My goos arent eating any hay!!

[parkgates]

Our degus started out life with a diet of hay, and specialist degu food. however we then stopped feeding them hay maybe just out of habit, and we are now desperately trying to get them back to eating it, but whenever we give them hay, they just use it to make a nest for themselves. Help !!!!!

[nickymills30]

i tend to layer the bottom of my cage with hay, as mine do the same, but they also get a hay cube with special hay, you can get it from P@H for around £2.50, and i find mine eat that, and leave the other stuff to make their bed x

[nuttz]

hmm, tricky one..

can you not make hay interesting?, mine have a wooden toy which i mix goodys and hay together and stuff it into the toy.

some people have made paper mache (sp?) type of things which they have added hay into the mixture.........atleast, thats what i think ive read...lol

maybe mix a little hay in their food bowls with their food, maybe once they realize they can eat it, they will..

[nuttz]

just one more thing..

other than them not eating hay, have you found any other strange eating habits? do they eat their normal daily amount of food that theyre used to?

i was just wondering, i read that you keep them in the garage, could they be cold and instead of using the hay to eat they are using it as extra bedding? or could they be depressed as they may not be getting enough interaction with you (being the human),
i maybe totally off target and apologize if ive offended you in asking these questions, it was just a thought...

[parkgates]

We have only recently moved them into the garage, and they werent eating hay before that, so im not sure if its that, and no u havent offended thanks for the tips though

[deguconvert]

There are hay cookies that have often been useful in helping degus rediscover the goodness of hay, I think they are alfalpha? Maybe have a look for those, I think P@H has them, and give them a try.

[nickymills30]

yes, P@H do do them x

[blossombrooks]

I just spent £7 on those hay cookies and my two have hardly touched them (sorry to be negative!) but they LOVE to eat the excel meadow hay with dandelion and marigold mixed in. I also sprinkle herbs over the hay sometimes for a bit of variety which also goes down well. They were never very interested in the plain timothy hay. :0)

[nickymills30]

my goo's will eat the hay cookies, but love the woodlands hay, with either camomile or herby.

I also buy some mixed grasses, from woodlands, and sprinkle them all over their floor hay, and the love to furridge for it.

[smux]

Break up the alfalfa hay blocks into slivers and leave them around near their food bowl...the smell from inside the compressed block may be enough to entice them to eat it.

As for the question by the OP, try giving them different hay to eat to the hay they have as substrate...I think most people feed timothy hay to their degus, I have now decided to switch between timothy hay and barley straw (barley straw is cheaper and they like it for bedding as well as food...it's very soft) and will probably be trying out other hays to see if there's anything that interests them more. Also, as Nicky said, try separating the food hay from the bedding/substrate hay. I don't do this exactly, but I do have certain places where their food hay will always go and they'll always get a large pile of it so they can see it's not substrate.

Degus will eat substrate hay in the absence of hay specifically given for food, and they are probably doing this already without your knowledge and probably have been for a while...not that I am sure that they are, but if you used to feed them hay they would have found a replacement once you stopped.

Also the alfalfa bales as mentioned above, in "cookie" form or as compressed bales, are a good way to ensure they get their intake of hay and nutrients...if they eat it, anyway...some people say their degus won't touch alfalfa, but none of mine will pass up alfalfa :-)

Lastly, try www.chinchillas2shop.co.uk for a selection (huge) of pellets you can add to their food which offer many different nutritional bonuses to their current diet...some of these are made from hays, all from all sorts of ingredients that are safe for chinchillas and those that are also degu-safe are marked as such. Be aware that if you do use this site, you may spend more than you planned...many people here have done so, I've yet to purchase from there but I will do soon and definitely by early next year if not before :-)