Degus and the Toilet Roll Explosion

This morning I fed my goos around 9:15am like every morning. I filled their food bowls, gave them some fresh water and hay, and replaced their toilet roll. Yes, you read write. Thankfully they aren't suffering from some kind of degu toilet trouble. They just like to play with it.

I've rigged up a toilet roll dispenser from some jute string and a piece of bamboo which hangs from the underneath of the first level of the play area. Mrs F. loves to pull at it and run around like the Andrex puppy. Hours of entertainment, but I didn't expect to have a completely empty roll after a 2 hour shopping trip!

Normally it takes them at least a week to unravel it but somebody decided they'd wrap the whole roll around the flying saucer!

I can't quite believe it's been a month since I last posted so here's a quick update of what's been happening in the land of degu.

I still haven't managed to replace the wooden spinner of the flying saucer I made with a metal replacement. Market has had nothing, and everything else I've seen is just too pricey. Don't want to spend a fortune and then find I've made a major cock-up and have to throw it.
I've been using Fitch animal bedding after one of my girls started sneezing with Megazorb. I've been using it for about 3 weeks and so far things look good.
Claudielf is slowly getting herself out of the biggest huff ever known to degu history. It's lasted the best part of a week. I don't know why she's been in a strop but it can only be the result of cleaning the dirty bedding out of their grass house, removing the flying saucer every time she chews it, or because the local pet store has run out of the grain & cereal based degu food I'd been mixing with the standard pellets. She loves that stuff!

If it's none of the above then I haven't got a clue what's been yanking her chain!

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The Degus Have Moved In

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. :)

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 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.

The Degu Diaries

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