
A hamster forum I used to spend a lot of time on always highly rated Germany as being excellent for animal cage size. [...]I think Germany are a step or two ahead of the UK. Well, you only always see half of the truth. In internet you only find the pictures of great cages with a lot of space, no matter which animal you are looking for. But a lot of animal owners still use the small bought cages and think it is okay. So what you see is only a small percentage but I think this is what should be spread to show what is possible. Fair point. |
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Post by uglibug on Aug 23, 2015 18:48:42 GMT
Most of our cages we got online. When we got the cage that the younger boys are in we specifically wanted something on wheels (it sits in front of the door to our spare room) and the indoor aviary cage fit the bill. We just added 2 extra floors and bobs your uncle, a degu cage. :-) Our girls are in modified rat cages, 3 joined together with pipe which gives them plenty of room, so much so they are almost antisocial now, lol, they rarely bother coming out but will pop over and say hi. All the boys came to us in p@h cages and for the older boys we have joined 2 together side by side to give them a large, single story cage (Mater is very old and couldn't cope with all the ups and downs of levels, hes a lot happier now he doesn't have to jump about). The only down side to having wire cages is that their favourite game seems to be "can I get my poop in mums coffee". :-D
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hammy
Newborn Degu
Posts: 7
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Post by hammy on Aug 23, 2015 19:18:35 GMT
Hey, that's where I'm at with my dwarf hamsters. They have so much space they are rarely bothered with me any more!
Could you use a rabbit hutch for degus? Seen a lovely one for£159. 188 long, 60 depth and 100 height consisting of 2 levels.
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Post by krazypara3165 on Aug 24, 2015 8:04:40 GMT
Hey, that's where I'm at with my dwarf hamsters. They have so much space they are rarely bothered with me any more! Could you use a rabbit hutch for degus? Seen a lovely one for£159. 188 long, 60 depth and 100 height consisting of 2 levels. Unfortunately rabbit hutches are not suitable without extensive modifications. the main two Issues is that most are not big enough for degus, and they would most likely chew their way through the wood in hours. if you find one big enough you can line the inside edges with metal strips to stop them chewing but it would be a lot of work. |
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Post by ilikedegus on Aug 24, 2015 9:02:10 GMT
We have a acquired a lot of secondhand welded mesh cages and joined them side-by-side and stacked - our degus have a huge palace. (this type - too small alone www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/chinchilla-and-degu-cage and a tall Chinchilla cage of the same brand). If you are prepared to drive around and add more over a period of time, eBay can be good for these. These cages are not the prettiest, but the good thing about them (given some DIY skills) is that you can buy the mesh in sheets or rolls and "edit" your cages by either making holes in the side walls and fixing together, or we have even made "stairwells" to join cages vertically using a box of mesh and small pine shelves held on to the mesh with screws, screw cups and "penny washers". Also we've added simple mesh boxes that give a bit more floor space in one area. Oh and degus I would say are a little more interesting (or trouble...) than GPs. I do love piggies, and they are probably easier because they don't jump and climb, as others have said. |
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Post by moletteuk on Aug 24, 2015 10:10:18 GMT
The world is your oyster if you have 2x2m available. We have a converted cupboard cage set within a permanent playpen and I wouldn't have it any other way, the playpen allows so much freedom to interact with them.   Those are old pics, but you get the gist, the whole things is about 3.5x1.5m. |
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hammy
Newborn Degu
Posts: 7
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Post by hammy on Aug 24, 2015 18:51:16 GMT
ilikedegus: That's an interesting idea. I've picked up some great cheap hamster (rat) cages of ebay so I could look for these small degu cages as I'm not getting them yet. Don't suppose you have a picture of your setup? moletteuk: That looks good! krazypara3165: Yes, I guessed that could be the case. This was the cage I found: www.therabbithutchcompany.co.uk/rabbit-hutches/the-coach-house-6ft-rabbit-hutch-105.html I'm thinking it would be big enough - but could I degu-proof it?! Presumably that would be easier than building from scratch but.......! Still struggling a little. I think I've decided that I would prefer to have degus. I went to PaH on my way home today and watched the piggies and the degus. The degus were about 98% more interesting. ;-) However, I'm still not certain I can come up with a cage that I'll be happy with in my living room. |
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Post by krazypara3165 on Aug 25, 2015 6:47:57 GMT
As far as hutches go, that one is lovely (and a reasonable size) but it would still require a lot of work. basically.... any wood that is not flat will get chewed.... corners, edges, lips, the gaps between the slats..... for that sort of price range you could build a custom cage..... that way its built to your specifications.... and its not as hard as it looks. Good random example taken from the internet.... i.ytimg.com/vi/WLXcTrGcI74/hqdefault.jpg |
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Post by Maravilla on Aug 25, 2015 9:26:06 GMT
The cage itself looks good, but I am worried about the ventilation. There some significant improvements would be necessary. (I know that you only wanted to show what is possible, but it is not the best example either.) |
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Post by krazypara3165 on Aug 25, 2015 10:03:08 GMT
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Post by moletteuk on Aug 25, 2015 11:10:51 GMT
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