Post by 19Uhr30 on Dec 7, 2011 13:02:55 GMT
After Nightwishraven999 invited me repeatedly to join this forum, I thought it might be kind of impolite not to register and take a look. Although I guess rumors about my degu expertise are greatly exaggerated.
I live in Germany and besides degus I am mostly interested in nerdy stuff like fantasy roleplaying games, science fiction, this weird place called the internet, politics, religion and skepticism.
I got my first degus in 2005. I was thinking about getting guinee pigs at that time when a friend of mine had to take one of her degus (Fetti) out of her group because of fights among them. So I took her and bought two young girls to accompany her (Krümel and Regina). In 2006 Rufus, a neutered male who had to leave his group because of struggles, joined them. After the suprising death of Regina struggles arose between Rufus and Krümel. Rufus was always able to deal with Krümel, but she challanged him regularly during the following one and a half years. So I gained some experience with fights among degus, seperations, reintroductions and the error of seperating degus prematurely. In the end Krümel managed to get the rank above Rufus because he developed chronic health issues. He had an inflamed stomach and some kind of degeneration in his jaw. Over the years he lost both his upper incissors. That's how I gained some experience in caring for a sick degu and making yummy pap (because he grew more and more dependend on eating that. You know... You can eat poorly without being able to bite your food...). I also came along other tooth problems with Fetti when she reached a higher age. After her death in 2010, I decided to get some new company for Krümel, because I did not expect Rufus to live much longer as well. I got three grown out girls from my local animal shelter (Loki, Lieselotte and Wanda) and after a rather lenghty introduction (because of Rufus' poor condition I did not want to hurry through it) they became a very harmonic group. And even Rufus enjoyed being with so many ladies again until he died this summer.
So... At the moment I have four wonderful degu girls. Two of them very tame, two more shy. Despite her age, Krümel is really fit. The only degu with health issues here is Loki who also has bad teeth.
In the past I was quite active on deguforum.de, but I left it in 2009 because I was seriously frustrated with the developement of that community. I have a YouTube Channel with 70 mostly unamazing videos of my amazing degus. However... One of the videos has become quite popular and provoked a bunch of both positive and negative feedback. I also have a tumblr, where I post new photos and videos when I upload them. It also has links to my earlier degu picture galleries and to the degu weight chart of the last four years, which is kind of a weird pet project of mine...
I have some opinions in regard to keeping degus that I hold on to rather strictly. Things like "plastics do not belong in a degu cage", "the cage size has to be sufficient", "more natural food is preferable to more processed food" (although I am not really religious about that, it is more like a guideline) and of course "degus must not be kept alone". In YouTube comments this attitude has often given me the reputation of being rude and judgemental. Which might partly be because of the shortness of YouTube comments and me not being a native speaker, but also partly because it might be a bit true. So be warned. And never expect any criticsm from me to be meant as a personal attack. It is just that I am sometimes undiplomatic or just clumsy in using the right english words...
I am also absolutely opposed to buying pets in shops and breeding degus. This is mostly because of the situation in Germany. There are lot's of pet rodents in animal shelters all over the country and so many people are looking for a good place for their pets they no longer want to keep. I find it absolutely absurd to pay people to produce even more animals. So I might stay out of these topics, because I do not know how the situation is in other countries.
Okay... That was my (not so) short introduction. Hi everybody!
I live in Germany and besides degus I am mostly interested in nerdy stuff like fantasy roleplaying games, science fiction, this weird place called the internet, politics, religion and skepticism.
I got my first degus in 2005. I was thinking about getting guinee pigs at that time when a friend of mine had to take one of her degus (Fetti) out of her group because of fights among them. So I took her and bought two young girls to accompany her (Krümel and Regina). In 2006 Rufus, a neutered male who had to leave his group because of struggles, joined them. After the suprising death of Regina struggles arose between Rufus and Krümel. Rufus was always able to deal with Krümel, but she challanged him regularly during the following one and a half years. So I gained some experience with fights among degus, seperations, reintroductions and the error of seperating degus prematurely. In the end Krümel managed to get the rank above Rufus because he developed chronic health issues. He had an inflamed stomach and some kind of degeneration in his jaw. Over the years he lost both his upper incissors. That's how I gained some experience in caring for a sick degu and making yummy pap (because he grew more and more dependend on eating that. You know... You can eat poorly without being able to bite your food...). I also came along other tooth problems with Fetti when she reached a higher age. After her death in 2010, I decided to get some new company for Krümel, because I did not expect Rufus to live much longer as well. I got three grown out girls from my local animal shelter (Loki, Lieselotte and Wanda) and after a rather lenghty introduction (because of Rufus' poor condition I did not want to hurry through it) they became a very harmonic group. And even Rufus enjoyed being with so many ladies again until he died this summer.
So... At the moment I have four wonderful degu girls. Two of them very tame, two more shy. Despite her age, Krümel is really fit. The only degu with health issues here is Loki who also has bad teeth.
In the past I was quite active on deguforum.de, but I left it in 2009 because I was seriously frustrated with the developement of that community. I have a YouTube Channel with 70 mostly unamazing videos of my amazing degus. However... One of the videos has become quite popular and provoked a bunch of both positive and negative feedback. I also have a tumblr, where I post new photos and videos when I upload them. It also has links to my earlier degu picture galleries and to the degu weight chart of the last four years, which is kind of a weird pet project of mine...
I have some opinions in regard to keeping degus that I hold on to rather strictly. Things like "plastics do not belong in a degu cage", "the cage size has to be sufficient", "more natural food is preferable to more processed food" (although I am not really religious about that, it is more like a guideline) and of course "degus must not be kept alone". In YouTube comments this attitude has often given me the reputation of being rude and judgemental. Which might partly be because of the shortness of YouTube comments and me not being a native speaker, but also partly because it might be a bit true. So be warned. And never expect any criticsm from me to be meant as a personal attack. It is just that I am sometimes undiplomatic or just clumsy in using the right english words...
I am also absolutely opposed to buying pets in shops and breeding degus. This is mostly because of the situation in Germany. There are lot's of pet rodents in animal shelters all over the country and so many people are looking for a good place for their pets they no longer want to keep. I find it absolutely absurd to pay people to produce even more animals. So I might stay out of these topics, because I do not know how the situation is in other countries.
Okay... That was my (not so) short introduction. Hi everybody!