Degu Playtime on a Sunday Afternoon

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. Well, mostly they do. Sometimes they'll take food or sit on your hand but that's it. Get them out of the cage and it's a different story as they're quite happy to use you as a climbing frame! I just don't get what's going on their little brains.

I've also noticed that they never seem to stop eating, or pooping, or eating their poop. Yes, they eat their own poop. Nasty I know, but it helps with their digestive function. By the way, that's degu pellet in the picture and not poop!

I'm not quite sure who this degu is (still having trouble identifying them) but she loves her celery…

…and when she's not eating it, she's trying to steal someone elses!

I think they were out for about an hour and a half investigating and thankfully they didn't try to destroy the carpet like they did on Friday. Before I go here's a quick update on the sneezing situation. They are all still sneezing but it is mostly what I would call 'normal dry sneezes' from sniffing about in the hay etc. The degu who was worse than the others is sneezing much less and they don't sound as 'wet'. I on the other hand have a blocked nose and dry throat from shaking the dust from the hay the other day. Next time I think I'll be wearing a mask!

Comments

The Big Degu Cage Build - Part Ten

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.

Degu Versus the Wooden Wheels

When I bought wooden exercise wheels for my 3 girls I knew I was taking a gamble. Degus love to chew wood but in the back of my mind I was hoping that they'd realize that wheel destruction meant no running. After all, they are rather intelligent little rodents. Close up of damage After 6 months of little to no interest in chewing the wheels I thought I was on to a winner and had the only non-destructive degus in the world. This afternoon, after a morning out walking I came home to wheel destruction. Degu damage to Wooden Exercise Wheels 4 hours earlier they weren't particularly bad. Just some light gnawing around the edges and on the stands. Now they resemble something that's been, quite literally, blown apart by a grenade. It's like they woke up this morning and thought, "Right, degus. We're going to start chewing these wheels and we're not going to stop until they're gone!" It's a good job I didn't pay full price for the ...

Degu Home Decor

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...

The Degu Diaries

Search This Blog