New owners advice please.

[mrmarky]

Hi everyone.
Having just rehomed a gorgeous pair of year old females and loving every minute, (had ratties in the past so never seen the dustbath comotion and just cant stop laughing !!!), I would like to ask what will probably be the first of many questions.
As far as food goes, we have some of the old rattie foods left and wondered if they were ok for degus or not.
1) Sunflower seeds
2) Pumpkin seeds
3) Weetabix cereal biscuits
4) Pasta (dried)
5) Blanched almond slices
Also, what about vegetables? Cooked peas, sweetcorn, carrots, broccoli etc or are dried from the supermarket better?
They have been fed on just degu pellets and hay with treats of just oats and dried "dandelion salad" mix from sainsburys but I would like to enrich their daily feed so would like some advice on that please.
Thank you in advance,
Mark.

[deguconvert]

Hello MrMarky!! Welcome to the forum!! Here is a list at this link . . . deguworld.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=food&action=display&thread=5408 . . . where you will find all KINDS of safe treats for degus.

One thing that is very important to know about degus is that they have low tolerance for foods that are high in sugar, quite unlike rats that can eat virtually anything and everything.

[luna1]

Hi there and welcome to the wonderful world of Degu ownership!

I wouldn't feed rat food as Degus and rats have different nutritional needs.

Sunflower and pumpkin seeds are OK as an occasional treat but not too often as they are very high in oil which isn't good. You can use them as a training aid or to get them used to coming out onto your hand but what is better is raw porridge oats, most Degus go crazy for these, again, use sparingly as they are high energy food and cause weight gain.

I feed mini shredded wheat bitesize, around a quarter each, first thing in the morning as it has nothing added, like salt, which, again, is bad for them.

I personally wouldn't feed almonds as they are quite oily. But others may well do.

All veg need to be fed raw, not cooked and it is often better to keep away from sweet veg as Degus cannot deal well with sugar, even natural sugar. I feed cauliflower leaf, broccoli, green cabbage, celery leaves, green beans. All green veg needs to be fed in moderation as it can cause bloat and diahorrea. Carrot, beetroot ( without vinegar) sweet potato, red peppers, fresh herbs, the list is endless but you will need to be cautious to start as they aren't used to them. Normally an egg cup full each Goo is about right. i feed fresh veg twice per week.

Have you looked at the natural feeding thread on here? It is very informative and helpful to get you aquainted with what they can ans can't have.

Any more questions, feel free to ask away

Cross posted with DC, as I seem to keep doing, sorry ;D

[deguconvert]

LOL! You went into the detail that is really nice to have, Luna!! I'm at my parents right now and am trying to keep my time on DF as short as I can. SO easy to spend an hour or two here without even realizing it!

[moletteuk]

Welcome mrmarky, I'm glad you enjoying your new degus
You can think of them as needing a diet closer to guinea pigs than rats. All kinds of (safe) leaves and non sugary veg make great additions to the diet, you may find they prefer their leaves and veg dried out rather than fresh. Hay is really important, so it can help to try different types or sprinkle it with (degu safe) dried flower mixes or add in things like the dandelion salad. They would probably enjoy some other seeds, things like millet, amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat are much less fatty than sunflower and pumpkin seeds and are great to sprinkle around for them to forage for.

[mrmarky]

Thanks very much everyone.
I've learnt a lot since I started the thread, mostly from this great site.
I didn't realise the learning curve would be so steep after keeping ratties but they are so very different.
In the 11 days since we got them, they have really come out of their shell and are getting to know us really well which is so lovely.
They have free reign of the lounge every evening for at least 90 minutes and I think we are enjoying it as much as they are
We just gave them some apple tree twigs and they went wild !!! Don't think they'd seen any parts of a tree before ;D
Just one quick question before I go ask more in the other sections...
I mentioned dried pasta in my original message, is it ok to give them a piece once in a while ?
Right im off to start building them a new "mansion"... 180cm high, and 100cm by 70cm

Thanks again for your help,
Marky.

[moletteuk]

There's no harm in a small piece of pasta once in a while. I've given mine tiny lasagne sheet offcuts before, I think only one of mine liked it.
I'm glad you are having so much fun together, it really is fun trying something new with them when you just don't know what their response will be, it's funny how you can't predict what will be a hit and what a miss!
New mansion really will be a mansion at those sizes