Awake when you are
Unlike most small rodents, degus are active in the daytime.
Rabbits and friends · Time every day
Degu
Rodent · from Chile
A brown rodent rather like a large gerbil, with rounded ears, a pale ring round each eye and a long tail with a black tuft.
- Size
- About 15cm long, plus the tail
- Lives for
- 6 to 8 years
- Suits
- Families who want a small pet awake in the day
Scampers after you, chattering. Move your pointer and see.
Good to know
Six things about the degu
Chatty
They have at least fifteen different calls, and warble to each other like birds.
No sugar
Degus cannot handle sugar and easily become diabetic. They must never have fruit or sweet treats.
Orange teeth
Healthy degu teeth are bright orange.
They live in groups
In Chile they live in colonies and dig shared burrows. A degu on its own is unhappy.
They see ultraviolet
Their eyes pick up ultraviolet light, which our eyes cannot.
The real thing
Photos of the degu
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
Looking after one
Keep a same-sex pair or group in a large metal cage with several levels, a wheel and a dust bath. Feed hay and degu pellets.
Before you get one
Degus are friendly and entertaining and live longer than hamsters. They chew through plastic, so the cage must be metal.
Keep going
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