newbie to degus

[animalmadchloe]

hey all, i recently purchased 4 male degu, my husbands choice i only wanted 2!! but cant complain their soo cute, does anyone have any helpful hints or tips for taming my little beasts as they are still quite shy!! also any tips on things to prevent them getting bored i have a few toys ropes etc but they seem more interested in chewing on the cage lol

many thanks

chloe

[Lrak]

Well firstly Welcome to the forum, you will find tons of info and advice on here.
For taming, i started by talking in a low calm voice anytime i went near them, spend some time everyday with the cage open and bribed them with treats (bits of food, sunflower seeds and what not) Let them smell you, nibble and climb on to your hands. Just let them work at there own pace and you should do fine.
They will chew the cage its what they enjoy doing ;D but as for toys and stuff there are lists on here of safe woods deguworld.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=food&action=display&thread=15616 mine love to chew and also you could try making your own rope toys and stuff deguworld.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=Cage&action=display&thread=16320
I'm sure others will give some great hints and tips as well

[ntg]

Welcome.to the forum and congrats on your four bundles of joy!

First stop I'd recommend is the Beginners Section of the forum, you'll find everyone very helpful and willing to answer any questions you might have! Here's the link to it:

deguworld.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=beginners

Also, for handling, check out this website, written by nightwishraven:

octodondegus.weebly.com/how-to-tame-degus.html

Out of curiosity, what sort of cage and toys have you got inside it? I only ask about the cage as they sometimes chew when the cage is too small and they want to be out to play! An exercise wheel at least 29cm in diameter is essential as they love to run!

[animalmadchloe]

They have a very very large chinchilla/ degu cage that the pet store recomended, it is aslo large enough for when they grow into adults too which is good :-) they have a selection of ropes hanging across the cage some tunnels to run through two wooden nesting boxes some gnawing blocks and a huge wheel that fits all 4 degu's in at once and the dust bath!!! am looking at invedting in a couple of the balls so they can run about the lounge in them, and when money is better were going to sort out a run in one half of the lounge ;-)

iv only had them a week and had to take a trip to the vets already as two of them have developed crusty looking lumps on their skin.
the vet thinks its a fungal infection, have no idea who they managed to pick this up, as i have no other pets at home.

i can only guess that one of the other degus in the pet shop had it
anyway im stilll waiting for the results from the vets to confirm its a fungus. it looks pretty grim ;-/ but they all seem very happy in them selves, although they never sleep in the next boxes always on the top? some days their really eager to jump out of the cage into your hand and other days they run and hide i guess it will just take time for them to gain more trust!!

one of them is slightly larger than the rest and seems to boss te others about a bit and seem so have a "slapping" fight wile on their hind legs is this anything to worry about..
and yes before you ask this is 20 questions lol

chloe ;-)

[animalmadchloe]

please excuse the spelling mistakes haha

[animalmadchloe]

my little fatties !! ;D

[animalmadchloe]

and again

[ntg]

Sorry I seem obsessed by this but is it the P@H Thickets cage?

They are little cuties

I wouldn't worry about any slapping or humping behaviour you see, it's just them sorting out where they stand in the hierarchy and play fighting

Also, some of them just seem to prefer not sleeping in the boxes, ours will sleep anyway, including the tiny perch we got for them so they could get at their hay rack on one side easier!

[moletteuk]

Welcome Chloe What cute little fluffsters!

Pet shops mis-sell cages for degus all the time so please do check out our size recommendations here deguworld.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=Cage&action=display&thread=9396 If it is the cage from Pets@ Home I'm afraid it's not going to be anywhere near big enough.

I'm really sorry to hear you are having health problems already. Once you get confirmation you should go back to the pet shop and try to make them pay for the treatment, you can threaten them with the council, trading standards and RSPCA if you are in UK. Do let us know how you get on with the treatment too. I wish them a speedy recovery.

Dominace and heirarchy are important parts of degu behaviour. The slapping is called boxing and is totally normal, it's just them working out who is boss, and squabbling over favourite things, just like children.

Taming is matter of patience and food and taking things at their pace, letting them come to you.

[Lrak]

See? i told you that you would get alot of good advice
Great pics they look so cute.

If it is the thickets cage you will find it is too small but you can always build your own house for them out of an old wardrobe or something, there are plenty of posts on here for you to get ideas from.

Dont worry about asking so many questions, its the only way to learn

[animalmadchloe]

yes it is a pets at home cage, and the little sod that sold it to me said it would be plenty big enough for them when their adults!!!!! f**k*r!!! well my husband wants to build a bigger one at some point anyway so ill make sure he gets onto that,

so how long untill this cage is not big enough anymore ?? we ended up paying a whole load of money fot it too :-( like loads!! their about 9 weeks old now i think well so the man at the shop said

i cant believe people tell you so many lies to get you to buy things.... we trusted he was being honest about the things he was selling us!! he even apparently went and asked his manager is we could have 4 in that cage as adults!!

i took them to the pets at home vets and they didnt charge me anything for seeing the degu's, i am yet to hear if ill be paying anything for the medications!!

im actually quite fuming about the cage now!!!

[moletteuk]

You could have a go at returning it if you wanted to, quote the RSPCA absolute minimum size for 2 of 100x60x60 cm (which is still waaay too small, especially for 4) to prove it is inappropriate and therefore mis-sold content.www.rspca.org.uk/cmsprd/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobnocache=false&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1232994695157&ssbinary=true To be honest I thought the RSPCA min was 100x100x 60cm, maybe the link I found was an old one.

You can also tell them to get stuffed for any medication costs. Have you seen that Pets@Home have been in trouble with Watchdog, so you should be in fairly strong position atm. There are links in our chat section.

Your boys still look pretty small, so you've got a few weeks to work out what you would like to do about their housing.

Also, if you get the opportunity, try and check that they have been sexed correctly and are all the same sex - you are looking for the gap between the two holes being the same for them all (wide gap for boys, narrower gap for girls).

I promise you will love them once you get everything sorted, they make great fun pets They will love having a playpen/ run, that's a great idea for them

[Lrak]

Yea they do that alot in there and TBH its too small already, I made the same mistake.
If you have some way of letting them out for a run everyday (pen or bathroom with all holes blocked up) then it would be better for them for sure, while you are sortin out a new house.
I'm acting like i know what i am talking about so i hope others will say i'm close to being right here ;D
The best bit is you can make the new house how you like it, and it will look a lot nicer then the thickets, which starts looking rough after a few weeks, or mine does anyways ;D

[ntg]

Sorry hun, you're better off knowing now when you might be able to get a refund for mis-sold property! Although still not ideal, cages world has the liberta explorer in for £160 which you can convert to have four full levels instead of two

www.cagesworld.co.uk/p/Liberta_Explorer_Rat%2C_Ferret_and_Chinchilla.htm

[Lrak]

Even just replacing the top ledge and making it wider would do for now, then you can go back to P@H and kick some butt ;D


In a non-violent way ofc Degu and Chinchilla world does not condone any form of animal cruelty of any kind, even to the pigs in P@H ;D

Please note that this is just my opinion, and is not held by Degu and Chinchilla world or its representatives in any way, partially or wholly ;D

[animalmadchloe]

they are still quite tiny atm, iv printed out that bit on the rspca thank you ill show my husband later, he said he will take it up with pets at home which is good as im rubbish with that sort of stuff!!! their his little babies so i know he will make things right for them :-)

at the moment i dont really have anywhere to let them out to run about my house is a really old building with lots of nooks and crannies.

no i didnt know pets at home had been in trouble with watch dog at all!!!!! really regretting spending my hard earned money with them now but as least we have got 4 of the degus away from them!!! they were in the same size cage at p@h but with 8 degus in it!!!

im pretty sure they are all the same sex they all have the wide gap!

so how do i go about making my own cage for them as i have no idea where to start or waht to use

im really hoping the vet gets back to me soon with a result as one of my poor boys has lost all the fur around one of his eyes now and its worrying me lots!!!!

p@h also supplies in the cage some dried corn on the cobb things are these actully any good for my degu? and how often can i replace ot once they have eaten it all

[animalmadchloe]

another question...
when i put my hand in the cage to let them sniff my hand they hold my fingers and really gently nibble me why is this?

[animalmadchloe]

Oct 5, 2012 14:58:48 GMT ntg said:

Sorry hun, you're better off knowing now when you might be able to get a refund for mis-sold property! Although still not ideal, cages world has the liberta explorer in for £160 which you can convert to have four full levels instead of two

www.cagesworld.co.uk/p/Liberta_Explorer_Rat%2C_Ferret_and_Chinchilla.htm

they charged my 130 for my bloody cage!!!

[saddlers]

You are being groomed

[Lrak]

but as least we have got 4 of the degus away from them!!!

I started thinking like that now i cant go in there with out wanting to save all the animals

A lot of people on start of with an old wardrobe of something and convert but you could always make your own using Ply/MDF you just need to make sure you cap the ends with kiln dried pine so the degus cant eat it. There are lots of ideas and hints in the housing section on here for you to look at for ideas.