Changing your degus diet

[savvy]

We all change and tweak our degus diet over the years and there are now more and more available choices.

With this in mind, have you changed your degus diet and, if so, what changes did you make and did it make any difference to your degus.

In the last 12 months I've added Hansemanns SAB  to their usual forage selection and noticed the following ;

Energy levels.  These remained roughly the same.
Weight.  Reggie filled out a little, but that could be due to her age.  Dixie on the other hand, lost a little flab and toned up a bit more.  His weight remained stable.
Fur and eyes. These seemed to get a little shinier and brighter, not that they weren't before.
Pee and poops.  This ws the biggest thing I noticed.  Peeing remained as before,  but they are pooing a lot more!  Still nice healthy poos, just a lot more of them.

With all this in mine, I did start to wonder if anyone had noticed significant changes in their degus following a change in diet.

[goolover]

Glad energy levels remained the same, couldn't cope with my lot having more energy, they already act like they have ADHD! Have never brought any SAB, we just get them the good choice of forage from Zooplus and they love it. They actually fight each other for it. I will put down a ton of it, they all rush to the pile and squabble even though there is enough for everyone. Its like any excuse to have a squabble they will use it!

I will say that after introducing a good variety of forage we have never had sticky wet poops since but before all of the forage we did occasionally have to deal with them getting upset bellies.

[savvy]

This is what I'm wondering, if variety is the key.

Mine also get a self mix from Ratrations and another mix from hansemanns, all in all probably 30-40 different plants, plus hay.

They both dive in at feeding time so they aren't complaining, lol.

[goolover]

I agree that variety is a must and ensures good gut balance too. I have never liked the idea of treats, perhaps the odd Nut and porridge oats here and there but it feels like they are being treated with such a broad range of forage. I will maybe order something like Crocs if I have a poorly goo and they really need tempting. Lula was a big fan of those. The only thing my lot didn't touch was the Milk Thistle, very spikey, I got 2 bags from zooplus and after a couple of attempts I didn't order anymore.

Yes we laugh at feeding time, they all get called and they listen to the bags then its all goo's diving in lol.

[moletteuk]

I really believe that fresh forage is what kept Flossie and Alice in particular alive for so long after they both had extended illnesses. They would barely touch it when they were in their prime much preferring dried forage. When they got sick their appetites reduced so much I was offering everything and anything and they really only wanted high calorie rubbish BUT they would eat fresh grass, dandelions, cow parsley, sow thistle, blackberry leaves, sorrel etc and their poos went from shriveled up small things to nice and plump and healthy looking again.