Bar spacing & cage size

[sueg]

Hi everyone ;D

I have a large multi level super pet cage which currently houses my three chinchillas. I've been thinking about getting them some degu friends as there is plenty of spare space in there but one of them doesn't like other chins much. But the bars are quite wide spaced and I wonder if degus would be able to squeeze through? The bars are about 2.5 cm apart.

Also the cage is 32" wide x 20" deep x 57" high. Assuming the bar spacing is ok how many degus do you think could live comfortably in there with three chins?

Thanks

[ra]

The bars are too far apart for Degus. I believe bars spaced 3/4 to 1" is max for Degu cages. Even that is wide if you have babies. I had to wrap my entire cage set up with hardware cloth (like window screen but heavier mesh with wider holes) to keep the babies in when they were born. That would be an alternative for your cage rather than buying another.

I don't think housing Degus and Chinchillas together in the same cage is recommended. It might work if you partitioned off part of the cage so they couldn't reach and hurt one another.

[roz]

Hmmm...not sure whether to join this thread or not...

Do you both realise that 2.5cm and 3/4 to 1inch are the same measurement?

As for putting them in together, I agree with ra - it might not work. On the other hand, with birds we have found that we've been able to successfully mix species that are normally not recommended as housemates, so a bit of (careful) trial and error could be the way to go.

Keep us posted if you do it and it does/doesn't work, as I'm sure other people have had the same thoughts as you.

[ra]

Boy do I feel stupid!! I don't know why I didn't see that. Whack myself along side my head! I was thinking 2.5 inches not 2.5cm. Truly, thanks so much roz - glad you let me (us) know.

[sueg]

Hi everyone, thanks for your replies.

Just to let you know I have added some degus and all seems to be going well. The bar spacing looks fine and they've made no attempt to squeeze through.

I've kept degus and chins together before very successfully so I wasn't worried about that side of things. At the moment the degus are still swearing at the chins a bit but no fighting. For the most part they are just staying out of each others way. From experience though in time they'll be snuggled up together

[ra]

Thank you. It's good to know you have kept Degus and Chinchillas together before and they got along fine. I could only go on what I'd read.

That's why I value this forum - first hand information from people who have experienced what they are writing about is so important.