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Post by deguqueen on Sept 10, 2005 0:33:18 GMT
I'm so sick of seeing everybodys opinions contradict one anothers on what is the best food to feed Degus. I go online and search and every different site I go to I get different opinions about what to feed them and what not to feed them. Its frustrating because my Degus are very picky and at first I was trying to feed them a mix of guinea pig & rabbit pellats but then heard that both are bad for them because they contain "cane molasses" whatever that is...  Then I was feeding them raisins and corn for awhile which they loved until I read to NEVER give them either. Anyways now I feed them lots of timothy hay, some rodent "donuts" which seem ok enough to give them, shredded wheat, unsalted crackers and the odd sunflower seeds and shelled peanuts. Anyways its frustrating to try and find food that is healthy for them that they will actually enjoy. They hate fresh food like carrots or celery or lettuce. If anybody has any tips or suggestions I would love to hear them. |
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northernstar40
Foraging Degu
May you always have an angel by your side
Posts: 102
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Post by northernstar40 on Sept 10, 2005 2:20:16 GMT
Hello Degugueen and welcome to the group. It IS very fustrating when everyone contradicts others. I have been feeding only guinnea pig pellets. Iknow must give a mix of chinchilla and guinnea pig. But yes lots of timothy hay and also I give alpha. I only give chex ceral as treats and only a few. As you have probally read NEVER never never give sweets of any kind. I hear that sweet potatoe is ok but I tend to stay away from any thing thats is sweet to me . better safe I guess than sorry. Cane Molassas is a type of sugar. try to avoid it. I know the guinnea pig food that i use has it listed as an ingredent. but then it is like number nine. the further down the list of ingredents the less it has in it. If cane molasses is in the top 4 you may want to stay away. I hear that to many starches(breads, crackers ect.) are also not good. poor things have no good stuff in there diets. Mine love any of the green veggies like beans aspargas. i buy fresh but only a small bit to start. Dont want to waiste to much money trying to figure out what the like and dis like need to save it for the gas prices here in the US. if you go to the home page you will find lots of good info on feeding and such. www.myhomezone.co.uk/degus/ Hope this all helps. best of luck to ya! Peg |
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Post by themoosevodka on Sept 10, 2005 21:38:27 GMT
i had this problem when i got moose, i have heard that guinea pig pellets are your best bet and they can't have sweets because they're diabetic...isn't that wierd? the entire species is diabetic! but yea, my poor baby can't have any cool treats other than small chunks of celery...i might try giving him a dog food kibble one day.....but after i figure out what's in them......
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Post by diet otaku on Sept 13, 2005 12:02:58 GMT
to be honest, i feed them pellets with cane molasses, simply because i cannot find pellets without it unless i pay $$$$$$$$ and have it shipped from overseas and stuff. no thank you! the molasses is not one of the main ingredients, and the degus don't eat a lot of pellets anyway. they stick mostly to the hay and vitamin crunchers, so i don't feel the presence of molasses is a serious issue. sometimes you just have to go with your gut... my degus are doing fine, so i see no reason to break my back trying to find food that EVERYONE agrees on. with a pet as new to the market as degus, there's not going to be a lot of consensus on the animal's needs just yet.
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Post by deguqueen on Sept 13, 2005 23:09:35 GMT
my problem is that my sweetys won't even eat any type of pellats i give them except for hamster pellats.
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Post by racingdegu on Sept 19, 2005 12:21:09 GMT
Hi. I know that sugar cane molasses can be found in numerous `mixes` and I found this out only last week when I purchesed a bag of Burgess Supa Guinea food, only to find it had sugar cane molasses listed in the ingredients. I donated the whole bag to a local animal shelter because after contacting the feed manufacturer to ask them which `bits` of the mix contained the molasses, they replied by saying that the whole bag contents were sprayed with molasses! So I could`nt pick bits out because the whole feed had been sprayed with molasses. I now feed the Burgess Supa Guinea Excel feed, which is`nt a `mix` of food, but a pellet/biscuit. These biscuits include all the ingredients you would normally find in a `mix` and have the added vitamin C included, but does`nt contain molasses. I realise this would be an expensive option for anyone overseas, but it may be worth asking the manufacturers of the food you use how they add the molasses to their product, because you may find the whole bag is containing molasses, as apposed to just a few bits and pieces of the food itself. Hope this helps! I`m new on the forum by the way and have two rehomed degus called Cheech & Prinny. So hello to you all!  |
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Post by shigatsu on Sept 24, 2005 5:08:20 GMT
Yes, I totally agree that the contradicting information out there is very frustrating! I sometimes feel that degus we/are not ready for the pet world, since it seems like in the end there just isn't enough info out there to raise them properly and healthily as it all contradicts, and it seems like no one really knows for sure except that they can't have sugar... I've decided to stick to regular Timothy hay and with other food, avoid sugars as much as I possibly can (which I think we're being about 99.9% successful, hopefully no hidden stuff in anything we've given them), give the odd piece of romaine lettuce and carrot, and the odd shredded wheat, and the very very special rare treat, Que Pasa Organic Tortilla chips (these are great if they need to be examined, I bet I could flip them upside down as I examine them and they wouldn't care so long as they still have their piece of chip!), they also get mineral stones, and chew blocks (sometimes they have "flavour" - of which I'm hoping is safe, I was told it was, as the sugars are removed from the "flavour", but not sure to believe 100%)... Anyhow, I'm really dragging on... I was just going to explain my recent situation Lee and I encountered in buying our last bag of food.... so, going on We usually buy our guys the Living World Chinchilla mix and pick out all the sweets... We've looked at every bag available to us of chinchilla food and found it to be the best one.. everyone had molasses though unfortunately... I've often heard to mix Cavy (Guinea Pig) pellets with Chinchilla food, but with the mix we bought I thought it a little bit pointless, as the mix is mostly pellets, and the pellets in both are generally made up of the same stuff..... Anyhow... We went to get their food, and the store we usually go to didn't have any of the chinchilla food in as they were rearranging the place (there was a lot of stuff missing, and it was like this for about a month or two! I wondered what do the people that have Chinchilla's and what not supposed to do?? There are other pet stores, but most are just cat and dog, and then most of the ones that do cater to the exotics and pocket pets, are a long drive or bus ride away on the other end of the city.. anyhow....) So we looked at the Cavy pellets and started comparing them all. They ALL had the mollasses.... We bought the most expensive one as we liked that it was made primarily with Timothy hay as opposed to the alfafa hay as I've heard much conflicting information with alfafa so have decided that it best in minimal amount (it does have alfafa, but a little further down the list) .... I don't know if there's a point to my story.... oh yeah, the fact that there seems to be NO pellets available without mollasses where Lee and I live  ;_; .... They don't like pellets much though, I know with their other mix, it was always eaten last, and with this one, they barely dent their bowls... We have these tiny dried carrot bits we'll throw in with the pellets for a bit of variety, and sometimes a small piece of romaine. If their bowl's not nearly empty next feeding time, they have to live with what they have (except for treats given the odd time here and there in the day)... They eat it. I'm sorry if my talk turned into babble   ^_^ |
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Post by deguqueen on Sept 24, 2005 7:01:51 GMT
good to hear everybodys EXPERIENCED opinions. I feed my degus a lot of donut treats that are meant for hamsters. i cant find anything in it that would be bad for them and they LOVEEEE them. I also feed them shreddies a lot. Dunno if thats bad but they love them too. Just recently they started snacking on their pellets and the odd carrot that i give them which is a complete breakthrough!
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;_; .... They don't like pellets much though, I know with their other mix, it was always eaten last, and with this one, they barely dent their bowls... We have these tiny dried carrot bits we'll throw in with the pellets for a bit of variety, and sometimes a small piece of romaine. If their bowl's not nearly empty next feeding time, they have to live with what they have (except for treats given the odd time here and there in the day)... They eat it.
