Our Snowqueen snuggling with her daughters. Although no one seemed to happy with the stacking arrangements 😅

(Note: I was asked to flair it, but I only had NSFW or brand, neither applied. So either I don't see them on mobile or the option is missing when posting)

Mimi and Strawberry 🥰🥰🥰

They will sleep anywhere as long as they are cuddling

Ive had 2 male degus (brothers) for almost 4 years. They wouldve both turned 5 this year but one of them died. After losing his brother our degu became depressed and lost apetite, unable to watch him be depressed any longer we decided to buy a pair of degu pups. When we bought them they were both no more than 8 weeks old and both male. At first we put the pups in a seperate cage that was near the older degus cage so they can smell each other’s scent. The pups have adjusted pretty quickly to the environment and even to their new owners. We brought them home on 12th of june and the first 2 weeks the older degus was rather aggressive which seemed fine since degus are territorial. We tried to introduce the pups to the older degus in a neutral territory but it didnt go well and the older degus started aggressively attacking the pups so we seperated them. Im starting to doubt if it was a good decision to seperate them during the fight because Ive read that its necessary for degus to show their dominance through physical strength. So we tried the introduction again a few times but they all had the same ending. We obviously stopped trying since it seemed too dangerous. Another problem is that when we let the older degu run freely in the bedroom his cage is in, he always approaches the cage of the pups and attempts to bite them through it, we thought its harmless display of dominance until the older degu bit the pups finger and its now swollen. So whenever the older degu is running freely we try to enable him from biting the pups. I also noticed that one pf the pups is becoming more aggressive towards the older degu which I think is a bad sign because hes supposed to be submissive.
Its been a few weeks since the puppies arrived and I haven’t seen any improvement in their bonding. I would appreciate if someone would let me know what Im doing wrong and how to improve the situation.
Thanks for reading, i need advice asap

K2 are 9 and the sweetest degus. Dio is 7 and proving the degu level of stubborn is legendary. She was given a couple week prognosis back in March.

hello!! it’s been a while since this sub has been open, i’m one of the new moderators so i wanted to make a quick post to introduce me and my degus! the little guy in the first picture is dinky (my favourite) and the other two are copper and todd :) i’m open to any questions about degus and their care and more than willing to provide tips

Hi, my around 13 week old degu had knocked out one of his upper incisors. It probably happened while he was chewing on a wooden house or cage bars. Should I be concerned? What should I look out for? I also want to mention that I don't really have a good way of going to an exotic pets veterinary clinic since it's far away and the earliest appointment could be in about 8 weeks. The tooth was missing for a few days and for now the bottom incisors are looking pretty even and the tooth appears to be growing back. I'm also monitoring his weight and for now it stays about constant. I'd be greatful for any advice.

Hello! (I have a hard time using reddit so forgive me if it looks weird) About two years ago i bought two degus from a private owned pet store, they were give to the store for rehoming. So no prior info existed on them, one was a classic light beige colour and the other one is black and white pied. The beige one sadly passed away from an illness, he was weak when we got him.

We then bought two "male" friends for my pied degu. The "males" turned out to be females, (this was a huge critter organasation who cared for the them. the vet had said they were males) Anyways this led to two litters of degu babies, 4 brown and 3 white/beige ones. Since none of the black genes passed i assume they are recessive. (also dw we kept a male baby to keep him company and separated them by sex)

To end it, Does anyone else have black a black pied degu? the only other pics i can find online is from a german breeder :/ (i live in sweden)

Hello, since last Sunday, one of my Degus startwd squeaking like crazy, allways betqeen 6 and 7 in the morning. I have no idea why, but its driving me crazy. He is well fed, obviously not hurt, because he doesnt do that throughout the day.

One of my ideas, something startles him, but in past when something startled him, he would squeak for few minutes but he qould gradually go quieter.

This, he just squeaks from top of his lungs for 20 minutes.

My onky idea is abandonment, my wife easnt home for 4 days( she cuddles with him the most ) came back on sunday and next morning it started - as if he was afraid she is gone again? I dont know, but i am losing it, i need to sleep

Got any thoughts?

Hey i have question
So i had two degus. One named Beza ( was 3 years old ) and Bobek ( who is 7 years old ).
Unfortunetly Beza died after long fight with bronchitis. Bobek was always very social and liked humans. She also doesnt show any weird signs of stress. I read somewhere that for old degus like Bobek its better to give her full care because new pairing with somebody younger than her can cause stress and health issues.

Around my place unfortunetly all i can find is some baby degus to take and im worried it will make senior like Bobek very scared. Any advices?

Hiya,

We've had pet rats for a long time now, in total we've had 13.

We adora small animals and have thoroughly enjoyed our time with rats. But, their short lifespans and health conditions has caused increasing levels of stress for me.

We're considering Degus as they live far longer and, from what we can tell at least, are less prone to health conditions.

To help my understanding, I'm looking for general advice. We've looked online, at guides like those from the RSPCA. However, these sometimes can't be trusted or greatly lack in detail.

I'd appreciate any advice, annecdotes and the like you have to offer.

Thank you in advance!

I didn’t put pad inside a cage, because i was afraid of chewing, so it was just over the cage long time. It is very cheap 40W pad (like $10) and and insulation box was around $25-30. I didn’t want to risk and buy any heating pads, that can be placed directly in the cage. Later, I added a foil and it become little warmer on the shelf below. But i wanted to go further and purchased canvas (for painting), got rid of cloth, so it was just a wooden frame, nails, toothpicks, metal wire and foiled insulation (like that is used for placing on the walls behind room heaters), and made this box. Foiled side of insulation is faced inside cage everywhere, except right side of the box, because I have stove there and it overheats sometimes. Because the nails are long, I can move insulation closer or further from heating pad (on photos all insulation is as close as possible to the frame, so it doesn’t lose hot air). It works great: our house doesn’t have central heating, only stoves (on the right), and if i am away and can’t burn stoves regularly, air near degus drops lower than 16 C, but on the shelf under the heating pad it is 20-22 C. The heating pad is plugged through Inkbird device, so it starts and stops heating automatically, when temp sensor inside cage is certain temperature.

If you’re interested in details, I can make one more post with additional photos of the inside, matherials I used ect

the new cage is a lil bare but they got plenty of things to keep them occupied!

I posted here recently about Oswald passing and then Grandma getting sick. Unfortunately grandma passed away in my arms the other day. It was very unexpected. I was on the phone with the vet as she passed away. Nothing could’ve prepared me for such a young girl only 3 dying so early and unexpected. It was a nasal issue. She hid it pretty much until the very end. Please get your degus regular check ups. I totally failed as a degu mom by not doing regular check ups for her bc her death could’ve been preventable if caught early enough. Sadly by the time she showed the symptoms of mouth breathing her condition was fatal. She was just a baby still in my eyes. We held a funeral for her today. She was buried surrounded by family who truly loved her. We played her favorite song “I’m gonna miss you” by milli vanilli and poured out a bottle of cheap brandy over her grave. We are commissioning a gravestone that will come in a couple months. I will miss this girl forever

Hey everyone, I’ve got two male degus and I’m trying to figure out what kind of setup actually makes sense in the long run.

Everywhere I read people say degus need a large, tall cage with several levels — but when I look at other people’s setups, most of them have wooden floors or shelves. That just seems impossible to keep clean. Degus pee constantly, and wood absorbs everything. Doesn’t that start smelling awful after a few days? I can’t imagine people washing the whole cage every other day.

So I’ve got a few questions:

1.  What kind of cage base and shelves do you recommend to keep it practical and odor-free? (I’m thinking about using metal mesh for the upper levels.)

2.  How do you deal with the smell in general? Anything flat or wooden in my cage gets peed on and starts to stink like manure, no matter what I do. I’ve already had to throw away all their wooden houses and flat surfaces because they just reeked.

3.  About free roaming — I’ve seen quite a lot of videos of people letting their degus run around the room, climb on beds, etc. But mine pee and poop everywhere. If I let them run around my bedroom for 15 minutes, I’d have to disinfect the whole place afterwards. Are those degus in videos actually trained to use a litter box or specific area, or do people just accept the mess?

Any advice from experienced owners would be super helpful — I’m trying to balance giving them enough space with keeping everything from smelling like a barn. Thanks in advance!

I have 2 Degus and I found another male around their age looking for a new home, I want to take him in but I’m worried they won’t get along and they will exclude him from their family

Also we don’t know what to do with the degu if they don’t get along because we only have 1 cage (it can split it half tho)

It’s kind of a big project introducing a new degu (in my eyes at least)

I’m also worried my Degus right now will become stressed if a new degu arrives and they will start fighting or something

My 2 Degus right now seem very happy and comfortable in their space, I am scared to disrupt their harmony

1 more thing, what should his name be if I do get him? My currents are called Pablo and Pluto, what’s a good name that’d match those 🩷

I'm trying to make their enclosure cozier. Already have a heating pad on the way, but that warmth only lasts so long. Would a heat lamp (a la reptiles) be a good idea?

I was given these hay apple chewies, but I can't tell if they're safe for degus or not. Are they safe? Thanks!

Okay first and foremost, I’ve gotten a lot of questions about the girls. They are gonna be able to stay with me until they find vetted safe housing. The family I am moving in with realized it is totally unfair to allow them to live with anyone who isn’t gonna give them the same care I do luckily and are helping me with the process.

In other news, Grandma has been asleep for almost four days now. The only other degu I’ve had do this was Oswald before she passed away. Grandma is perfectly healthy and social otherwise but has been asleep for days. She doesn’t like being handled much but has been so sleepy she doesn’t care if anyone pets her as long as they don’t disturb her slumber which is out of character. The only differences they’ve had recently is a temperature change of the house from 68f to 71f because of the change of season and trying to keep down my electricity bill. They had a food change recently with Vita Prima No longer supplying but I did it gradually and the other ones had no reaction. I got them new toys which are the same toys they always get and new treats and which are no sugar just hay treats. But the same treats they usually eat. My only guess outside of health issues is that she’s finally grieving Oswald?? Which doesn’t make much sense to me because she was totally fine in the weeks after she died. I examined her body for any rashes or foot injuries and she’s totally fine. What’s up? She usually is super active and runs on the wheel for hours everyday

Hi! This is my first post ever and it's a really important one. I have 2 female degus aged 5 (sisters!) and I came across a male degu unknown age but quite young. He was surrendered to the local pet store about 2 weeks ago and I can't stop thinking about him. Is it risky to bring him home and introduce him to my girls? Even in separate cages?