Fussy degu getting thinner

[bart]

Latte doesn't seem to like her Pets at Home degu nuggets any more. She pays no attention to them in the morning and, when I return from work, I find some of them have been half-eaten and the rest untouched, as if she's tried them and decided she doesn't like them. This has been going on for the past few weeks and her weight has dropped from 210g to 175g.

She's as active as ever and eats everything else (mini Shredded Wheat, dried veg, hay, treats), so I don't think she's ill (I imagine she'd be off her food entirely), but I can't keep feeding her treats just because that's all she'll eat. She's 3 years old and has the p@h nuggets have been her main food all that time, and Mocha is still eating them without complaint.

I'm going to try to get some different food and see if she'll eat that, but I wondered if anybody had any advice.

[jenowuk]

Where do you keep your food? Could it be stale or going moldy? If so, then Latte may have noticed quicker than Mocha.

Another possible cause of lack of appetite could be tooth problems. (Although, as she's eating her treats, that's less likely. )

Might be best to get her to the vets. That amount of weight loss can be serious is such as a small animal.

Good luck.

[smithomatic]

Hello bart,

I would advise taking latte to the vets for a check up, never hurts to make sure everything is ok with her and will give you peace of mind.

I found that when I began feeding different foods to my degus they also stopped eating thier pets at home nuggets. Try reading through some of the natural feeding guides on this fourm, perhaps you can create a mix that will interest latte more?

Dried vegetables, seeds, leaves, twigs, bark and hay all mixed together would provide a much more interesting meal for your degus.

How would you like it if you were only allowed to eat bran flakes everyday? Try to keep things fresh and slowly wean your degus onto a more varied diet

[deguconvert]

I have to agree with Smithomatic! A vet visit is in order. Weightloss is a sign of something wrong that shouldn't be ignored. Degus are masters at hiding illness or injury, and may appear completely normal in all ways. But if they are losing weight, this is usually serious and something needs attention, so please take her to your vet for a checkup. You may want to have her tested for diabetes while you are at it.

Also, reading through the natural feeding guides will be most helpful to you. There are great things contained there in, and they will be great sources of nutrition for your girl. As always, if you have questions about any of these things, please ask away!

Please keep us informed as to how she is doing?

[bart]

Following jenowuk's suggestion, I opened a new bag of nuggets I had and Latte ate those quite happily. Mocha is still eating the other ones but I guess Latte thinks they've gone off, even though I keep them in the same place I've always kept them. Hopefully she'll start putting the weight back on but I'll take her to the vet's anyway.

[jenowuk]

Glad to hear Latte is eating again! Fingers crossed she puts the weight back on

Jen

[deguconvert]

Me too!

[bart]

Latte's interest in the new p@h pellets lasted a couple of days. I'd already ordered some Beaphar Xtravital online so gave them a bit of that and Latte seemed interested but hasn't really been eating the pellets. This made me wonder if it was a problem with her teeth and the hard pellets.

Anyway, she went to the vet's this morning. I think she knew something was up as she didn't want to come out of the cage. She also ate a fair bit of her breakfast. The vet admitted she hadn't seen many degus but stuck one of those lighted probes in her mouth and couldn't see any signs of poor wear on her molars, although she couldn't see right at the back. She said she'd call another vet and get back to me in case there was anything she might have overlooked.

When Latte got home she ran to the far corner of the cage and squeaked at me accusingly for nearly half an hour. I hope she forgives me.

[deguconvert]

Well, at least you can be relieved that she isn't suffering from trouble with her teeth. She has had a little time to recover a bit now . . . is she showing signs of forgiveness? Can you tell us what you feed her besides the nuggets? As in treats and additional food stuffs.

Will she eat oats at all? Porridge oats are a dense source of calories and they would help to put some weight on her. Mix in some herbs like dill, basil, dandelion leaf, oregano, fennel, fennugreek, and some oil seeds like sunflower and sesame, and hopefully her appetite will be stimulated as well as helping her to start gaining some much needed weight.

[luna1]

Hi There,

Latte's behaviour sounds like one of my little girls. She has always been on the small side and can also be fussy, her interest in food lasts about a nano second She was quite ill at Xmas and ever since, she will not touch Degu pellets, I feed a combination of PAH pellets and Science Selective, she has now conceded to eating SS Chin pellets though. Which is a bit of a pain at feeding time when 10 of them will eat normally and her ladyship has to be fed different food. I really don't mind though as long as she eats!

Regarding teeth, unfortunately, even when their mouths are scoped by experienced exotics vets very little can be seen but a good indicator of a problem with molars is excessive saliva in the mouth. Unfortunately it has to be pretty obvious before it can be seen by scope. If there is a suspicion of a problem then the only way it can be dealt with is by putting them under anaesthetic and then any problems can be dealt with at the same time.

I also add various Degu friendly herbs, dried veg, leaves etc to their hay mix so that it gives a bit of variety as I can well understand the boredom if they are fed the same thing day in and day out

[deguconvert]

Excellent point about the scope and teeth, Luna1. Thank you for bringing that forward! I've never seen a scope myself, so didn't know it would't be overly effective for diagnosis of difficult teeth.

[bart]

The vet phoned back and said that basically there's no way to check the back teeth without putting Latte under anaesthetic which, obviously, I'm not keen to do except as a last resort. I'll buy some porridge oats and see what I can get her to eat, and monitor her weight more often.

I'll see if I've been forgiven when I get back from work!

[luna1]

I hope that she starts eating properly soon. I can completely understand your reluctance to have her put under as I have 5 of mine that need regular teeth rasping but please also bear i n mind that they are masters at masking health problems and once they are showing even mild signs something is wrong then it is normally a lot worse and the recovery period takes longer.

I weigh all of mine weekly and also keep a weight chart so that I can plot what is normal at any time of year. Some sites suggest monthly weighing but an awful lot can happen in a month.

Good luck

[Karma]

Anyone correct me if I'm wrong. Could you try adding peanut butter to the pellets to give them a little extra flavour?

And when I mean peanut butter I mean the natural stuff that is only roasted peanuts and not the other smooth stuff with all the sugar in it (it doesn't taste as good either!!)

[jenowuk]

Personally, I would avoid peanut butter. Peanuts are high in protein, and a high protein diet can cause liver and kidney problems in degus. Last site I checked (http://www.degutopia.co.uk/degudiet.htm) shows you should only feed 1 peanut per week per degu. Rolled oats would be better (a healthy pinch a day).

[Bexi87]

I would think natural peanut butter would be fantastic for her at the moment if it can persuade her to eat and get some weight gain.

I hope things start improving soon

[deguconvert]

I was kind of thinking the same thing. Right now it is really important to keep her gut working and for her to put on some weight. The more her body predates on her own tissues, the harder it will be to help her recover. Don't let her go hog wild with the natural peanut butter, but don't avoid it either.

[moletteuk]

You mention that she still eats hay, dried veg, and treats, is this still the case?
If so it might be worth thinking about increasing the natural or home-mixed food that you offer, she may just not find the processed nuggets all that appealing.

There is tons of info on the site about natural feeding and mixing your own food. The main part is offering more and different types of fibre, so that means different types of hay and dried herbs, you can include some flowers, twigs, leaves and so on, whatever you can get your hands on. You can buy herb mixes from JR Farm or Burgess.
You then also add in various seeds and grains, this would be particularly important for your goo losing weight. A simple budgie seed mix would be good, plus oats, buckwheat, flaked brown rice, the shredded wheats you mention too if she likes them (and they have nothing added) - again just any mix of seed and grain you can find to get started. Normally you want to keep the fat and protein content fairly low and the fibre content as high as possible for the seeds and grains you choose.
Thirdly, dried veg make a good addition. Broccoli, cauliflower, courgette, aubergine, green peppers, and then in smaller quantities tomato, carrot, parsnip, red/yellow peppers.

Obviously still keep an eye on her mouth and teeth, and keep an eye out that she is pooing normally.

[bart]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. I don't know whether Latte got worried about the possibility of another trip to the vet, but she gradually started eating more. She gets oats every day now (as does Mocha) and I've upped the amount of dried veg she gets (parsnips, carrot, beetroot; she doesn't like peppers at all), and this seems to have encouraged her to eat the pellets. As it's been a week since the trip to the vet's I'll see if I can weigh her tonight.

[Ady]

Glad to hear she eats more. I was watching your thread.
I know u trying to get her eat more however carrots, parsnip, beetroot is quite high in sugar, i'm sure you aware degus aren't good procesing sugar and are prone to diabetes. Have u tried different vegies as broccoli, aubergine, tomato, courgete, herbs (basil, mint...). Does she takes any seeds? Pumpkin, sunflowers, linen and sesame seeds are high in fat as you know but good if you want her to gain weight. Do you weigh her?

EDIT: Haven't noticed till now molleteuk already gave you great diet advice