The Degu Diaries

My 3 degu girls absolutely love eating fresh herbs. Mint, basil, and chives are their favourites and chives seems to be the one they like the most. I've been thinking of ways to enrich their environment so while I was eating my birthday breakfast this morning I set about making what I like to call the Fresh Herb Degu Eatery. A portable herb garden that can be put in their play area for them to nibble on. To make the Fresh Herb Degu Eatery you will need: An empty 2 litre ice cream tub and lid. Wire mesh with holes approx. 13mm Wire cutters Thin wire Pliers Craft Knife Thick Needle Scissors Fresh herbs or herb seeds of your choice Soil or compost It takes approximately an hour to make and can be used straight away with fresh herbs. Of course, if you decided to plant seeds you will have to wait until they have grown. Let's get started… Step 1 — Prepare the Lid & Mesh The first thing you need to do is cut a hole in the ice cream tub lid. I used a c...

Today is the 3rd time since my Degus moved in that they've been out of their cage to play. The girls are still a little nervous around people so it was a bit of challenge when I let them out to play the first time but it's getting easier. Until they are tamer I am using their dust bath (a large plastic sweet container) and a large plastic storage box to transport them to their play area on the stairs landing. I put the sweet jar in their cage and as each one enters I gently take it out of the cage and they climb out in to the storage box. Then it's just a case of carrying them and some toys and food upstairs. One thing is for certain. Degus are incredibly entertaining to watch and practically fearless. I lost count of the number of times they went up the leg of my brother's shorts as he sat guarding the way down the stairs. Degus are funny little creatures... Well, mine are. When they are in the cage they all run a mile when you go anywhere near them. Wel...

I am hoping that the sneezing one of my degus has seemingly developed overnight is an allergy to the wood shaving. They have all been sneezing a little here and there but it seems worse in one of them. She keeps grabbing her nose as if something is irritating it. I must admit that when I first filled the cage the wood shavings affected my own nose something rotten so it's hardly a surprise if this is an allergy. My local pet store doesn't have any Carefresh animal bedding or alternative dust free recycled substrate I can use so until I can get down to Pets at Home I have temporarily filled the cage with straw and hay. I may continue with the straw, as they seem to love hiding in it, and use a small amount of absorbent material beneath it to help with soaking up the pee. She seems happy enough in herself but I will keep an eye on her just in case. UPDATE August 25, 2012 — Both the straw and hay were considerably dusty, which I didn't realise, but I have since clea...

My girls have been a part of the family for 5 days now. I left them alone for the first 2 days to let them get used to their new surroundings but now that's over I've started to tame my degu girls. They are already quite a curious bunch of degus anyway and like to play the "sniff-and-run" game by cautiously approaching new things, sniffing it, then promptly running for cover. On Sunday I started placing my arm in the cage at random intervals throughout the day for about 20-30 minutes. I placed my hand palm down on the floor and just stood there, quietly talking to any degu which would come to investigate. I was quite surprised by how quickly they became trusting of my hand and by nightfall yesterday, they were all quite comfortably sitting on the back of my hand as they munched on their food. I don't have names yet (my brother still wants a Big Bang Theory theme) but I have temporarily called them Nosy Rosie, Noisy Annie, and the other one, so that I know who...

The girls have settled down a little since I got them on Friday so while they were snoozing earlier this morning I took the opportunity to take some photos of their degu home decor. Bottom Section - Grass Hammock If you've read some of my Cage Build Posts you'll know that the cage is built in 2 parts, a bottom & top section, for easier moveability. The bottom floor of the bottom section is the digging pit. My aim is to make this as natural looking as possible. It is filled with around 15cm of wood shavings and some hay. I've used horse wood shavings as the shavings are large and allows the degus to burrow when mixed with the hay. Underground Hideout They have an underground area which is a hay tunnel sunk down in to the wood shavings. If you can't find one of the girls the first place to look is here because they love playing in it. You can also see a few willow branches. I got a bundle of 20 of these from B&Q for £6.99. They're about 50cm long a...

My poor girls spent the whole night with hardly any water thanks to a dodgy water bottle. It seemed to be working fine but when I woke up this morning and the water level hadn't changed I realised something wasn't right. I took the bottle out and gave them a glass ramekin with a shallow amount of water in, then headed to the local pet store for an emergency plastic one to put through the mesh. When I got back the water in the ramekin was gone and my girls started drinking from the new bottle as soon as I put it in. Living World Glass Water Bottle After much reading I found that there were quite a few others leaving reviews on glass non-drip pet water bottles stating that they didn't work. I wasn't going to be defeated though as I'm uncertain about using the plastic bottles (even on the outside) after my rats caused a flood with theirs a few years ago. I spent this morning fixing my glass bottle. Shook the bottle to fill the nozzle and it worked fine until ...

This morning 3 little degus became the newest members of my family and they're the 3 cutest girls ever! I was up until midnight filling and dressing their cage ready for them to move in and they are loving it. 2 of them still think that there are only 2 floors and not 4, and all 3 have spent most of the day running in their wheel. Just before I settled down to write this they were all in a 'goo pile' on top of their cabin. It's a little dark in the room for a decent photo and I don't want to use the flash so I'll have to wait until there's a little more light to get a photo of them huddled together. They are all still a little flighty and scared of the camera but I managed to get a few decent photos of them. Don't have any names yet as I'm waiting to see what kind of personalities they have. My brother wants to call them Penny, Amy, and Bernadette… The Big Degu Theory! UPDATE — Here's a little video my brother recorded. :)

It's almost 7PM and I'm not finished. At 5:30PM, while hanging the doors, I realized that there were no more screws of the correct size left and the shop would be shut before I got there. So I have only the top doors hung. Before bed I'm going to finish the inside by adding branches, bridges, ramps, ladders and other accessories. Then I'll fill it with wood shavings and hay ready for my new family members. Tomorrow I'll be outside waiting for Wilkinsons to open so I can get some more screws before I go to the pet store and my dad will kindly hang the remaining doors while I'm out. Hopefully they won't have sold out of degus before I get to the pet store.

I only have one day left to try and get my cage complete if I want to get my degus on Friday. My helper (brother) has urgent work to do for clients so I've been left on my own to finish it off. Shelf covered with ceramic tiles to help keep degus cool Despite being on my own I got quite a lot done today. I made a chiller shelf from an old pine shelf, timber offcuts and a few ceramic floor tiles. This will help keep the degus cool as the room they will be in is a few degrees warmer than the rest of the house. I also managed to lightly sand and varnish the interior one last time. This will help protect from anything that might get on the walls and it'll be wipe clean. The outside of the cage is also a lovely shade of 'sand' and purple to match the room. Vinyl tiles on shelf to help protect MDF from degu pee I also managed to to lay all of my vinyl tiles on the base and shelves but annoyingly I'm 2 tiles short so I'm going to have to buy some more of the...

Work on the cage has slowed a little due to other commitments but all four doors have now been meshed and the aluminium angle has been cut to size. The angle will protect the doors from degu teeth and protect them from any sharp bits on the mesh edges. 2 of 4 doors with mesh attached Tomorrow I'm not expecting to get much done other than maybe a coat of paint on the outside as I'm frantically trying to meet a deadline for work. I had hoped my order of cage accessories would arrive today as the website had them sitting in my local delivery hub but it looks like it'll be Monday now. I can't wait to get them! I've ordered: Some wooden bridges and ladders to use as ramps through the cage. A glass water bottle so that I can put it inside rather than through the doors. A 2 storey log cabin for their nest box. A grass hammock which they'll non doubt have chewed in a few hours. A temporary large wooden wheel. I'm hoping to be able to make them a flying ...

Made the door frames today with just enough time to cover one of them in mesh. Would have liked a little more done but they were just so incredibly time consuming. We were originally going to glue and screw the doors but we couldn't figure out a way to drill pilot holes through the butt joint efficiently. Instead, we glued and stapled them with a staple gun you use for upholstery. The seem solid enough as it is and the aluminium trim will help strengthen them even more. I'm still in the middle of an order of cat and dog paintings for Whitby Galleries and my extra paper arrived this morning so I better crack on with finishing those tomorrow. I'm aiming to get the mesh on the rest of the doors and the inside of the bottom section, back, and sides primed over the weekend.

Only 7 more days before my new furbabies move in and there isn't that much of the cage left to build… just time consuming things and a few shelves. This afternoon we fixed the 13mm x 13mm pet enclosure mesh to the kiln-dried pine wooden frame that was attached yesterday to create a ventilated roof. We used 15mm netting staples. I also managed to get the 2 internal levels cut ready to be attached after I've sealed the inside against degu pee. I've read mixed reviews about pee protection. Some people leave their MDF or plywood bare and rely on copious amounts of dust-free wood shavings to do the soaking. Others are a little more dubious (and so would I with MDF) and have used vinyl tiles on the bottom and the levels but left the sides bare. A few brave souls have painted and / or varnished everything. The way I see it is like this. A degu can't chew through a flat surface so as long as you end up with the same flat surface after you've primed and sealed t...

Wednesdays are usually a day where I never seem to get a lot done for some reason but not today. The degu cage build is moving along at a steady pace. This morning my brother, and myself, nailed and glued the back and sides of the top section together and then began work on the kiln-dried pine frame which will eventually become a wire mesh top. Top section half complete The pine we used is 32mm x 32mm. The frame isn't all that great a fit because we thought a hand saw would do the job, but no. I think we spent about 2 hours just trying to get the ends straight. With a little bit of filling and sanding it should be okay. The screws we used were overkill too. It was cheaper to buy a bag of 100 x 75mm screws for the doors than it was to buy 2 packets of 10 so we just used them. Ideally they should have been about 50mm but if it works don't fix it. The finished frame was then attached flush with the upper edge of the top section using some shorter screws which we had to ...

The cage is progressing nicely. The bottom section is almost complete. Still have the vinyl tiles (for extra protection against pee) to put in, one level to cut and attach, and some small platforms which will help form a ramp up to the top section of the cage. I have a deep 30cm mess guard which will form the basis of a makeshift digging pit and landscaped area. There will be one level and you can see the hole for access to floor 2 which will be in the top section. It was supposed to be in the back but it was going to be a nightmare to do because of the build being in 2 parts so it can be taken apart for easier moving. This means that I now have to rethink my first level. It was going to be set back slightly from the front but I may have to bring it closer to eliminate the massive drop and reduce injury should there be a fall. I'm going to have a look at some other DIY cages for some ideas but the main priority tomorrow is to get the main construction of the top section comp...

The weather held out for most of the day so the cage is progressing nicely. I have all of the pieces which make the shell cut (minus the 2 mess guards) and the bottom section pieces are partially assembled. I still have all of the internal shelves to cut. MDF pieces which make the bottom outer section of the cage. There was a little bit of weather drama early afternoon. 2 pieces left to cut and it was approaching 1PM so work stopped for lunch as the weather predicted thunder storms after 4PM. Not so. By 2PM it started to rain but thankfully a half hour dry spell before the real rain started meant the remaining side panels could be cut. Bottom section outer shell assembled (minus mess guard) . For a pair of novices with next to no carpentry skills (and a little fatherly help) the cage isn't looking too bad. MDF, while relatively inexpensive, is notoriously hard to join as it can split when screwing down into the edge. To combat this we nailed and glued the panels togethe...

Made a start on the cage yesterday. Attempts at using a jigsaw to cut my 18mm MDF failed so my brother ended up resorting to a handsaw. The cuts were straight enough but the edge ended up off at an angle rather than flat. We got the base, back, and sides cut for the bottom section and then tried planing and sanding to bring the edges flat. Didn't work out so great. It doesn't matter so much with the edges which will be facing outwards but the ones that butt up on the inside need to be as flat and straight as possible. This morning it was down to Argos for a circular saw to see if I could get a better cut. A bit of practice on some scraps of chipboard and things were looking good… then the heavens opened. Hailstones, thunder, lightning, and massive raindrops put a stop to plans for the rest of the day. Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow. Then all I need is to figure out how to cut across a 4 foot MDF sheet with the circular saw?

Let's hope the cage build goes easier than getting the materials delivered. Ordered before 6PM on Wednesday for next-day delivery. It got to 7:15PM before the driver called to say he'd be about 10 minutes. 10 minutes later he called again to say he'd broken down and everything would be delivered Friday. Friday came with the expectation of the delivery arriving early morning. Wrong. 6PM the driver called to say he'd be about 15 minutes, then he got lost, and then when he finally turned up I was short of 2 lengths of timber. Nightmare. This weekend is pretty much the last chance I have of making my cage before the new Pets at Home store opens. I used to have to travel an hour by public transport to the Metrocentre but one is opening in South Shields on 17th August and it's a lot closer. I'm planning to have the cage built, almost furnished and the bedding / substrate in so I can get my 'goos' and a few last minute items on open day. I basically have this...

Building a cage to house my degus is starting to take over my life. I've spent weeks jotting things down and thinking of ways to make it as degu proof as possible. The problem is that I could probably spend months just making sure I've thought of everything so I've decided to go for it. This morning I worked out how much material I would need for a basic cage structure to the one below (allowing extra for adjustments) and popped down to my local Wickes to order it all. I will also be adding 2 sets of mesh doors and a mesh roof but I haven't drawn these on the diagram. I've gone for mesh doors as the room it will be in is a few degrees warmer than the rest of the house and it will allow for better air circulation. The RSPCA recommends a minumim CARA (cumulative available running area) of 12,000 sq.cm for 2 degus. Owners recommend a CARA of 17,000 sq.cm so I've gone for a happy medium of around 15,000 sq.cm. Ideally I should have at least 2 levels measur...