Can degus have flour?

[smithomatic]

Can degus have flour ?

I plan on mixing it with water to make a kind of glue, it dries rock hard when set. I was going to make some cool treats trapped in the blocks for them to get at it, would this be ok for them?

Thanks in advance

[deguconvert]

I think it would be OK . . . better if you were to use brown flour, and if you were to make them very thin so that they aren't getting large portions of the flour with each little treat. If you made crackers rather than blocks, it would be good I think. Not to give them too often though. Once a week?

[smithomatic]

hmmm perhaps DC, im hoping they will not pay much attention to the paste and just gnaw through to get to the treat inside .. it wont be pure flour paste, probably more of a mache with paper or something

[cherrysparkey]

Isn't flour just cereal grains (obviously not the supermarket stuff with all the added crap). Could you possibly use cereal they are allowed, then grind it yourself. Might take a while but at least you would know what is in it lol.

[Ady]

I am about to make some baked treats myself and I bought amaranth flour for it. Just thought it could be good alternative.

[fred]

I don't yet have an educated opinion on this, but would clearly say if, then only in very small amounts.

If you asked the question on the German forum, you would hear a “definitely not”. Oats are not considered treats there and are only given to sick or poorly degus. I am unsure at the moment where one should draw a reasonable line. Flour contains starch which is made out of glucose (=sugar) molecules. The question to which I don't have an answer right now, is how much of the starch can be broken down, in particular with much of it making it's way twice through the digestive system. If you want to do some baking for your degus, just use the smallest amount of flour you can get away with.

On davx' wiki I also found that gluten is problematic for degus, so it would be better to use a low gluten or gluten-free flour.

I hope we will have more to say about this in the forthcoming Feeding Guide.

[winic1]

Wheat flour is indeed mostly starch. Starch is a chain of glucose (sugar) molecules. So wheat flour is a huge carbohydrate load. whole wheat would have more of the bran (fiber) in it. Same thing for rice, or corn, or most grains. It is the starch, however, that gives that wonderful glue property when mixed with water.

Wondering if bean or pea -paste would work (like a really thick pea soup), and while that's protein rich, if used sparingly wouldn't a bit of extra protein be better than just basically pure starch?

[Maravilla]

Apology72 prepared some christmas cookies for her goos: HERE. I personally wouldn't give cereals (wheat grains etc.) to my degus (I'd done it before I learned about the possible problems of grains) but if you use only small amounts of flour and only give them small amounts of these treats from time to time you could try it. It is just the question of not exaggerating.

[moletteuk]

Xtravital, Gerty Guinea and Pets@home nuggets all have significant quantities of wheat in them, so I can't see that small to medium amounts of it are unsafe.
I've made degu biscuits before using oat bran and wheatgerm mixed with water, which went down well.

[davx]

Wondering if bean or pea -paste would work (like a really thick pea soup), and while that's protein rich, if used sparingly wouldn't a bit of extra protein be better than just basically pure starch?

There are China noodles containing only pea flour. I think it might work.

In the german Wikipedia it is mentioned that the gluten is a "sticky protein", in the english one it is refered to "glue" and as far as I know it is in fact this kind of protein keeping the dough or bread together. Gluten is also contained in other cereals not only in wheat. But it seems, that the most people having problems with gluten are sensitive especially to the wheat gluten. Perhaps it is the same thing as with peanuts, it is such a omnipresent ingredient that the organism takes it as a stimulus.

[winic1]

gluten is the stuff that keeps bread and cakes together and fluffy, it acts as the "glue" and is also sort of stretchy so that it traps all the little air bubbles in the baked goods while holding them together so that they come out breadlike instead of brick-like.

Wheat has been bred over the centuries it has been cultivated to have a very high gluten level, so it is the biggest problem for people with sensitivity to it. White flour has a higher concentration than whole wheat flour, and any wheat flour has a higher amount than flours made from other grains. Is why most recipes for "whole wheat bread" or rye bread or etc still contain a significant amount of white flour, to increase the gluten content and give a nice, lighter texture to the bread.

Other grains (grass family grains) have lesser amounts of gluten, some have very little, or it's
different enough from wheat gluten that it might not bother someone who can't tolerate wheat gluten.

Non-grain like rice has none. But rice-paste will still act like glue because of the starch, which makes an excellent glue stuff.

One gluten-free, wheat-free bread mix I used to use was made with a large portion of garbanzo bean flour (chickpea) as the main flour. The dough was definitely glue-y, and the bread had a decent texture. (Don't ever taste raw garbanzo flour dough, tho, YUCK, but when cooked, wow!) So bean or pea "glue" might work.

(when she was little, they thought my daughter had a wheat allergy, which is different than gluten sensitivity (celiac disease), so I spent well over a year baking things from scratch with all kinds of other flours, as it is hard to tell a 4 year old no bread, no cake, no cookies, no pizza....)

[moletteuk]

I am coeliac. Gluten is in wheat, barley, rye & oats. There are loads of alternative grains if you want your degu to avoid eating gluten.