The eRodent Degus

RIP Willow 12/99 - 15/02/04
RIP Pumpkin 01/00 - 07/06/05
RIP Digger 2001 - 2005
RIP Pinknose ???? - 2008

Willow followed me home one day from Duncan's Pets in Wellesbourne. I knew that Degus are unhappy on their own and we had to get her a friend. I spent the next couple of weeks trying to track down someone with a young female Degu for sale and eventually tracked on down at Rodent Rescue UK. Poor Chris had to do a 4 hour roundtrip to Cambridgeshire to pick her up. For more information on Degus go to the Degu Page.

Willow's health was never that great and she suffered from cateracts and was almost definately diabetic. Sadly she passed away in February 2004, after four years with us, leaving Pumpkin on her own. After 6 months of watching Pumpkin looking lonely, I finally relented in July 2004 and got her a friend. Pink Nose is a mature, neutered male degu from Sprowston Guinea Pig Rescue. His name is because he has a strange pink patch on the end of his nose - very cute. Sadly Pumpkin developed teeth problems and although we got her the best care we could we had to make the sad decision to have her put to sleep in June 2005 - she was 5 1/2 years old. We then were offered an older female, Digger, to come and live with him. It was love at first sight but sadly Digger's teeth were never great. We did our best but sadly they got worse and it was kinder to let her go. Teeth problems are a real nightmare in Chinchillas and it's worrying to see the same problems occurring in degus. Pinknose lived on his own again for a while - but his constant "singing" for a girlfriend eventually caused me to relent and adopt Dizzy from Suffolk RSPCA - having already outlived 3 girlfriends (one before we had him) I decided to get him a younger woman this time so that he could hopefully live out his life with company.
UPDATE: Sadly the unthinkable has come to pass. I came home one Friday evening to find Pinknose collapsed on his wheel. He appeared to most likely had a massive stroke and I did not wish to take him out into the freezing winter night to be pulled around at the vet and so I moved put him on a fleece blanket over a warm hot water bottle and he passed away a few hours later. He was a good old age, we'd had him for nearly four years, the rescue for a year before that and he was fully grown when they had him so I think he was at least 6. He will be much miised. Dizzy is sadly now on her own, I think there's little chance of finding another neutered male. But has learnt to come out of her cage for a good run around the rodent room of an evening and seems quite content to have a food bowl and wheel to herself and not to be pushed off her perch.

Below are pictures of Willow and Pumpkin as babies. There are pictures of Pink Nose and Digger at the bottom.

This is Willow and Pumpkin's new cage.

Here is Willow and Pumpkin together.

This is Willow coming out of her Wodent Wheel.

This Doesn't make a bad place to hide either!

Pink Nose - who came to live with Pumpkin after we lost Willow.

Digger - who came to live with Pink Nose after we lost Pumpkin

Dizzy - Pink Nose's latest girlfriend.

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