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Post by NightwishRaven999 on Oct 2, 2011 7:39:56 GMT
Beginner's Guide to Degus !web.archive.org/web/20120221103926/http://octodondegus.weebly.com/ten-steps-to-keeping-happier-and-healthier-degus.htmlI am proud to present you with this new ten step guide, designed especially for new and soon-to-be degu owners. I would like to thank all forum members for allowing use of photos to illustrate the guide and would like to give a special thanks to Fred for some notes and pointers. Near the end of the article, I have announced the beginning of a new project...one that Faith, Fred, Kat and David are already aware of. We will be creating a ressource page, providing links to different sources, articles and websites related to degus. This will be a joint forum effort to provide readers with trustworthy information relating to various aspects of degu keeping. More details to come... Thoughts and suggestions about the guide are welcome.
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Post by Maravilla on Oct 2, 2011 8:28:15 GMT
It looks just wonderful!!! And I think it will help people to decide what is best for their little plushy roommates.
Perfect work!!!! ;D ;D
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Post by NightwishRaven999 on Oct 2, 2011 8:40:35 GMT
Thank you Marlén ! The truth is, this is really a forum accomplishment.
All I have done is assemble some of the knowledge we have here and taken some photos to illustrate. The photos we have on the forum are just priceless !
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Post by fred on Oct 2, 2011 12:33:48 GMT
This is fantastic Jordan, you can be very proud of it!! I don't think it is possible to overestimate the importance of this site, and add-ons to follow like the resource page.
I also believe that this may be our best answer to the Pets at Home issue: information, information, information!! If we get as many prospective and very new degu owners to read this guide, many of the problems will ultimately disappear. I would urge those of us who are on other pet forums to post a link there: “there is a new degu site, the ONLY trustworthy degu site in English, please tell your friends who may be interested in degus”.
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Post by NightwishRaven999 on Oct 2, 2011 14:42:35 GMT
Fred has given me some additional pointers and ideas about an important matter I have overlooked. From the time spent here, I notice mis-sexing is often an issue, and one that often leads to problems and unexpected litters.
The guide does not talk about this at all, so thanks to Fred from pointing this out.
This information will be added today.
I believe there is still much to add and on the agenda, I have planned to add some information regarding introducing degus to each other, fighting/squabbling, some information on puberty and the life stages...
* If everyone could help by pointing out or providing insight that could be added to the webpage, we could build a VERY complete and informative guide.
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Post by blossombrooks on Oct 2, 2011 21:28:12 GMT
That's brilliant! Really well thought out and presented. I wish pets at home handed this out to customers!!  |
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Post by deguconvert on Oct 2, 2011 21:39:38 GMT
It looks so great, Jordan! I really like the way you have set it all up and made the information so easy to read and assimilate. Well done!
I think that along with the aspect of degu gender and correctly identifying the sex of your degu, it would be good to also state the age when degus are sexually mature enough to impregnate and become pregnant. Perhaps in hand with this can be added the information that a degu may be neutered/spayed as early as ages 8-12 weeks. Unexpected Pups, pregnancy and duration, signs of delivery, what to do with Dad, separation of sexes, parenting of pups, eating of food.
I noticed that you are missing information on comfortable temperatures for a degu to be housed in, and different ways to cope with temperatures that range above or below the acceptable range.
Hand training, and how to become aquainted with your degu . . . what the first 48 hours may look like and what to expect as they adjust.
I don't remember . . . in your diet section did you include information on how their urine is affected as a result of some food items?
Bumblefoot and how to convert a mesh floor into safe flooring? Should there be a section on what healthy degu bodies look like? Bottoms of their feet, tails, urethral cone area, ears, nose, teeth, molars, fur?
LOL! What ELSE can I think of?
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Post by NightwishRaven999 on Oct 2, 2011 22:25:06 GMT
Thanks for all the pointers Faith !
These are all great ideas ! Info on sexing degus and keeping same sex groups/pairs will be added.
Information on neutering and spaying (8-12 weeks) will be added + some info on how soon a male can impregnate a female.
Comfortable housing temperature, effects of different foods on colour of urine and some info on bumblefoot as a result of mesh flooring will also be added.
This was supposed to be a short guide with 10 topic pointers...but it is becoming much more than this.
We are putting together a COMPLETE guide to degus !
As for breeding info (pups+raising+seperation of dad) this is something I will think about. I do not encourage the breeding of degus or rodents, so I have certain reservations about writing on the subject...especially in a beginner's guide.
I was thinking of telling those who have such issues to come on here and seek help and advice on this forum.
About taming and handling...I did not go into details about this, since I already have an extensive guide specifically for this subject. But I will be adding some info as to how new arrivals are to be treated.
Lots of food for thought here ;D
More ideas are welcome !
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Post by fred on Oct 2, 2011 22:34:07 GMT
Some interesting suggestions there DC. I am not sure whether it would be good to include all these aspects. What makes Jordan's site so very different from many other degu sites in English is that it's fact not fiction. Around reproduction there are still so many unanswered questions that this section would unavoidably be less reliable.
Another topic that needs more work is temperature. I was going to start a new thread on this as I realised only yesterday that the “acceptable range” is nothing more than one of Degutopia's fantasies and not at all backed up by the reference given there.
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Post by deguconvert on Oct 3, 2011 3:41:36 GMT
I have been rather skeptical of the temperature range indicated there. I've often wondered what range of temp is experienced in the areas they are natively found. They don't seem to like heat above 25 degrees celcius, and I think much lower than 17 degrees and they look very chilled . . . but I'm not sure how one would "prove" the best temperatures for them aside from personal observation.
As to the breeding aspect of things, I was not thinking along the lines of encouraging people to go into a breeding venture, and I completely agree with you, Jordan. You don't in any way want to present the idea as one to pursue. I was mostly thinking of all the "SURPRISE" pups that came from all male, or all female, groupings. I think you are right to direct them here rather than include the information on the website.
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Post by Kat on Oct 3, 2011 6:15:23 GMT
Wow this guide is brillant. I have been asked be my local pet shop (no live animals sold) for a print up with some info about degus. Would you mind is I used a bit of this. I told them about this forum too and they asked me to add the address in large letters too.
They are a good shop and are the only one that sells anything at all for degus in my town.
Kat
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Post by NightwishRaven999 on Oct 3, 2011 6:45:21 GMT
@ Kat
Please do share this info to them !
The insights in the guide are all things that we know, but that new owners and interested ones could benefit from. If shops were to provide similar guides of the animal being sold to a client, it would greatly help reduce problems/issues afterwards.
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Post by NightwishRaven999 on Oct 5, 2011 5:59:03 GMT
The guide has been updated with some new information on housing same sex groups/pair. Properly sexing degus (photo included) and mention of wire mesh flooring and its result on degu feet (bumblefoot) have been added as well.
New photos have been added thanks to Fred, David and 19Uhr30 (youtube).
I know I am going a little crazy of diet related photos...but I really think the natural diet project started here needs to reach others outside the forum. Links have been provided to our articles on the matter and I am hoping to expand the section further.
Although the information we have put in the guide is designed for those who are relatively new to degus, I am confident even long-time owners will find hidden gems and things of interest there...especially in the "Balanced Diet" topic.
The information that we have accumulated here is VERY different from the information provided by other english degu websites.
I believe exposing new owners and soon-to-be owners to the natural diet and DIY housing, to be an excellent way of enhancing the standards of degu keeping for the near future.
Those who truly want to learn more about degus, now have the opportunity to learn from the combined experience and knowledge of degu owners worldwide.
The ressource page we will be launching will also help expose the articles/posts and insights we have collected here.
Thanks to Fred and Faith for the useful pointers.
Will be adding more info soon.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2011 20:12:28 GMT
Your page is full of great information, nice work  Before I found this forum, I tried looking for info on degus in Norwegian and couldn't really find much useful. So I thought, why not make a degu information site in Norwegian myself? Degus are becoming more and more popular up here, but there is a sad lack of information available about them in Norwegian, and not all Norwegians are very good at searching for information in other languages (especially kids). I was hoping that I might use your webpage as a major source? I like the "ten steps" article and would like to do something similar Hopefully my site will be helpful to Norwegians that already has degus or is thinking of getting some. I'm also going to include an article on natural nutrition with focus on Norwegian flora and fauna - Storm |
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Post by NightwishRaven999 on Oct 17, 2011 5:31:27 GMT
@ Stormsong
Thanks for the nice comment and thanks for the lovely photo of Elune and Jadzia.
The information on the ten step guide is information we have assembled and gathered here on the forum. The goal is to spread this information to as many degu owners as possible...so please feel free to translate the guide or start one yourself in Norwegian.
This is a great goal you have.
If you are looking into building a website or publishing some articles, I would suggest using Weebly. It is a very basic and quick domain on which to start a website on.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2011 12:52:10 GMT
Thank you, much appreciated I've had website building as a hobby for years, so I usually design my own sites. Here is the site for my horse stud as an example: www.avalonaraber.comI'll see if I can use my current server and perhaps get a more degu-related domain to link to it |
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Post by andreoli on Dec 23, 2015 12:55:04 GMT
Link is dad? At least for me....
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Post by deguconvert on Dec 23, 2015 20:41:16 GMT
Sorry! I'm not very accomplished with the internet. That site was taken down . . . and I don't know if there is an alternate method to retrieve the information. We do have a lot of information here in other boards. If you can tell me what you are looking for, I can give you links in a post, or a private message.
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Post by moletteuk on Dec 23, 2015 20:49:28 GMT
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