Rescue Degu named Chili

[shigatsu]

From day one Taisuke and Mario have had to mark everything we gave them. If they didn't, they wouldn't touch it. With every new tube or toy, not until it had been dragged on by urine would they touch it. As I watched them, I never become that concerned about it because it looked like they were marking there stuff like a dog marking it's territory. They sure do it a lot! Lately though, what's been a little annoying is when I stick my hand in, they've started to try to "mark" me! Most of the time I can tell they're coming to do it, because they have a way of walking over my hand, so I manage to miss getting hit, but sometimes they're successful. () Lee (my bf) has told me that they don't do that to him. Luckily though, they only do this when my hand is inside the cage or just at the entrance, but if I have them out to play with them they don't do it (phew).

In humans, urine is the most clean and safe excrement, so I'm thinking it is probably the same in many animals as well. They eat their poo sometimes for the missing vitamin (I can't remember which) that they need, so they're poo can't be too bad for them... (yuck).... I watched Taisuke eat a poo the other day, I can't help but feel that he thought it was yucky as well, he was so cautious about it and kept dropping it and would only take the tiniest nibbles from it.

[diet otaku]

i've noticed that also... the degus are much... calmer about eating poo than other favorite treats. i think i read that rabbits (related to degus) actually excrete 2 kinds of poo, 1 with the vitamin and 1 without. which makes sense, because i notice the degus sniff over several pieces of poo before selecting one to eat.

[erika]

Very interesting. Tonight I cleaned out their cages and put them together in one cage for the first time since I brought Chili home. I'll post in another area about that whole thing cause I have more questions yet again. But, after I separated them, Dali was eating Chili's poo...and I think he went after his urine too but I can't be sure. He got his butt kicked and then went to eat his(the bully's) poo? Very strange to me...
But the whole marking business makes sense. And I sure hope you are right about how clean the urine is. I was concerned about mouth infections or something.

Thank you for all your advice.

[Sunshinemeg]

Ha, I never thought about scent marking, and I have two sheets of clear plastic against the adjacent walls the cage is by, just cause they pee out the sides.

Why didnt I think of that!!

meg ;D