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Post by danifacetastic on Aug 11, 2012 2:14:00 GMT
So my boyfriend has had a degu since December and it's never been afraid of me before. Well my boyfriend just moved to college and I've had his degu for a few days. I have a hamster so I'm fine taking care of small animals but this poor degu is freaking out. I'm used to him squeaking but he's like crying a lot and if I make any movements he screams and dives into the corner where I can't see him. He's always been really friendly. Is this normal behavior?
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Post by deguconvert on Aug 11, 2012 5:02:19 GMT
With you taking care of his degu, does that mean that he and his cage have been moved over to your place? I suspect that he is mourning the loss of his bff, your boyfriend. He will be feeling very lonely, especially since being a solitary degu, without the companionship of other degus, your boyfriend will have been his main source of companionship. I am assuming that he has a great bond with your boyfriend and that because of that, he will be feeling very lost and grieved, possibly even thinking that your boyfriend has come to a terrible end. He will be very sad. Add to that the new smells, sounds, lighting, everything about being in a new place (yours?) and he is likely very stressed on top of everything else. The poor little fella!! Perhaps you have heard before that degus are community/pack animals, like others such as wolves, meercats, horses, dogs, etc. This means that they do not do well as solitary individuals, and are most healthy and happy when in a group, or at the very least a pair. It is possible that he will feel better if he has another degu as a companion, but this has many aspects to consider, first and foremost being, what would your boyfriend want. If he wanted more than one degu, then after that would be are you prepared to make the introductions. In the meantime, I think you need to start building your own bond with the degu, one that is completely apart from what you had with him through your boyfriend. You may need to give him a couple more days just being left to himself, apart from filling his food and water. Then I think if you can sit a little ways from his cage and just talk very softly and gently to him for several minutes, a few times each day, that will help him to acclimate to your voice. Then if you know what kind of treats he likes ie. sunflower seeds (not seasoned or salted), pecan nut, peanut, oat flakes, etc., you should start offering these to him through the bars of the cage. As he starts to be interested in taking them from you, you could start opening the door and offering them through that, keeping your hand still so that he will come near, maybe even sit beside you. These are just some starting suggestions.  Don't push him too quickly, let him come to you on his terms, and things should move along well for you. Do let us know how you are doing? Welcome to the forum, Danifacetastic. I really hope that we can help you help the degu!! I'm so glad that you have posted your dilema here. |
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Post by moletteuk on Aug 11, 2012 9:26:24 GMT
An idea to help while he is feeling really scared is just to make sure he has plenty of boxes and cardboard, tissue paper, tubes, hidey places, and so on to make him feel safe. Degus are very intelligent and emotionally and socially intelligent, so his behaviour makes some sense when you look at at from his point of view that his best buddy has left him and he's in a strange place. He'll get over it though with a little patience |
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Post by danifacetastic on Aug 11, 2012 20:39:29 GMT
Yes, we moved his cage and everything to my house. I've got an exercise ball for him, bath powder and a bowl, timothy hay, bedding, and food. My boyfriend didn't really give him a lot of treats so I'd like to know what kind of treats I can give him because all the treats I have for my hamster either have fruit or protein (both of which my boyfriend said he shouldn't have). I told my boyfriend the other night about getting another degu and how it'd probably stop his from chewing on the plastic so much (we're in the process of getting a wooden base and shelves made but it may be while) if he had another degu to interact with but he said he's not sure if his cage is big enough. This is the cage he has www.amazon.com/Super-Pet-First-Exotics-Large/dp/B000TZ5BRI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344717367&sr=8-1&keywords=exotic+animal+cage The picture makes it look very small but it's actually quite large. The dimensions are 18X30X29 so I'm not sure if that'd be big enough to add another degu to the picture or not. If I were to get another one how would I introduce him? Any advice is greatly appriciated because I spoil my hamster and betta fish to death and would like to give this little guy the best life I can while I have him here with me. |
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Post by deguconvert on Aug 11, 2012 23:10:29 GMT
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Post by danifacetastic on Aug 12, 2012 15:22:29 GMT
Well I guess we'll stay with one degu then haha. He's seemed pretty happy in that cage though. Thanks for the link about treats!
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Post by moletteuk on Aug 12, 2012 17:07:39 GMT
I just thought I'd clarify the cage size information, we recommend an area equivalent to 2.5m by 0.5m for one or two degus, usually this is spread over 3 levels, so three levels or so of 1m by 0.5m. Even with one degu, unfortunately your cage is really small. We also really recommend degus should be kept in pairs or groups unless there are exceptional circumstances, like massive behavioural issues. I understand you are in at the deep end here, thinking that keeping a degu is similar to keeping a hamster and trying to help out your boyfriend, maybe you could give it all some thought and talk things over with your boyfriend Sorry if I'm coming across a bit serious. How is he settling in now? |
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Post by danifacetastic on Aug 12, 2012 20:32:26 GMT
He's getting a little better. The bottom of the cage is 18X 30 and its got 3 additional levels. Unfortunatly the decision to get another degu isn't up to me and with my boyfriend being at college 2.5 hours away he's not really in a position to come home and get another or buy a bigger cage. Also we don't know anyone that could make one either. What would you reccomend me doing?
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Post by moletteuk on Aug 12, 2012 22:20:30 GMT
Great to hear you are making some progress. Can you get near him to offer his favourite treats yet?
I've had another look at the cage link. I think you should be able to put a full area shelf in at the height of the second shelf, it will make more of the space you have. A piece of wood usually works best, but just have look and see what you can come up with, we are here to help with ideas, have a look in cage section or feel free to ask questions. Its also usually fairly straightforward to add another cage on, if that might be an option at some point.
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Post by danifacetastic on Aug 13, 2012 3:35:45 GMT
I haven't been able to buy him any treats yet.
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Post by danifacetastic on Aug 13, 2012 3:36:20 GMT
But I am tomorrow.
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Post by winic1 on Aug 13, 2012 16:06:19 GMT
do you have any plain oatmeal in the house? Not flavored or sugared, just plain old oatmeal. This is okay for them. At the start, we would use a tiny spoon and offer a little bit of oats through the cage wires. At first we had to sit there, quietly, holding that little spoon through the bars for what seemed the longest time until they would come up to eat the oats. Quickly they learned, though, and soon would be right there as soon as they heard the oat box being opened, before we even had it ready for them, and would grab on and hold the spoons, nearly pulling them from us. Oats are neither high sugar nor high protein, so you can be a bit more generous with them than you can with some other treats. And he is happy to get the spoon of oats, you can switch to offering them out of your hand. Since he will have to take multiple flakes from you, it keeps him there longer, not just a "grab & run" interaction.
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Post by winic1 on Aug 13, 2012 16:37:09 GMT
Are you at all good with tools and making things--just basic stuff like screws and washers and a little bit of sawing and such? I could tell you how to add another, bigger shelf to your existing cage pretty easily if you do.
But for two degus, you would need to go bigger. If you can't get a big cage (like the Critter Nation/Xtrail) then maybe join two cages together, add bigger shelves, give them more room to run, space to get away from each other when they feel like it. And twice the degus mean twice the pee and poo, so health issues become more significant when the cage space is too small. We recently upgraded from a too-small cage, which of course, we didn't know was too small when we got degus and cage, either. We were given the first degu, free "with tank and accessories" (local pet store had him up for adoption as a favor to whoever the former owner was). He was in an old, five gallon glass fishtank with a 7" wire bar wheel, drippy waterbottle, and food bowl. Unbelievable someone would do that to a living creature. Quickly got him the biggest cage we could locally buy, and a buddy. Seemed perfect, at the start. But then we learned they really needed even more than that. so we did the best we could with adding shelves and branches and huts and things to make it a better habitat until we could finally get the really big Critter Nation and do it up right. Cannot believe the difference in cleanliness, either, now that they have so much more floor space.
There is so much information on this site for you, for feeding, treats, types of branches and wood, (you can even just go pick little twigs for him to chew on instead of buying sticks, if you have the right trees around), natural, wild leaves and grasses he can eat, all kinds of stuff. Lots of good ideas, lots of fun ideas.
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Post by danifacetastic on Aug 13, 2012 18:29:17 GMT
My uncle is making me wooden shelves and a wooden base for the cage he's in now but he's busy at the moment so idk when he's getting around to it. And do you happen to have a link to these bigger cages? I've never seen one.
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Post by moletteuk on Aug 13, 2012 19:03:40 GMT
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Post by danifacetastic on Aug 14, 2012 0:49:18 GMT
Oh man, I really wish I had the money and resources to do something like that, even though I'll only have this little guy for a year.
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Post by deguconvert on Aug 14, 2012 4:02:34 GMT
Have you looked in the cages and housing board here? The "show us your cage" thread has hundreds of pictures in it, many are homemade cages, that might help you know if there is a direction you can take that you can handle financially, physically, or spacially.
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Post by winic1 on Aug 14, 2012 13:46:28 GMT
Sorry to keep harping on the idea, we are all really just trying to be helpful....
If your uncle is going to make a new cage bottom for you, here's another idea. It is what we were considering until we found the Critter Nation on sale at such a good price.
You could hook two of your current cages together, end to end, if you have a bottom made for this new size. If you look at how your current cage is assembled, it came flat, and the sides hinge down from the top then hook to each other, right? So you would unhook one end, just flip it back up so it is laying on top of the cage, and stick the two open ends of the two cages together. Use some decently strong wire to lace the two together, or get some clips that do the same thing. Instant BIG cage--it would now be 60" x 18". You just need to make sure you have a place that it will fit since it is now rather long.
60x18 equals 1080 square inches. Add a full size level halfway up, you are at 2160. Add even just one half level above or below, (or two quarter levels) and you are at 2700 square inches. Still room for a wheel or two, adding hammock or hanging basket, branches, tubes, whatever you have for them to enjoy. And this would be big enough to add a companion.
You could also probably make this work fitting the cages front to back, so that it came out 30"x36", but as the front and back of the cage don't hinge right at the top, it bends over and the joint is down an inch or two, it might be more difficult to get a tight fit together, although lots of wire lacing or clips could probably solve that. Seems like just bending in that overhang a little would fix the problem, but we have found that cage wire is a lot stronger than it would seem, so this could be very difficult/impossible. You would have to actually try it to see if this could be done.
Something to think about, when you are ready to get the new bottom built. We hadn't done this yet because we didn't have a good place to put a long cage, but I had worked it all out, was just held up by figuring out how to rearrange the house to fit it in. Then we saw the big C/N cage on sale for $245, and jumped on it. Still had to rearrange stuff, but not as much.
Can understand how it is difficult to make changes since he is not your goo, and your boyfriend is far away right now, but some ideas to think about. maybe when he comes home for the holidays.
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