My degu’s are acting strange.

[3warner]

Hi, I’ve had my two female degu’s nearly two years now. I made a post on here around four or so months after I got them. Ever since I’ve had them my degu’s have been very stand offish. They will always give off a continuous warning squeak and run away when I open the cage or enter the room, in short they are very untrusting and nervous around me. I have sat with them for hours upon hours during the week, and they aren’t willing come over to me unless they have some sort of incentive, such as oats. It’s almost as if I made progress with them when they were young and they never progressed beyond simple hand feeding. I’ve tried everything over the last two years and I’m at a loss. I’m currently building a new cage for them as somebody advised that maybe their cage is too small, but does anybody have any advice?

[deguconvert]

Not right now . . . but I would recommend trying again once you have them in the new, bigger cage. Mainly because moving them over to the new cage will change they way they interact with you anyway, so even if you did make massive strides all of a sudden, putting them into the new cage could completely change it all over again.

Also, degus are seldom cuddly. There are those that are . . . but I would say that's like less than 33% of the whole population. Even WAY less than that. The rest are quite typically standoffish, except to greedily take all offered treats.

[moletteuk]

Get a range of healthy treats like flowers, dandelion roots, small seeds like sesame that they can't eat quickly, dried veg, whatever they like, just don't give them too much of any one thing, and go ahead and bribe them to come to you.

I think a degu safe playpen is the best thing for taming, get yourself comfy sitting in there with them, put fun things to lay with in the pen, sticks to chew and collect, paper for nesting, maybe a saucer wheel, forage tray, or sand bath treat tray, let them do their thing near you without trying to particularly interact with them apart from treats when they come to you.

Some degus can be quite skittish and not that interested in their human but if you can figure out what things they love then you can find their weakness!

[bouncy]

Ditto the others. Degus definitely not cuddly, and any interaction is on their terms. The play pen suggestion is great. If you sit on the floor with them, you can offer treats, and they will often use you as a climbing frame when they become more comfortable. To expand on DC, only one on my seven allows me to pick him up, but it's always when he permits it.