General
When I first bought my first degus, I rode on the bus home with them. I was asked several times about the creature inside the litlle cardboard box, and when I said "It's degus" the general response was "What is that?" whereto I answered "A chinchilla/rat/chipmunk thing"
A degu (Octodon Degu) is a rodent from Chile, South America, which lives in larger groups in burrows. They are very social animals and should be kept at least two together. If you have the room and the interest, getting three might be an idea in case one of them should pass away. |
It is possible for them to bond quite a bit to humans, but no matter how much time we spend with them we can't replace a fellow degu.
They are most active during the morning and the evening, but they can turn nocturnal if they are kept in a warm environment. This is because they can't sweat like we do, so if it's to hot for them to run around during the day, they wake up when it's colder. But even though they are most active during the day, they don't sleep all night. They sleep about 15-30min at a time and then they are running around for a while before taking a nap again. |