Pulla's taking it easy

[teemu]

Hey, I'm not too worried about it, but I've noticed some changes in Pulla's behavior that I think might be related to his age, so I figured I might as well check whether this matches others' experiences.

I've noticed that over this past year, certainly over the summer, that Pulla's not as active as before. He likes to lounge around a lot more and he sleeps more as well. Used to be in the past that as soon as people woke, he'd run up to see what was going on. Now he takes things a lot easier and usually doesn't crawl out of the nest until a few hours have passed. It doesn't look like he's having any issues, he eats as much as before and has energy when he's up, he just doesn't really seem to feel the need to rush around like the younger ones.

The other thing that I've noticed is that he's a lot friendlier with humans again. After I put him together with Posso, he's been very cool on human interaction all year, like he'd figured that he doesn't need any crummy people any more now that he's married. Used to be very touchy about personal space, and pushed hands away and nipped them (not hard) if someone tried to scratch him. Now he's started to warm up to handling again, and I can't really say why. He offers his chest to be scratched and often comes to be lifted up. He likes sitting on my shoulder again, which is nice.

Does this sound normal? He's around 4 years old now, so he's no longer exactly young. When he's awake and bothers, there's no issues of any kind, and nothing in his behavior is making me think that he's ill or in pain. He's just loafing around much more than, say, a year ago.

(It might also have something to do with the summer heat. The air conditioning helps, but it's certainly not cold in here.)

[moletteuk]

In terms of the slowing down somewhat, I think that sounds fairly normal for a four year old, mine had certainly lost their youthful levels of activity by then.

I can't really speak to the change in attitude to you, mine treated me basically with disdain their whole lives! Maybe Pulla and Posso are over their honeymoon period and he's ready to spend time with his other friends (you) again?

[deguconvert]

I think maybe he has figured out that he can enjoy both of his favorite things . . . the humans he loves, and the degu he loves. I'm very happy for you!!

[teemu]

I'm fairly certain that he's spying on me somehow. Today he's been all hyper and really grumpy again. He probably read my post and thought that he needs to step things up again

No idea what's causing it, I guess he just had a more energetic day today.

[deguconvert]

ROFL!! How many times have we talked about degus being contrary for the sake of being contrary?

[teemu]

Must have been the weather that's doing a big part of it. Now that it's a bit cooler again, both Pulla and Posso are moving around more. I even saw someone running in the wheel, which they totally stopped doing during the hotter parts of the summer.

For whatever reason, Pulla's started making nests all over the cage. For a long time, they had one nest they liked to be in, but now it looks like they're unhappy with all the spots in the cage, or at least something's making them change spots almost nightly. Pulla seems to have awakened some sort of a nesting instinct, since he's spending a lot of time cleaning up individual straws from the hay and hauling those around the cage to make nests.

(Intresting sidenote: all our degus seem to have different techniques for making nests. Pipari makes these amazing, roofed nests in hay piles that are lined with toilet paper and have material for blocking the entrance. Pulla and Posso just make big piles to cover themselves in. And Suti and Limppu just drag all the soft stuff to the highest level and plop down on top of it. It's almost like a gradation of nest quality between them...)

[deguconvert]

That's AWESOME! You'll have to take some photos so we can see these nests . . . they sound marvelous!!

I'm glad Pulla is more himself again . . . well . . . more active . . . but hopefully with a less grumpy attitude LOL!