ava
Burrowing Degu
Posts: 215
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Post by ava on Sept 3, 2011 21:25:16 GMT
I'm wondering how long a 1kg bag of food will last two degus? I've been looking at this: www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/small_pets/food/degu/191684#moreThe Pets At Home nuggets are cheaper, and I need to keep costs down, but if this isn't going to cost too much then I would prefer to get it as it looks more natural and...just generally nicer. Thanks for any help
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Post by fred on Sept 3, 2011 21:39:04 GMT
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ava
Burrowing Degu
Posts: 215
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Post by ava on Sept 3, 2011 21:49:10 GMT
I looked at the Premium one and it seemed good, although I thought Degus couldn't eat Alfalfa? Maybe I just misread something though. I might get that instead. As I don't have any Degus yet I don't really know how much hay I would be putting in the cage and how much they'd eat :/ I did find this hay though: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/9kg-Rabbit-and-Small-Animal-Timothy-Hay-9-X-1kg-/400199336447?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Small_Animals&hash=item5d2dbd41ffBut come to think of it I'm not sure how large the bag is going to be and whether I can store it... Could you give a rough idea at all? I mean would 1 kg be likely to last a few days, a week or two, or a month +? With some hay each day?
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Post by fred on Sept 3, 2011 21:55:32 GMT
Very roughly, if they get other stuff as well, the 1kg bag will last a months for two adult degus.
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ava
Burrowing Degu
Posts: 215
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Post by ava on Sept 3, 2011 22:46:35 GMT
Ok, thanks!
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Post by Maravilla on Sept 4, 2011 7:53:36 GMT
Food costs are not the only costs in degu keeping. Monthly or regular costs are as well the costs for sand, bedding and hay... and probably also for changes in the cage, new interior etc. The advantage with food costs is that you can save some by collecting food on your own and dry it for winter time. I know it is not always possible but it is an option one should consider and think about.
Prices in the UK are different to prices here in Germany, so my estimates are only rough ones. I never checked these, but I think that I pay for my 8 small chewing monsters about 10-15 euros per month for food (natural nutrition), sand (DIY market, quartz sand with 0.1-0.4 mm grain size), hay and bedding.
Costs for the vet are more serious to think about.
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ava
Burrowing Degu
Posts: 215
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Post by ava on Sept 4, 2011 11:17:08 GMT
Oh yes, I know there are other costs, I've been looking into them too. I think I know what bedding I'm getting and I found a large bag of sand which I think would last quite a while - www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Chinchilla-Sand-Bath-Dust-20kg-Sepolita-Best-Quality-/130539932135?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Small_Animals&hash=item1e64c949e7Though I might try looking for non-specific sand of the grain size you stated. The hay would be like the link I posted earlier. (Please tell me if you see any problems with these items by the way - I'm terrified of getting something that'll hurt the degus) I would love to collect my own food, but unfortunately the place I live isn't really very nice and it's a town, so what things I could find (dandelions, maybe) have probably had all manner of chemicals on them. If the degus needed a vet, we could afford it. It's more not being able to pay a huge amount per month. I would worry about actually finding a good vet for them around here though...
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Post by fred on Sept 4, 2011 11:32:14 GMT
Do you have a Pets at Home store near you. I would go for their sand www.petsathome.com/shop/bathing-dust-for-chinchillas-3kg-by-b-and-d-15778 I run it through a sieve daily and top up occasionally, so it lasts for ages. They also have several hay products in the £4 range. I would go for the smaller packs so that you can try different ones over time. They also last quite a bit. You are doing a great job with your preparations!!
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Post by fred on Sept 4, 2011 11:45:21 GMT
As far as collecting is concerned, you can get a lot if you drive out of town a few times each year. You can also get stuff at very low prices from your supermarkets. For example, I got a large bunch of carrots from LIDL yesterday for £1 which came with the carrot tops. I just weighed them and it was almost 100g of fresh greens (which can also be dried for winter), and I still have the carrots to cook for myself. If you keep an open eye when you go shopping, you can lower the costs AND offering your degus to come some great variety.
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ava
Burrowing Degu
Posts: 215
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Post by ava on Sept 4, 2011 12:28:12 GMT
Do you have a Pets at Home store near you. I would go for their sand www.petsathome.com/shop/bathing-dust-for-chinchillas-3kg-by-b-and-d-15778 I run it through a sieve daily and top up occasionally, so it lasts for ages. They also have several hay products in the £4 range. I would go for the smaller packs so that you can try different ones over time. They also last quite a bit. You are doing a great job with your preparations!! I can get to a Pets at Home store - that sand looks like good value, and much better than lugging around a 90kg bag... I'll have a look at the hay. You raise a good point about being able to try different types. I live near Morrissons so I think I'll try getting fresh vegetables and such from there and drying it out - I didn't even consider that! lol
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Post by apology72 on Sept 4, 2011 12:46:32 GMT
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Post by grumpy89 on Sept 10, 2011 22:30:09 GMT
I got a bag of sand similar to the one you posted a link to on Ebay - we've had it for over 6 months (at least) and its not even halfway down yet because there's just so much sand in there!! We change it everytime we clean the cage out and it looks like its gonna last a while yet! we keep the big bag in the garage and have a small rubble bag of it with the supplies in the house - because the bag is just so heavy! lol
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ava
Burrowing Degu
Posts: 215
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Post by ava on Sept 11, 2011 14:00:08 GMT
Ah ok, sounds brilliant. I'm still not sure where I'm getting the sand from, depends if we have room for it in the same room as the Degus.
I have another question. I'm a little confused about hay. I originally thought it was meant as a bedding but then realised Degus eat it too. Now I don't know whether it's ONLY meant as a food? I will be getting bedding to line the whole cage with as well - wood shavings - but I thought the hay would be used as bedding for them to sleep on at night.
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Post by Kins on Sept 11, 2011 14:05:22 GMT
Hay can be used as bedding and food. I tend to feed my goos Timothy Hay and get 'bog standard' hay for their bedding, which they eat as well.
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Post by Maravilla on Sept 11, 2011 14:07:23 GMT
Consider hay as both, food and bedding. I think it depends on the general nutrition if they will eat big quantities of it or not. My degus don't eat much hay but have about 2kg of it in their cages to sleep and burrow in it.
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Post by davx on Sept 11, 2011 15:03:45 GMT
It depends on the quality... good hay used as food mainly often is costly. Thus many degu owners offer their degus cheap hay as bedding in large quantities and high quality hay in small quanities to enrich their diet.
Farmers sometimes sell cheap hay in good quality... that might be a good choice, if it is needed in big quantities or you can make a compromise between cheap, poor hay and good, costly hay and use it as food and as bedding as well.
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ava
Burrowing Degu
Posts: 215
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Post by ava on Sept 11, 2011 22:10:59 GMT
Ok, thanks everyone
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ava
Burrowing Degu
Posts: 215
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Post by ava on Nov 8, 2011 14:10:37 GMT
Sorry to revive my old thread, hope that's ok here (I know on some forums it's frowned upon). Fred, I remembered you'd said this as I'm getting to the end of my bag which has only lasted a month. I have now bought a sieve but was wondering, should I be topping it up once a week, or more/less?
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Post by nuttz on Nov 8, 2011 15:02:37 GMT
i also sieve my sand and ive only brought three tubs of sand (a tub costs me 6 euros) since owning my goos back last october... (hmm, does that sound minging...lol) i sieve the sand into a bowl then throw all their poopsies away and then pop the "cleaner looking" sand back into the sand bath.. i only really top it up when necessary! i guess the amount of sand your goos goes through depends on what sort of sand bath you have, i have a great terracotta bath, its pretty big therefore its quite hard for my goos to kick out the sand, so no need to keep topping up and this saves me sand ;D
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Post by moletteuk on Nov 8, 2011 17:22:55 GMT
I've tried the fancy, expensive hay with the marigolds in, and timothy hay, but now I use Bob Martin meadow hay at £4 for 4kg from asda (or £2 for 1kg), which they seem to like as much as the expensive stuff.
When I kept hamsters, people used to recommend the sacks of children's play sand that you can get cheaply from Argos, I presume this would be OK for degus, although I would probably mix in some of the pets@home type stuff because that is a bit clayier and better for cleaning skin/fur.
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