Cage
Cage Size
- Lot's of "floor space" (Levels, shelves, platforms...)
- Metal bottom or they might chew their way to freedom during the night
- At least 50x60x100 / a volume of 300.000 cm^3 / a floor area of 9.000 cm^2
- If they rarely get to go outside you have extra reason to provide the biggest and best cage possible
- For every degu you should provide at least 3.000 cm^2 more floor space.
- Lot's of "floor space" (Levels, shelves, platforms...)
- Metal bottom or they might chew their way to freedom during the night
- At least 50x60x100 / a volume of 300.000 cm^3 / a floor area of 9.000 cm^2
- If they rarely get to go outside you have extra reason to provide the biggest and best cage possible
- For every degu you should provide at least 3.000 cm^2 more floor space.
Usually, the first thing you do when getting a pet is getting the cage. Ideally the cage should be as big as possible, but depending where you live and what kind of money you have available, a huge, luxury cage isn't always an option.
The absolute minimum size for 2 degus is 50x60x100 or 300.000 cm^3. You really should not go under that. But volume isn't all. Degus need a lot of "floor space" and you should add as many platforms and shelves as possible. There should be about 30-50cm between each "level", but you can place smaller platforms or wide branches between. The floor area should not be under 9.000 cm^2. The more degus you have in one cage, the more room they need. You should not have more than 7 degus in one cage because of the dedicate hierarchy in a group. There is no exact measure for how big a cage should be compared to how many degus you have, but a thumb rule would be that for each degu, the floor area should be at least 3.000 cm^2 bigger -added to the 9.000 for the first two degus. Try to take advantage of the space - adding a level will quickly improve the cage and make it much more suitable for degus. They will have more fun in a cage with lots of crawling opportunities than a cage with lots of empty space. |
Cage size is in the end just one of several factors in the degus welfare. It is more than possible to keep a happy degu in a "smaller" cage. However, you should always keep an eye on how your degu is doing, and if it shows signs that the cage might be too small for it you should try to enrich the cage or provide a bigger one. A smaller cage with lots of enrichments and interesting stuff can be better than a bigger cage without.
But as I said, getting a bigger cage certainly wont hurt! I have found some cages online for inspiration - check the links below. 60 x 90 x 175 bird cage (danish website) 60 x 60 x 167 bird cage (danish website) 54 x 82 x 158 Chinchilla cage (danish website) 59 x 88 x 156 Chinchilla cage 63 x 94 x 159 Chinchilla/Degu/Ferret/Rat cage 60 x 94 x 142 Rodent cage |