bexs
Newborn Degu
Posts: 2
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Post by bexs on Aug 27, 2011 14:52:57 GMT
I'm very new to degus and have just been given some, they came with Science selective pellets and I was wondering how many of these they can have a day? I know they need good quality hay at all times and I keep rabbits so I buy baled meadow hay and they seem to like that. I was also wondering about fresh food, how many times a week can they have it and what is recommended? I know they shouldn't have too much fruit. And anything else I should know diet wise please!
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Post by deguconvert on Aug 27, 2011 18:25:21 GMT
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Post by nonisa on Sept 1, 2011 14:44:14 GMT
I'm a new owner too and found that there is a lot of conflicting information on amounts of different things. I can find plenty of information on what they can and can't have but less on how much.
Degutopia (http://www.degutopia.co.uk/) say that a small portion of fresh veg once or twice a week is best (although the only fresh veg mine will eat so far is broccoli) and any high sugar ones (like tomatoes) only once a month. My girls love cherry tomatoes!
As far as their dry food some people seem to just fill their bowl everyday although I have seen that anything between 10g and 25g per degu is right. I'm giving mine about 15g each day along with a small amount of dried dandilion and any treats like oats. They seem to still eat plenty hay too.
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Post by degualot on Sept 1, 2011 15:09:45 GMT
nonisa well your doing the right thing in reading about how to take care of Degus from mulitiple sources. It's true there is alot of conflicting infomation out there about Degus but that's only because different people have different ways of doing things, most of the time people aren't right or wrong they are just different in their opinion. But there is some infomation about Degus that must be universally accepted across the board. Not giving Degus sugary treats for example which i'm sure you've already read about. Degutopia is a great site, I use to go there early on when I first got Degus around a year and a half ago. I came to realise that although it's a good site, not all of the infomation I agree with. That's where this site and others like it come in handy, you can discuss ideas and find better ways of doing things on forums. bexs, you sound like your off to a good start so don't worry about it, as for fresh vegtables , don't worry to much on how much a wek to give them, just give them some now and then when you feel they need some. There's no rule about how much or when to give them anything, it's up to you to find out what works best. Most people use a handful of hard feed, in your case, science selective. unlimited amount of hay, and some vegtables here and there. you can get dried vegtables if your Degus won't eat fresh, only 1 of my Degus eats fresh vegtables so they can be very picky fellows. Just keep reading and you'll discover new things all the time...
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Post by fred on Sept 1, 2011 15:36:24 GMT
nonisa They can have some fresh greens – vegetables, flowers, leaves, herbs every day. Degutopia is absolutely wrong to say otherwise. It is only important that you introduce anything new to your goos in small amounts. It is of course important to keep their sugar intake very low. This means for example that you shouldn't give them fruits that have a high content of sugar. In cherry tomatoes it is 8% and therefore not terribly high. I have just searched information on some German sites and cherry tomatoes seem quite popular with degus there. You certainly can give them more than once a month. Maybe some of our German members here can make a suggestion how often would be appropriate?
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