Tips for Taming Degus

[NightwishRaven999]

I used to get lots of Youtube messages on the matter.
It seems that many degu owners are having trouble taming their little pets. Some claimed that even after a whole year of owning degus, they are still very fearful of humans.
Others expect the degus to become friendly too quickly and others yet, dont really know how to go about the taming process.

I got tired of writing long messaged explaning how the taming should be done...etc. So I decided to make a step by step video on the matter.

Some of you might have different ways of taming your goos.
But I am really glad to see the video is proving very helpful to others.

Thought I should share it with you guys.
It might help those of you who just recently got degus...

[jusdepomme]

Thank you sooo much for this video! it's really well done and it will help me taming my degu

[NightwishRaven999]

You are welcome. I am really glad its proving helpful to people.
Many fellow degu owners have told me that after a month or two of following these steps, they are getting very close to their degus.

Hopefully it will work out with yours as well : )

[charliex]

omg this video is just excellent!! i was like smiling the whole way thru haha!!! they sure have a lot of trust for you! how long have you had them? xx

[NightwishRaven999]

Ginger and Nutmeg I have had for two years. Acorn and Cinnamon for a couple months less (so over a year and a half). Muffin and Crumpet are new. I adopted them last month and merged them into my group. They are only about 6 months of age and were never tamed by their previous owner...so they are still a little fearful.

Thanks, hope it proves useful to you : )

[jusdepomme]

After one week, Chuck is now accepting to eat in my hand! I was so happy when it happened

[NightwishRaven999]

jusdepomme
I am so glad to hear this ! Keep working at it, your degus will eventually form a bond with you and will consider you as being part of their group.

Keep us updated

[chrissy01]

thankyou i will give this a go as at the mo charlie has lost all trust in my as my son let her out yesterday and the cats were about and she had only been with us about a hr so all i could thing was grab her fast to get her back and ive been bitten very bad i knew she would bite me but i just thought get her back in b4 the cats get her so i need to tame her and gaine her trus loads now she will take treats from my hand but she wont allow you to touch her

[mammu]

Hey, i have a question,

I got to the step where the degus eat from my hand,
and i think they are comfortabel with it, every time i open the cage they come imediatly up to me to see if theres and threats. BUT how do i get to the next step, they cant figure out to get onto my hand and i dont now how to encourage them to do it, ive tried to put some threats all the way up my arm but when they get to the wrist, they stop eating. they always got their front paws on my hands.. but .. please help me to get further... im kinda stuck - thank you

[Jaiye]

I have found the same with one of mine, I get her interested in the food on my hand, then slowly move it away from the cage when she is chewing one oat, then I put my other hand (with no oats) between hand with oats and the cage then just wait for her to keep coming. Just gradually keep moving your hand away and if she wants the treats enough she will eventually have to come out onto your hand to reach it =)

Same as going up your arm, but using both hands gives a larger platform for them to stand on so might make them a little happier. Good luck!

Works with Thai anyways!

[moletteuk]

LOL I'm stuck at the next step! I can get them to eat from my hand while sitting on the other hand if I put the 'other' hand in their way and use a treat as a lure (as described by Jaiye). They just nab the treat lure though as soon as they sit on the 'other' hand - I can't figure out how to keep them in my hand and wait while I move it a bit before giving them the treat. They will stay sitting to eat multiple treats like oats, but that doesn't seem to translate to any other circumstance. I don't seem to be anywhere near being able to pick them up - I swear they are just laughing at me!

[Jaiye]

Mine very rarely will stay an eat a larger treat on my hand, but will sit there for oats or smaller things. Depends on their mood I think =)

[bijett]

That's a fantastic video. We are lucky that our degus were very friendly right from the start. Within 24hours they were happily jumping on our hands and running along our arms p and down .

[woodchip]

Thanks for this. We adopted a couple of mistreated goos from Pets at Home today and one of them is fine and quite inquisitive, but the other is very timid. The timid one only has half a tail, and (apparently) when P@H got them she needed a tail quarterisation (bless her). She seems okay in herself just really timid. We've managed to give them a couple of oats out of our hands already so things may not be as bad as first seems.

[dyzired]

Thanks! I havent been able to watch the video yet...but I really needed help on learning how to tame Rocket..and I was about to have to write a new thread on it..but then I saw this! Thanks again..hopefully I can get him used to me =]

[NightwishRaven999]

@ dyzired
Let us know how the taming is coming along !

octodondegus.weebly.com/how-to-tame-degus.html
You may also find this article on taming degus to be quite helpful, as it is more elaborate than the video.

[mandiandstu]

Im gonna try puttin a tshirt or something in their cage cos Ive not heard that b4 Ive got 4, from P@H almost a fortnight ago

[NightwishRaven999]

Dec 18, 2011 3:16:26 GMT mandiandstu said:

Im gonna try puttin a tshirt or something in their cage cos Ive not heard that b4 Ive got 4, from P@H almost a fortnight ago

Hello Mandi ! Glad to hear this...the method is proven to work.
I have just answered you introduction post.
Welcome to the forum