Spraying Urine

[dimples]

Hi,

I have had 3 female degus for around 3 years now and i am at my wits end. When they urinate they very often direct it to spray outside of the cage. Not sure if it’s accidental or on purpose but i am tired of having this problem.

I don’t have a large house so there is nowhere for the degus to go, other than my kitchen. I place a blanket around the cage to catch the pee and wash this often but it’s still not ideal to have a pee covered blanket on the floor especially with kids in the house.

One drastic idea is to move them to my father in law’s garage with an infrared heater for the winter, but i am aware that they like company.

Has anyone else had this problem or have any advice please?

[moletteuk]

Hi Dimples, welcome to the forum

What kind of cage do you have and what size?

Depending on your setup, you could box in the cage on the back and sides and/or fit upright trims around the perimeter of each shelf.

How often are you cleaning out the cage? This could be a factor in the spraying behaviour.

[deguconvert]

Hi dimples!

I'm sorry about the frustration, and I am familiar with the behavior. I, too, am interested to know about your cage. Is it an all metal cage? What kind is it? What are the dimensions, and how many complete levels do you have in it?

As well . . . what country do you live in? I ask because an infrared heater in a garage in Canada through the winter will mean a very different thing to the same conditions in England. Part of the consideration is also the use of the garage. Does it store vehicles that are frequently used, coming in and out, so the large door for accommodating the entrance and exit of said vehicle will be open and permitting weather to enter for several minutes at a time? Are there ever motors that produce exhaust running in there? Is the garage insulated? Infrared heat is also different to radiant heat, and may not be sufficient.

Sorry if I am running on here, I'm thinking about this as I'm typing.

[winic1]

I used hard, clear plastic and covered the areas, right on the cage, where the pee seemed most common, like where it would spray up the wall from the wheel as they ran and the wheel spun it out.  You can attach smaller pieces like that using twist ties or nylon zip ties, right to the bars of the cage.

We also just hung a clear plastic shower curtain liner on the wall, on Command Hooks (the ones that stick on with their special tape tabs, and you can remove them cleanly), to protect it. Since the shower curtain liner has the holes in the top edge (for the hooks over a rod if you were using it in the tub) they fit over the little hooks and you can take it down and put it back up easily, for wiping it down, hosing it down, whichever cleaning method you prefer.

You could also hang it on the cage instead of the wall behind the cage, we just wanted to make sure there was the best air flow through the cage, and as ours was in a corner, we didn't want to block two sides of it that closely, so we put the curtain on the wall.