have I rushed it?

[weaselprime]

Hi,

I am new to this forum but it has already proved valuable as a resource so thank you.

I bought two male Degus two days ago and have them in a large chinch cage (not a mesh floor), the guy in the pet shop says they are 12weeks old. After getting them home and arranging everything I let them settle to the smells in the room by dimming the lights and being silent, after a while I put my hand in and one (now called diego 'the brave') was quite keen to see me. On that first day I managed to get him on to my hand with no treats and he has be given free roam which he seemed to enjoy. The other (nando 'the not so brave') took a little longer to come out but now whenever I open the door to the cage diego bolts out but nando waits for me to put my hand out. I am beggining to wonder if I have rushed this and would like some tips on how to get them back in the cage without having to corner them and pick them up.

thanks in advance WP

[weaselprime]

Also I have nest box for them but they don't seem to use it much, prefering instead to sit on a ledge and sleep. Is there something specific I should put in there to encourage them to use it?

[weaselprime]

OMG I just thought of something else. Is it best to train them to voice/visual cues? I considered using a small bell (from a cat collar). Is it best to leave the food bowl in all day and train them with treat rewards or feed them twice a day (using association of bell noise means food is coming)?

[amie]

No! You haven't rushed it! Everything sounds normal. No need to be delicate around them. They get used to you and the general noises in the house soon enough. The more you expose them to (TV, loud music, etc) the more accepting they will be of these thing when they're older

Haha! In regards to training them. When you're going to give them a treat (or feed them) just shake the tub that the food is in. They soon learn to recognise the sound of that treat tub shaking and come running for their food much like a cat or dog would when they hear the tin opening! All of mine go crazy when they hear me pouring food out for the cats though now because it sounds like their treat tub! lol.

Bedding: ALL of my degus refuse to sleep in their nests. Two of them don't even understand the concept of nesting and just pee all over the tissue when it's put in their cage and then leave it to rot. LOL. They much prefer their soft tunnels and hammocks to sleep in. You can also buy a snuggle safe heat pad that will keep them warm.

Degus take a long time to warm to you, it's just a case of persistance and letting them take things at their pace

[weaselprime]

Thank you for the reassurance guys. I read conflicting reports on the level of their intelligence but know that any social animal that fosters large communities must be reasonably intelligent.

@smex I had no aspirations to pavlovian status. It was always my understanding that pavlov's research was aimed at inducing involuntary behaviours via abnormal stimuli (eg the oft quoted canine salivation experiments). I considered using a bell as it has been well understood for centuries that pure auditory stimulus (ie whistling) is more effective and more easily understood than linguistic commands.
There is no reason they have to sleep in the nest box, I just wanted to be sure that there wasn't a rookie mistake I had made that had discouraged them from using it.
Today I introduced a hammock and they appear very happy with it. I used to keep rats and they were very easy to train and imprinted on me very quickly, I have no expectation that these guys will be the same but I'm looking forward to building a good relationship with them.

@aimie, I used to have dogs that learned very quickly the sound of the electric tin opener meant food, and had to bin it because opening anything with it drove them barmy so I will definitly start shaking the treat tub, I was reluctant to do it as I thought it may freak them out and I'm very conscious of avoiding negative associations with anything other than chewing power cables.

Thanks again guys these little guys are ace and I'm already keen to get more

[weaselprime]

Agreed, there does seem to be an attitude of 'my animals are bigger and therefore cleverer-erer. I always worry that my voice isn't appreciated because it is very deep. If I don't raise the tone my mum's Jack Russel goes potty. I think patience is the key I have to stop worrying that everything I do could stunt their development (reason 648 why I should't have children )

[amie]

"(reason 648 why I should't have children )" LOL!

Don't worry at all about making loud noises. They get used to it

[Frivalicious]

Hello!
Just a little note on the nestbox and bedding. I've noticed that our 4 girls only like to use it at night. The rest of the day they cuddle up on eachother on the woodbits in the cage. Also, ours didnt like the nestbox when I filled it for them. It was only when i started spreading the bedding around the cage, then suddenly it became real popular to gather it together and make a nest of it in the box. They also sometimes pees on it, so everytime i clean the cage out i rip the top layer (which is usually half of whats in the box) and scatter more bedding around the cage. They have a field day when i totally empty it lol, it becomes almost like a game to fill it back up again. They even try to bring the toilet rolls in there. Very amusing to sit and watch

[malteser60]

My degus seem to ignore all noise we make. My boyfriend and I listen to heavy metal at home, for example, and the degus just ignore it. Well, actually the only times they react is if it's a particularly bad band lol. Always makes me laugh as my boyfriend reviews albums for the Metal Observer so he gets sent lots of different albums. As soon as a particularly bad album is played we just look at each other with a 'not another one' look and the degus squeek their protest to it! Always makes us laugh

The other thing I noticed is they don't really care if they're cage is being moved, or anything like that. I remember I had to take my goos to a work collegues house so she could look after them whilst I was away - took them in a thickets cage. Anyhow, not only did they not care that they were being moved, but they also tried running in their wheel for the whole car journey there and back.

As for being intelligent, I think they've got the smarts, and so do behavioural scientists as they've shown to be right problem solvers.

Also, with patience and persistence, they will definitley imprint on you, same as the rats. Probably not as fast as the rats though.

[weaselprime]

well its been almost a mmonth so I thought I would update.
They are ace
They have pretty much learnt their names and will (more often than not) come when called.
They have embraced the feeding bell so no more problems getting them back in the cage. They have started using the nestbox now that we let them fill it themselves.
Diego has proved to be the cleverer/more inquisitve of the two and came up with a genius solution to rip a paper bag int pieces to use as bedding, just keep running past the corner of the nest box catching the bag on it and thus ripping it! They have also taken to grooming my ears quite a lot and trimming my fingernail (badly). They can still be quite rough when nibbling fingers but no blood drawn for a while now!
tl;dr my Degus are ace

[malteser60]

Yup, degus are definitely ace! ;D

Sometimes i give my degus cheap toilet paper as bedding. They have a clever system whereby I hold it in my hand (mimicking a toilet paper holder), one degu just sits on the ledge and and pulls the paper really fast, occasionally shoving it behind her. The other degu picks up the now loose paper and runs off into the next with it. They have a proper system going.