Anyone got a Degu?

[Fresh01]

We have 4 kids under the age of 9 that are wanting to get their first furry pets. A Degu was recently suggested but I don't know anyone who has had one, can anyone give any feedback?

I know we would need a same sex pair.

And a decent sized cage with a solid base for them to rummage about in.

We have considered other small furry animals, I had a much loved rabbit as a child for 7 years but due to the paving in our garden, we can't have a hutch with space on grass.

I had GP's for a short time as kids but I don't remember them fondly.........I also had hamsters for over 10 years but I feel my 2 youngest kids are too young for hamsters.

Trying to decide on the right pet......

Marking place, I have 5 rats but degu's interest me now that I've been firmly rooted in rodent territory!

Good for older children only. I've had a few, they tend to be very jumpy, no matter how much you handle them, they do bite at times. But the worst thing is they de - glove their tails, (take the skin off) this bleeds EVERYWHERE!

Do they de-glove routinely? I thought that de-gloving was a Bad Thing with rodents, though only really know about it from a ratty POV.

Marking place purely in hope of photos :o :o I would love one!

I can do photos of rats

See, this little cutie is 8wo, she's a rex rat so has curly whiskers and is all fluffy! Itching to show off ratties

Aww! :o

We had 3, when the boys were 5 and 2. Beware they live for a long time (about 6-7 years).

They are very amusing pets, but they don't sit still on you like a guinea pig. Beware of cages, they are real chewers so anything plastic/wood is out, and all solid floors (we used fleece over the cage layers which could be washed) The cage was huge!

gross :) I have five of them, they are awesome :)

derek can you give degus free run of the room or do they need to be contained?

Thanks for the comments. Have been reading more into it over the weekend. The cages they need do seem to be large.

Really can't decide which furry pet would suit now....

TBH I'd really love a sugar glider but apparently they smell really awful!

Not that we can have any pets right now anyway but hey I can dream :o

Oh god, sugar gliders are worse than male rats at pissing, they literally have no bladder control. It really puts me off of them.

If you want to know about rats Fresh give me a shout :) I've two boys I've had since babies, two girls we fostered/rescued in March at a year old (one died last week from a tumour ) and two baby girls at the moment :) They also need quite big cages though.

Our degus had free run of the room, but we had to block off tv cabinet/bookcases/sofa - anything they could get under and we couldn't get them out!

One very good thing about them is that they never bit anyone (although they would tenitively gnaw at long finger nails

They never did the de-gloving thing, although one had a prolapsed penis - and we could never tell them apart (except when one got the prolapsed penis)

Pixie, I have never thought about rats as a pet.......how are they with kids?

Speaking of sugar gliders and smells do Degu etc smell much if the cage is regularly cleaned? The only place suitable (ie out of reach of 2 smallest kids!) is on the bench in the utility room but I have a ceiling pulley in their for drying clothes and the ironing baskets sit in their whilst waiting attention?

Rats are good with kids imo. We got our four bred ones from National Fancy Rat Society breeders, our boys from a show breeder and our girls from a family breeder, the girls are much friendly, we had them out in the breeder's pet shop and they were running all over us. My boys have met kids plenty of times and have been fine.

But there are two things to know RE kids and rats:
Baby rats nip, a bit like how human babies will teeth things, it's their way of exploring the world, it doesn't hurt much and doesn't break your skin, it's more like a little pinch, but as long as you expect it then they grow out of it and with some training from you (eeping when they nip you, it's the way to communicate that you don't like them doing it and/or they're doing it too hard) they'll soon learn it's not a good thing. You need to keep their claws in check too as they can get sharp which can hurt kids more than adults, you can trim their claws easily but you need to look it up first, a vet should be able to do it too. You can also use preventative measures in their cage like bricks and rocks for them to climb, that worked really well for us but they do start to smell after a while!

Only one of our rats has ever broken skin and that is one of our rescues, even then it's like a scratch really. It shocks you more than anything.

We had 4 degus

They had a massive cage, several stories, a wheel, tunnels, little house

Came downstairs one morning and they had killed each other -it was like a blood bath

Marking my place, we have been thinking about these too, DD 9 is desperate for a pet & her ideas of tarantulas or snakes or lizards didn't appeal so I mentioned these as an alternative & now she keeps on at me about getting one. I'm taking my time researching, cos I'm wary.

17 :( How awful!

It was horrendous -we did everything by the book, they had a cage big enough to hide but were kept in a group to be social, they were clean, well fed and socialised

The vet thought something must have happened overnight to spook them -its not unheard of apparently

Poor things :( I have nightmares about that and my rats, especially when we introduced our babies to the big girls. I've heard all sorts of horror stories about intros, though my local breeder has been at it for over 20 years and has said that only once has she heard of a baby being seriously injured or killed by the existing group.

When I found Ruby the other week she was freely bleeding everywhere, that was horrendous enough (her cystic tumour burst), I couldn't imagine finding a group of them :(

Just googled Sugar Gliders (I had an idea what they looked like, but they are similar to little domestic bats )

One of my neighbours had something in an outdoor aviary type cage, I think like chipmonks but I didn't see them close.

My DD used to be very afraid of animals ( before she got her lardy boars) but we used to go into a local nice petshop to have a nosey.

She was very impressed with the rats, she held one , it wrapped it's tail round her wrist

I was considering ratties for DS but thankfully I didn't he's not entirely responsible ( I actually took his GP from him )

I have four degus and I love them. They're not snuggly lap pets and aren't easy to handle as they're really busy and on the go. They love free range time but will chew anything they can get their teeth on. They are pretty clean and have very little smell because they don't wee much. They have very specific dietary requirements - low carb, no sugar so no fruit etc. They are great to watch though. Norman (who was Agatha when he arrived and has now been neutered!), Dorothy, Billie and Nancy are just awesome.