Degu Information Sheet.

What is a Degu?

A Degu (pronounced Daygoo) is a small Rodent with tweed brown coloured hair. They are classified as mammals related to guinea pigs but many people now believe that they are in actuality closer in relation to rabbits. The tummy has a cream colour and they have lighter circles around the eyes. They have long whiskers, and their ears are quite big. A full grown adult is about 6" long with another 6" in tail with a bit of fluff on the end of the tail.

The teeth of a healthy Degu are orange coloured. Light yellow or white teeth are an indication of a serious disease. Their Latin name is Octodon Degus. Octodon means "eight-toothed rodent" because their molar surfaces look like a figure "8".

Degus were transported to Europe and North America from Chile, where they live from the West Coast to the Andes Mountains. I have read that the main reason for this was that the animals are very prone to Diabetes and so were used for research into this disease.This means that they need to be fed carefully - more details below.

Degus make good pets as they are friendly little animals and are awake during the day. They will doze on and off during the day but once they get to know you they will come flying over to see you when you walk into the room. They make a variety of sounds and seem to have quite a complicated language. Their distress call is a high pitched beep beep sound. They chitter when they are upset and will screech at each other when they are having a wrestling match or someone swipes their food. Some Degus are more vocal than others and will come and "talk" to you and tell you off when a treat isn't given as often as they would like. There is an example of a degu talking on my Rodent Movies page.

There seem to be varying reports of how long Degus will live in Captivity. It is safe to say that most Degus will live at least 5 years but may live for as long as 10 or more.

As a natural defense against enemies Degus can loose their tail. If a Degu is caught by the tail it can loose the tip or the whole skin of the tail. This causes the animal no serious harm but is unpleasant for both you and your pet and so you should never try to catch a Degu by its tail.

One or Two Degus?

Your Degu’s Home.

When getting a home for your pet it is important to remember that babies will grow quite a bit and degus are active creatures that like to climb. A large rat or even a chinchilla cage is ideal. The only disadvantage of this setup is that your Degus may kick their bedding out of the sides of the cage so a mesh cage fitted on top of a glass tank is also a good idea - however a tank on it's own doesn't really provide the exercise that they need as they aren't great diggers. See the Jird Cages page for an example. Remove the mesh bottom from chinchilla cages as Degus made to walk on mesh flooring develop a painful foot condition called Bumblefoot (see Health section below). Go to the Degu Cages page for more information.

I have used Megazorb horse bedding in the bottom of the cage and now use Ecobed. More details of this on the Bedding page.

Degus love to climb and I have a climbing frame designed for parrot cages and an old belt strung across the top of the cage. Fruit tree branches and other parrot toys also make great toys for Degus. Your Degus will need something to chew on to keep their teeth worn down. Wooden toys and branches are good and you can also buy chews designed for Chinchillas, which are ideal.

If possible Degus should be provided with a large solid wheel that does not have spokes. Wheels with spokes can catch feet and tails. These can be quite difficult to obtain in this country but there are some suppliers and importers. Check out the Wheels page.

Degus claws are quite sharp and so it is worth having a piece of stone in the cage for them to rub them down on. You can also get stone parrot perches that are designed to keep their claws short and these also work quite well. I have placed mine so that they have to walk across it to get to the upper levels.

Degus like a dust bath to keep their coats clean. You can buy dust especially designed for Chinchillas and give your Degus a large ceramic bowl with an inch or two in the bottom for a short period everyday. It is very amusing to watch them rolling about in it. Don't worry if they appear to be eating the dust, it doesn't seem to do them any harm. The dust bath shouldn't be left in the cage for too long or they will use it as a toilet.

Your Degus will also need a hayrack, food bowls (I use two to prevent squabbles), a water bottle and will appreciate a nesting box to hide in.

More information on amusing your degus on the Environment Enrichment page.

Feeding your Degu.

The most important part of looking after your Degus is to feed them correctly. They cannot cope with sugary foods and in the wild live on a very poor diet and so are designed to eat lots of poor quality food such as dried plant materials that takes a lot of digestion. Degus given lots of sugary treats such as breakfast cereals, cake, biscuits and dried fruit may get diabetes.

There has recently a suggestion on certain web sites and lists that sugar is not a problem but in the absence of any proof I would suggest that until this is the case it is safer to continue to follow the standard advice - i.e. do not feed sugary treats or heavily molassed pellets.

Although we restrict the glucose in our degus diet they do in fact have glucose in their systems. Glucose is a simple monosaccharide sugar that is a building block for a number of other carbohydrates. For example starch and cellulose are both made up of glucose units, each in a different structure. When the degu digests complex carbohydrate in its diet (starch from grains in pellets, cellulose from hay and other plant material) it is broken down into glucose and released into the blood. So the obvious question is why do we then restrict simple sugars in the diet if their food is broken down into glucose anywhere?

The answer is about blood sugar levels. It takes quite a bit of time to break down complex carbohydrates into simple sugars and them to be released into the blood stream, and in addition degus browse almost continually. This results in a constant low level of glucose being released into the blood. If the blood level of glucose gets too high then the hormone Insulin is released to encourage the cells of the body to absorb the glucose. There are receptors on the cells that detect the insulin and tell the cell to take up glucose.

When a large amount of simple sugars are eaten in the diet they all get into the blood very quickly. This results in a large rise in the blood glucose level and a large release of insulin. If this happens a lot then over a period of time the number of receptors for insulin on the cell surface drops and the cells do not respond as well to insulin. This is known as insulin resistance. Ultimately the cells will not respond well enough to insulin to get the blood sugar level down to a safe level and this is type II diabetes (type I diabetes is when the body cannot produce insulin at all). High levels of glucose in the blood can cause all sorts of problems including damage to the eye seen as cataracts and damage to the liver, kidneys, immune and nervous systems. As degus have evolved in an environment where their diet is very poor and takes a long time to digest they seem to have lost the ability to cope well with blood sugar levels that fluctuate at all and this may be why they are very prone to type II diabetes.

The main diet should be a mixture of Guinea Pig and/or Chinchilla pellets. I used Burgess Supra Guinea pig pellets which are widely available and contain everything in one pellet preventing your pet from picking out the bits that they like and leaving the bits that are good for them! They also contain vitamin C - it hasn't been decided yet whether Degus require vitamin C like Guinea Pigs but it is best to be safe. However, When buying Chinchilla pellets check the ingredients and make sure that they do not contain large amounts molasses, which are full of sugar and so not good for your Degu. Calcium chews sold for Chinchillas are also a good idea.

Degu Health.

Diabetes: Degus appear to be naturally insulin resistant and can become diabetic. The first sign of trouble can be that your Degu gets very fat. They will drink more water than normal and towards to end may become very thin. Diabetes is always fatal and cannot be treated in small animals. Don't feed your Degu any sugary treats or let themn get too fat. They may like treats but it is not kind to feed an animal treats until it becomes obese and dies young. If you have a fat Degu reduce the amount of pellets and cut out all treats letting the animal eat mainly hay - never allow the supply of hay to run out as degus need to munch pretty much continually to keep their gut working well.Good treats are bits of vegetables, the occasional sunflower or pumpkin seed or I use Beapher Care+ chinchilla pellets as treats because they like them so much.

Liver Disease: If Degus are fed too much fat, they will contract liver problems. These can have similar symptoms to Diabetes in that they animal may drink lots of water and get very thin after being quite fat. Don't feed your Degus too much food that is fatty, such as sunflower seeds, peanuts and nuts.

Mouth Disease: Degus are very prone to infections of the mouth. Make sure that the water bottle is kept spotlessly clean. If your degu is having problems eating, is pawing at her mouth, drooling or has weepy eyes then suspect teeth problems. As with chinchillas their molars can grow spurs causing lots of pain. There is limited information available about degu teeth problems but information on chinchillas is relevant. There are some information and links here. Or do a search on google for the words chinchilla and malocclusion. Degus have smaller mouths than chinchillas and so it can be much more difficult to work on them. Sadly sometimes the kindest thing may be to have your degu put to sleep which is what I had to do with Pumpkin, when she developed a jaw abcess a month or two after her dental work.

Inbreeding: Because of the small population of Degus in the country inbreeding inevitably occurs. This can cause many health problems, small size and genetic defects such as club feet.

Cataracts: Cataracts in Degus may be due to diabetes or a genetic condition and the symptoms are greying of the eye and sight problems. Degus have whiskers which prevent them from bumping into things and a good sense of smell and so should manage fine. They usually occur in older degus but can also younger degus.

Fur Chewing or Biting: You often see Degus with chewed tails. I have no idea what causes this. In chinchillas fur chewing is said to be down to boredom, stress or lack of fibre. So make sure that your degu has plenty of toys and hay to eat. If a tail is damaged they may also chew at it and it may also be due to lack of feeling in extremities due to diabetes (but this is just a vague idea that I have no proof for). Degus can also fur chew - chewing the surface off a patch of hair. Willow suffered from this on her back although I have a feeling that it may have been Pumpkin doing the chewing - I never saw either of them at it. I broke this and the tail chewing habit by applying stop chew lotion sold for chinchillas (try The Chinchilla Rescue Service) daily on her back and tail. The fur grew back perfectly.

Dry Skin: - Degus tails can become quite dry looking. It is ok to use baby oil, cocoa butter or Aloe Vera on the tail. I use Allergenics Dry Skin Cream or Evening Primrose which I get from my local health food shop. If you do it before a dust bath the dust will stick though. Chinchillas can suffer from fatty acid deficiencies that can cause dry skin and I think that Degus may do as well. Evening Primrose oil seems to work quite well. Buy the capsules, break open and dip a pumpkin seed into it. Mine seem to take this quite well.

Ovarian Cysts: - I know that Degus can get these because Willow has got one. In Guinea Pigs the symptoms include hair loss on both sides but Willow did not have this. She did have very dry quite scaly skin but that may not have been linked and I treated it with evening primrose oil as mentioned above. The cysts can go down of their own accord. In guinea pigs the vet will often do a full hysterectomy but understandably with Degus being so much smaller and Willow being so frail neither us or the vet thought this was a good idea. We were told to watch out for weight loss. Sadly Willow died a few months later - however, it is possible that this was from complications of her diabetes rather than the cysts.

Please think very carefully before breeding any small animal. Are you in a position to provide good homes to all of the babies that result from breeding? Are you willing to keep any babies that you cannot find homes for? It can be difficult to provide the attention and pay for the vet bills that lots of pets inevitably mean. An out of hours emergency caesarian can cost £100 or even more in some areas - if you aren't willing to pay for this then you shouldn't be breeding period. There are a lot of degus turning up in rescue centres at the moment - often due to irresponsible breeding. If you can't afford to get your male degu neutered, you certainly can't afford the potential vets bills of breeding.

Degus can be sexually mature as young a couple of months, although this is unusual. The gestation period is long for rodents at about 90 days and the babies are born with fur and teeth and their eyes are often already open. Only a few hours after their birth, they will start searching the surroundings of the nest box. Soon after this, they will also start eating normal food. They can be removed from their parents at 8 weeks and it is important to remove the females from their father promptly or he could mate with them.

When the Degus are mating, they produce a strange sound and swish their tails around. Male degus are unusual in that they have a distinctive after-mating call, which they continue for long periods. It is not easy to spot that a female is pregnant until about a month before the birth After this, try not handle her. Make sure that you have a suitable vet well in advance of the birth that is willing to deal with out-of-hours emergencies.

A Degu female can get pregnant within 24 hours of giving birth so it is recommended to separate the male for one to two days afterwards to prevent a breed-back litter which is not good for the female or her young. Female Degus should not be allowed to breed continuously or they will die from exhaustion very young. It is possible to have a male Degu neutered or another idea is to keep a male baby in with dad and a female with mum so that they are not so upset by the separation.