Sand Baths , Pottys, Hammocks, more.

[cricket]

Hello Everyone!

I don't have degus yet, but I'm working on research so if you guys could help me with these questions, that would be great!

1- I read that if you leave a sand bath in the cage all the time, the degs will use it as a potty. Is that true? If so, could ai give them a sand bath in a big bowl, and get a sand bath 'house' and see if they use it as a bathroom? Or do they just use it as a potty once they've had a bath in there?

2- Do degus like hammocks? I used to have ferrets so I have quite a few hammocks (washed of course).

3- I'm thinking about building a cage. Actually, I've already made it but if it doesn't work, its no big deal to redo it. I love building Anyways, its 28"L X 28"H X 14"D, 1.5 levels. I made it out of mesh storage cubes (C&C cubes), and its actually very strong. Does that sound alright?

4- Usually for cube cages you used coroplast, but wouldn't degus chew it to death? If so, could I put the coroplast on the bottom but have the sides OUTSIDE of the cage? Or should I use somthing else (suggestions?)

Thanks! I'm sure I'll have more questions soon!

[ilovemydegus]

hi, good for you seeking advice before you get your degus. This info is purely on my degus as all degus vary in character.

My boys have their sand bath as a treat, once a day for about 10 minutes otherwise they do start to use it as a toilet. They love their hammocks but also chew them to peices so i have to replace them sometimes. With regards to the cage i'm not sure but if made out of mesh always make sure there is some kind of flat surface in the cage for them to stand on (shelves, cooling mats etc) so they are not constantly standing on the mesh otherwise they can get a condition called bumble foot which is very painful.xxx

[cricket]

Sorry, I didn't expalin the cage too clearly. The walls are made out of the mesh cubes (no really mesh, just very small holes). The bottom is coroplast or plexiglass or whatever I chose to use

Thanks for the advice!

[ra]

Are the mesh storage cubes metal? If they are plastic that won't due. Unfortunately Degus are very adept at chewing through even the hardest of plastics. I had to have plate glass cut and then assembled a base using aquarium grade silicone.

I leave a heavy large glass storage jar in the cage at all times with Chinchilla dust for the girls. They don't use it as a potty too often. I change the sand weekly. They make me laugh by storing all of their toys in the jar with the sand!

[sarah]

I put the sand bath in every other day -- everyone uses it, then they start using it as a potty. Blossom likes to hog the sand when I first put it in and the babies get so excited they'll stand outside the dish and roll around until she finally lets them use it.

I've always wanted to try one of those hammocks, but I'm afraid they'd rip it to shreds, like everything else in their cage.

Sarah

[gooey]

i put a hammock in and they used it as a toilet
a few people on here have mentioned that fleece seems to be a material they don't chew. i made the hammock out of fleece and they didn't chew it at all--since they didn't seem to want to use it as a hammock, i took it down and now it's in their bed. and they still don't chew it, so maybe there is something to the fleece
as for the sand bath, mine are like yours sarah, use it and then it's a potty, so i usually take it out after a little while

[laurieb]

I LOVED them using the sand as a toilet! I know a lot of people are concerned about goos rolling through smelly sand, but ours didn't.
Every morning I would give them 3 fresh bowls of sand. They would roll and dig and play all morning. Then, when they were finished, they used them as pottys. The next morning, same thing. Get rid of smelly urine, start fresh. I only needed to clean their entire cage every 3 weeks or so, because there was no smell. I am VERY sensitive to the smell! There was none, because I got rid of it every morning!

The older goos taught the pups, and when we had a total of 17 degus, I had to change it MUCH more often, but that was still better for me than cleaning out corners all day! I also found that when they didn't want something in their cage, they would put it in the sand bowl. They knew it would be gone in the morning! I don't know how, but one morning, I awakened to find a large jar balanced on top of the sand bowl. I guess they were done with it!

Now, I did use children's play sand instead of chin dust. That saved a lot of $$! They didn't seem to mind at all!

Laurieb

[drew]

I use the same method as Laurie for my boys. I love it!! They threw a toilet paper roll in there when they were finished with it.