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Post by smithomatic on Mar 2, 2012 20:45:36 GMT
Hey everyone! I wasnt sure if I should post this in cages and housing or nutrition but I very rarely come over here so I thought id say HI As you may be aware, degus in the wild will feed on tree bark as part of their natural diet. In stores like P@H for example you can purchase packets of bark for the degus to crunch on. The problem is these packets are very expensive for very little, so im only able to get this for my degus sparingly. This evening I collected some apple and birch tree branches to put into my degus enclosure. I used a chizzle to remove all the bark, as this makes a nice smooth surface to wash and dry to then install into the cage. I have done this many time but only just realised tonight what I am left with: a massive MASSIVE bag of bark shreds. I gathered them all up, rinsed them thoroughly in boiling water then baked them in the oven on a low setting to dry them out. They have gone golden and crunchy! The degus are loving them too! I have mixed some into the bedding and some into their feeding dish, they are crunching away as we speak lol! I would imagine they are highly nutritous too as they were fresh branches Unfortunately I did not take any pics (doh) but the next time I do this I will be sure to post the results! Try it yourselves!
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Post by makeriotsnotdiets on Mar 2, 2012 21:25:26 GMT
nice, will try that next time we do some branches
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Post by deguconvert on Mar 3, 2012 1:08:43 GMT
Sounds cool . . . must take quite a bit of time to do that, though? Any sore fingers after?
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Post by smithomatic on Mar 3, 2012 1:19:40 GMT
If you focus, you can do 1 large branch in 30mins, my hands are fine, I did scratch the skin a couple of time where I went a bit crazy with it! Its where my hand caught the wood while scraping away, nothing major just a couple of scratches.. dont do what i did - make sure you wear gloves lol I wouldnt recommend going out of your way to do it. its more like a chore where you can reap additional rewards if your smart lol You dont need to clean your branches the way I do, I like to remove the bark for easthetic reasons only, the left over scraps for cooking are an added bonus ^^ I was so pleased to discover this, so were the goos! Its a great way to add to your natural nutrition during the winter if your bored of not being able to find anything
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Post by moletteuk on Mar 4, 2012 12:05:33 GMT
my girls seem to enjoy bark too I've actually been meaning to experiment with comparing baked bark compared to fresh bark, I get the impression baking sometimes changes the taste, so maybe some degus have a preference for baked or fresh, or maybe some woods/bark are preferred baked and some fresh.
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Post by smithomatic on Mar 4, 2012 12:10:31 GMT
I think the fact that it was a cold day here, and the bark was really warm might have had something to do with it, also the fact that they had a massive fresh batch. They arent eating it as much now, they seem to enjoy moving it around the enclosure mostly.. lol But yeh, im sure there is a change in taste, and packed with nutrients
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Post by davx on Mar 4, 2012 19:35:04 GMT
Well, but that is not very natural . Especially the heat destroys many useful substances like vitamins, included in the fresh bark. The bark is rich in minerals and other vitals substances and therefore a very interesting supplement for a natural diet. In Germany (and Switzerland) many of us experienced degu owners (and also chinchilla owners I stay in contact) use fresh twigs and branches whitout any treatment and this works fine. Especially fruit trees like apple or pear usually have a very clean and healthy surface. Other species often have lichens, I remove manually of course when there is a massive growth. In smaller quantities it seems to be unproblematic. Btw. apple bark is very popular among many rodent species, not only degus are fond of the fresh bark, also chinchillas, guinea pigs or even rabbits often nibble and chew on the bark and remove it in short time.
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Post by harpic01 on Mar 6, 2012 19:14:59 GMT
I know this may sound daft but why not leave the bark on ! All my branches go in with bark on - after washing and baking of course and then my goo's nibble them off as they climb sort of a 2 in 1 climb and chew !
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Post by smithomatic on Mar 6, 2012 19:16:21 GMT
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Post by deguconvert on Mar 6, 2012 21:16:01 GMT
Looks great!
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