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Post by fred on May 26, 2011 16:28:51 GMT
Has anybody in the UK set up a burrowing pit with straw / peat / clay? If so can you recommend where to get the ingredients from? The pit will be 60 cm x 30 cm and the substrate will be 25 cm deep, so I will need quite a bit. And I need to be confident that my girls are safe!!
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Post by philbailey1806 on May 27, 2011 1:19:43 GMT
Hello! I havent done one myself, but I've heard of people using hydrated coconut husk before? you can sometimes find this in the reptile section of a petshop. You usually get it in kind of a brick. Also, I know gerbils like to burrow in fine wood shavings, although with either of these substrates I'd watch your degus very closely to see how they get on, and I wouldn't leave them in the pit unsupervised for any length of time, or allow them access very often as it could cause allergies (esp fine wood shavings)
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Post by weeble on May 27, 2011 1:28:16 GMT
I've read that degu's like to dig in soft soil as in the wild they dig in soft soil after rain fall to make their burrows.
Use a chin sand and dirt (without compost)... or that's what I've read you should use. To give it extra support I personally would put in straw
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Post by philbailey1806 on May 27, 2011 1:28:17 GMT
also, some degus apparently like to dig in megazorb? which is very cheap and very safe (made from left over pulp as a by product of paper). It is also twice dust extracted, so if your goos like to dig in it, its probably the safest thing you'll find.
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Post by fred on May 27, 2011 13:12:56 GMT
The idea is that this should ultimately become a permanent extension of the cage where they can dig a burrow (should they decide to do so). At that stage I must be certain that there is no risk of collapsing. The mixture of peat, clay and straw sounds good to me but I have problems with resourcing two of the ingredients (despite of a lot of googling).
Peat -This has become very much an environmental in the UK. Peat bogs have been reclining rapidly and google searches mostly produce hits to “peat-free”. I have found a local supplier of peat briquettes as fuel. They are made from compressed peat and I guess it should be possible to decompress them.
Clay - I haven't found anything suitable. deguconvert, do you have any link to a source in Canada or the US that could give me an idea how to refine my google searches?
Any suggestions how to replace one of the ingredients would be greatly appreciated.
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Post by deguconvert on May 27, 2011 14:11:41 GMT
This might sound a strange idea, but perhaps you can look into art supplies and see if you can come across clay that is used for pottery and such, that you can purchase in "bricks." Obviously it will be raw, not fired, and likely wrapped in plastic to keep the moisture content. IF you can find some of that . . . you will have to chop it up fine and then mix it with your straw, and I would suggest a basic garden soil that you can purchase at any greenhouse/garden supply store. Mixing in some of the coconut husk wouldn't do any harm either. These should make an excellent burrowing substrate. I hope this will help?
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Post by fred on May 27, 2011 16:47:37 GMT
Thanks deguconvert. I had looked at art supplies previously but only found stuff that was prohibitively expensive. I have now done more searches and there is also cheaper clay (probably for the mass production for the less discerning). The problem is that there are so many different types and none of the sites say anything about suitability for degu burrows. I'll get a peat and straw mix and see whether the consistency of this gives me an idea what to add. At the very least they'll have an “interesting” digging pit.
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