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eRodent > Degu Page > Degu Rescue

Degu Rescue.

Welcome to the eRodent Degu Rescue page. Sadly degus are becoming more and more common in rescue centres - people do like to buy something different, not realising they can live for 8 or 9 years and then want to rehome them when the children loose interest. If you buy a pet for your child and then rehome it when they loose interest, all you are teaching them is that living things are disposable and someone else will always deal with your responsibilities for you. That said many people also have to part with their pets through no fault of their own due to unforeseen changes in circumstances.

The other big problem is over breeding, sometimes because people see them being sold in pet shops for twenty five quid and think they can make money, but more often simply because it's not that to sex them. Degus can become pregnant frighteningly young and can mate almost as soon as the babies are born. It's not uncommon for rescues to have a cage full of say 50 degus with all the females pregnant dumped on them because someone brought a pair and didn't split up the results soon enough.

Sadly I haven't got the time to continue to update this page with available rescues and homes and there are plenty of places to look elsewhere, so this page is simply a list of places on the Internet to look for your new pet.

Please note that inclusion on this page does not an approval by this site. It is particularly important when you are rehoming your pets to make sure that they are going to a good home - see where they are going. One of the most distressing things is that every year there are cruelty cases involving self-proclaimed animal rescue centres who just took on more animals than they could cope with, but there are also people with poor impulse control who take on every sob story they see. A sign of this is a lot of animals acquired relatively recently. The Internet (and indeed sites like this) normalise owning large numbers of animals, but they take a lot of work and time.

Places to look for a degu.

First of all it is worth calling around the RSPCA centres in your area as they frequently get degus in, or know of another centre that has them in. They can really struggle to get homes for them.

Pet Rescue Forums - has a rodent homes needed section that often features degus.

UK Animal Rescuers - has a list of rescue centres. Try the rabbits/guinea pigs section first. Rescue centres generally know each other so may be able to put you on to someone if they don't have any degus currently.

The Degu Information email group has quite a few members who may be able to help. It is a very busy group and a very good place to get advice as well. There is also a breeders/sellers database (you will need to register to access it).

The Degu and Chinchilla World Forum is a busy forum with a homes wanted section and well worth a look

Whilst mostly concerned with chinchillas Chinchillas Unlimited discussion forums has a rescue area for other pets that often features degus. This is also well worth a post if you are looking for degus as a lot of the chinchilla rescue people that are members get in degus or know someone who has degus in. Other chinchilla forums worth trying include Chinwags and ChinsRUs.

Sites such as Preloved often have people looking for homes for degus on, but be careful not to encourage breeding. I thought carefully about putting this site here, as a lot of the adverts are from people who are breeding, but often the degus in most need of new homes are those owned by private individuals who have little idea about how to care for them and end up advertising them in places like this.

Bella UK has a list of charities and also a small animals requiring homes page.

Cavy Rescue classified ads often have degus.

Guinea Pig Rehome has lists of guinea pig rehoming centres by area. These often end up with degus and so are worth contacting if you are looking for a degu.



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