After you’ve owned your Degus for a while, you may become interested in breeding them. However, before you get started with that, there are many things to consider. The first consideration is money. You will not make money from breeding Degus. In fact, in most cases, it will cost you money. The general rule is that if you cannot afford to have a male neutered, you cannot afford the cost associated with breeding either.

With that said, let’s look at the basics. First, your Degus will want to make a nest for their babies. It is up to you to provide the appropriate materials. These include a nesting box, strips of cloth and paper, hay and sticks. The cage should not have large openings that the tiny babies will fall through. Aquariums are ideal, as they are solid.

Next, you need a healthy male, and a healthy female

Degus make interesting and wonderful pets. These are considered to be

If you’re going to possess Degus, you have to be prepared to scrub their cage every week, with a major cage cleaning occurring one or more times a month. If you are not ready to do that, do not get any Degus, as a soiled cage makes an unhealthy environment for them and for you.

When you clean the Degus cage, you want a secure place to move the Degus to. This may be another cage, or a playpen. You can’t clean ‘around’ the Degus while they are still in the cage. When you have took away the Degus, the very next step is to get rid of all the items from the cage. This includes food and water dishes, hayracks, toys, nest boxes, shelves, the exercise wheel, and anything more that might be in the cage.

Toss out the bedding and wash the cage well. You could need to take it outside and hose it down. Dodge using soap, as it might not be rinsed away well. If you actually use soap, attempt to find organic, non-toxic soap. Employ a scrub brush to get rid of anything that is ‘stuck’ on the cage. Either dry the cage with a towel, or permit it to dry in the sun. Just ensure that it is totally dry before you start reassembling everything.

Next, let’s have a look at everything that you removed from the cage. Some of this will have to be washed or hosed down, and other items will have to be thrown out and replaced. Check and clean each item, and get replacements for those that have to be thrown out.

Now, you are prepared to reassemble the cage. Commence with fresh lining materials,eg paper, and cover this with your bedding materials. Put fresh sand in the sand box, fresh dust in the dust bath, and reattach shelves. Put fresh hay in the hayrack, fresh food in the food dish, and clean water in the water bottle. Put everything back within of the cage.

You will most probably need to replace wooden objects at some point, for example branches, wood blocks, wooden nesting boxes, and things of this nature. If you use wooden shelves, you might need to replace these too. Degus will gnaw wood often.

Once you have cleaned and replaced everything, you can simply put your Degus back in their nice, clean cage, and allow them to ‘rediscover’ everything. Ensure that you offer a dust bath on reentry to the cage. You will wish to take away the dust bath, and only provide it each 2 or 3 days, for a certain time period. This keeps you from being forced to replace the cover with clean dust as often.
That’s pretty much all that there is to cleaning your Degus cage and to grooming your Degu. A clean cage is crucial to their good health, and weekly cleaning is suggested. The more Degus you have, the more frequently you’ll need to wash the cage.

Hay is an essential part of your Degus life. Not merely will he eat hay, but he will be able to also use it in his nest building activities. Fresh hay must be available for your Degus. So, what kind of hay should you get, where should you get it, how much is it going to cost, and how precisely can you make it available for your Degus?

First, the best kind of hay for Degus is named Timothy Hay. This is top quality hay that provides your Degus with the fiber that they require. Timothy Hay can be bought from countless sources, including your local pet store, often. If you are unable to find it hereabouts, you can order it online from Pet Smart.

Timothy Hay is inexpensive. 20 oz. of hay costs in the region of 4 greenbacks. At Pet Smart, you can purchase a 96 oz. bag for approximately 15 bucks. Buy in quantity if you can, as you will go thru a large amount of hay for your Degus. At the pet store, the hay will be sold in bags, vs blocks or bales, like what you would expect for feeding stock. So, if you are picturing a huge bale of hay sitting in your drive, you can relax.

Making the hay available for your Degus isn’t really hard in the slightest. You can purchase a hayrack for your cage, and these are sold at most pet stores, or thru online sources. If you can’t find a hayrack, or you can’t fasten a hayrack to the inside of your cage which is generally the case if you’ve a cage with glass walls you can put the hay in a food dish. …The majority of the hay should be in a food dish or in a hayrack. However, you may also scatter tiny bits of hay with the bedding. Your Degus will enjoy hunting for it.

Just as you purchase your hay from a credible pet store, and it is bagged up nice and neat, this isn’t an indication the hay is good. Tons of things can go bad with hay, and it’s important that you check it before you give it to your Degus.

First, the hay should be a light brown, and not green. It should smell fresh, and have a little sweet odour to it. If it smells musty, take it back to the store or throw it away. If there are areas of pink or white coloring in the hay, take it back to the store or throw it away. All these conditions are appearances of mold, which can kill your Degu, or at the least, make him extraordinarily unwell.

You may put as much research into picking the bedding for your Degu’s cage, as you put into choosing the cage and the Degu. Bedding is vital, and not just any kind of bedding will do for Degus. The 1st step is choosing bedding for your Degus cage is to realize how the bedding will be used.

Bedding will be used for burrowing, tunneling, eating, and sleeping. It could be used as a toilet too. Bedding will be used for building nests. It is unquestionably employed in wire cages that don’t have solid bottoms, in a plan to protect the Degus feet. When you mix all these uses, you’ll see that bedding is indeed crucial.

Cedar wood, pine wood, and sawdust should all be evaded when you select bedding for your Degu cage. Cedar and pine have an inclination to cause respiratory issues. You need to also notice that lots of other woods are deadly to Degus. If you use wood slices, select Aspen, hazelnut wood, or hawthorn wood chips.

Your bedding shouldn’t be too dusty. The bedding should be absorbent, and it should be in sufficiently large pieces that it does not fall thru the base of a wire cage. Pellet type bedding shouldn’t be used, and moggy litter need to be avoided.

An ideal situation is to layer the base of the cage with sheets of paper. Following this, put in a layer of wood shavings, and top that off with a mix of grass clippings and hay, guaranteeing the grass clippings and hay don’t come from grasslands that have been chemically handled.

Strips of fabric, paper towels, paper, and little sticks should also be included in the bedding. Your Degus will enjoy looking these things out, and carrying them away to add to their nests. This gives your Degus something vital to do, as digging and finding treasures is as vital to them as building their nests.

Some Degu owners have really complicated setups.They might have one area of the cage covered with grass, one area covered with newspaper, another area covered with hay, yet one more area with nothing except wood, and still another area with sand. This can get time intensive and dear. If you would like to provide numerous bedding materials, simply layer those items. Your Degus will dig to find what they need, and it’s good for them.

Overall, the most significant thing isn’t to use bedding materials that are toxic for your Degus. It’s also crucial to understand that they will likely gnaw, and probably consume, any bedding material that you use. Naturally, you have to also think about your budget, since bedding must get replaced with fresh bedding at least one time a week.

Choosing a Vet for Your Degu

Although Degus are comparatively healthy pets, this does not mean that there will not come a point when you want the services of a vet. As with any other pet, it is sensible to have a vet lined up before sickness or an injury happen. Also note that not just any vet will make an acceptable vet for your Degu.

Start by asking somebody that you trust for a suggestion. If you get your Degu from a breeder, she or he should be ready to counsel a good vet. Otherwise, try and get in contact with other Degu owners to discover which vet they use. You want a vet who is used to caring for Degus particularly.
Furthermore, you must know what types of services your vet offers. What kind of testing kit does he have? Does he offer emergency care? Does he keep office hours that work for your schedule?

Make an appointment with the vets that you would like to check out. You must meet the vet and his staff. Look round the office. Is it clean and orderly? Is there literature available? Is the staff responding to your questions, or are they acting like you’re a trouble to them? Will they give you a tour of the facility?

What associations will the vet belong to? Is he affiliates with the local human society? Is he able to offer you mandatory referrals? Check out each vet that you consider with your states licensing board. Here, you will be in a position to see whether any grouses have been filed against the vet in question.

Your vet wishes more than a good education concerning the custody of animals. He also wishes to really care about the animals. Agree with it not, some vets are in it for the money, and couldn’t care less about the animals.Attempt to get a real sense of where your vet stands on this issue.

Be certain to ask plenty of questions, and try and ask some questions that you already know the answer tojust to make certain the vet actually does know what he is talking about when it comes to caring for Degus. Ask what kinds of procedures he has performed on other Degus, and what the results were.

Finally, try and employ a vet hospital that permits you to see the same vet every time you visit. Seeing multiple doctors can be confusing for you, and annoying to your pet Degu. It could take a little bit of leg work and a lot of questions, but you may find the right vet to worry for your Degu before he basically requires the services of a vet.

After you’ve owned your Degus for a bit, you may become interested in breeding them. However, before you get started with that, there are a lot of things to consider. The number one focus is cash. You will not make cash from breeding Degus. In in most cases, most cases, it will cost cash. The general rule is if you can’t afford to have a male spayed, you can’t afford the price tag related to breeding either.

With having said that, let’s look at the fundamentals. First, your Degus will need to make a nest for their babies. It is up to you to supply the acceptable materials. These include a nesting box, strips of material and paper, hay and sticks. The cage should not have large openings the tiny babies will fall through. Aquariums are ideal, as they are solid.

Next, you want a healthy male, and a healthy female

Becoming a pet owner is a serious responsibility. While most people do not equate the care of a pet to the care of a child, it is essentially the same thing. Just as a child is totally dependant on you, a pet that is kept in a cage is also totally dependant on you for their health and well-being. When you consider various pets, hopefully, you will also consider the Degu.

Degus

The Degu became popular as a pet in the 1980s. Since that time, the popularity has grown, but there are still many people who have never even heard of Degus. Degus are members of the rodent family, but they are very neat, clean animals. They should be kept in cages, for their own safety, as well as for the safety of your furnishings and such.

Degus chew – everything. Wood and plastic are at great risk when a Degu is in the area. Chewing is essential for them because their teeth are always growing. Chewing helps to keep the teeth worn down, and prevents the teeth from growing into the jaw.

While Degus do not produce pet dander, they are not necessarily appropriate pets for those with allergies. This is largely due to the bedding used, the dust bath that is required, and the hay that is required for their nutrition. If you have allergies, make sure that your Degu doesn’t require anything that may irritate your allergies.

While Degus are considered low-maintenance animals, they do require some level of time and attention. You need to interact with them daily, provide food, water and treats, and of course keep their cage clean. If you do not constantly make the dust bath available, you will need to make it available two to three times a week, for thirty minutes to an hour.

Degus are essentially healthy, but can easily develop diabetes due to their inability to process sugar. In most cases, as long as you are feeding your Degu a healthy diet, you can expect few veterinarian bills. This is a plus for many owners. However, other items are a continual expense, such as bedding, food, hay, and dust for dust baths. Because they chew so much, toys often have to be replaced.

It is important to realize that Degus are very social animals, and for their happiness and well-being, it is important that you have at least two Degus. One Degu amounts to a very lonely Degu, despite all the love and attention that you give it. If you aren’t prepared to care for two Degus, consider a different type of pet.