What are tweedy brown, identical, and warble and squabble? Two degus!

We adopted Foamy and Sasquatch in January, 2006. We had met our first degu at the May, 2005 American Gerbil Society New England Show. Peanut the degu was being offered for adoption by Cara-Lee of The New York Gerbil. Peanut was simply adorable: she could climb 360 degrees around her cage, up the side, across the top, back down the other side. At that point in time I had not yet abandoned any semblance of normalcy, and didn't just adopt every cute animal I saw. So while I was hemming and hawing and dropping hints to my husband, another member adopted Peanut. I vowed that I would find some degus of my own!

Life With Degus

As you've read elsewhere on this site, gerbils are about the easiest rodent pets you can own. Owning degus will merely reinforce this concept. Degus are adorable, sociable, and smart in a stupid kind of way (you will need to meet them to know what I mean). They have lovely, complex vocalizations and interesting behaviors, such as their frantically serious nest-making binges (watch the video, above). But they are a whole lot more work! Males tend to mark surfaces with urine, and their smell is fairly strong, so plan on weekly cleaning for sure. But they are so clownish and personable, you will quickly learn to overlook any mess they make!

Degus love to climb and leap, so you need a tall climbing cage. The one pictured in this video is actually their travel cage, it's barely big enough. Their regular home is a grand Coast Cages Rat Mansion. They are a bit squirrel-like in their movements; they can climb down face-first, and like to surprise visitors by leaping from the open cage door right onto their shoulders. They are curious and love to accompany you around the house. Mine particularly love “helping me” refill all the gerbils' water bottles. Their contributions include running around on the vanity countertop, falling into the sink, marking the counter, hopping in and out of the cardboard box I use to carry the bottles, and chewing on any toiletries within reach. They will warble and discuss things with each other as they go.

Degus also live a lot longer than most small rodent pets - 5-8 years is the rule of thumb, but some live 10 years or longer. They are very social and like company, so if you are left with a fairly young single degu, you will need to find it a friend. It's fairly common for people to introduce degus and chinchillas as companions, as they share the same territory in the wild and apparently can be compatible. Given that our chinchilla, Dusty, is a tidy, meticulous creature, regular in her habits and not inclined toward foolishness of any kind, we have never considered attempting this. It would be a Felix and Oscar relationship.

Degus have very sensitive digestive systems, and cannot process sugar at all, so you must feed them a strict diet of hay and alfalfa pellets only. I have gradually gotten my 'goos used to 2 sunflower seeds each per day, but if I even change brands of pellets, they occasionally get a urinary tract infection. (The manifest symptom is that the sick one begins constantly trying to mate with his brother.)

Goos for You

Fascinated by the idea of degus for yourself? They can be hard to come by, but we periodically have degus from rescue, as we do now, and when we don't we can point you to a few good quality pet stores that carry them.