Degu owners

[angelinheaven]

Does anyone own degus, I am thinking about getting some but wanted to here from anyone how has them first. We have had and have lots of different pets, rats,hamsters,sugar gliders,chinchilla, guinea pigs and rabbits, but have never owned degus. They would be coming to a great home, and well cared for. I just wanted to know little things like, can they become quite friendly, are they smelly, and just if they are nice little creatures ???

We have 2 boys. Amazing wee things. One is really friendly, happy to be held, the other one lets you stroke him but runs away if you try to hold him.
They sleep most of the night and are awake during the day so better than hamsters who do the opposite.
We've got a big cage that we got from John hopewell ltd online. (Cages in pets at home are not big enough despite them advertising that they are)
We've also got a big wooden enclosure that Dh made and our Dd's go into it with the degus and the degus will climb on them and 'groom' their nails and hair.
They have only bitten once and that was when one of them had a splinter and Dh had to hold him tight so I could get it out and he nibbled dh's finger !
Bag of food and Timothy hay lasts ages. We use paper bedding that you can get from amazon for about £20 for a massive bag which lasts about a year. It is the scrap paper from teabag manufacturers !
Cleaned out once a week, sometimes I wipe over the wooden shelfs midweek as there is sometimes a pee smell.
They are related to chinchillas and can have most of the same treats and toys. No sugar though.
Degutopia website has lots of information.

Hi I did we had two boys, ours slept during the day and played all night. Ended up rehoming them as they do need a lot of attention and love. Had the love to give but not the attention as we both worked full time xx