Making Your Own Food
I would like to start by saying that I can't advice making your own food unless you are dedicated to learn everything you need to know before doing so. When buying store bought food you are insured exactly what it contains and the amount (Protein, Fat, Ash, Fibre, Calcium, Phosphorus, Methionine, Lysine, Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Vitamin C etc..), and you can be sure that your degu gets what it needs. When making your own food you don't get a precise list of the content, and the nutritional value of each item of the feed may vary depending on quality. Therefor you must spend the neccesary time and research to fully understand the dietary needs of a degu, and if you are not prepared to do that (and keep it up) you should consider sticking to the store bought food.
However, I do see certain advantages in mixing your own food. You have more control over what they get to eat and you might be able to make a healthier and more interesting diet for them. It will most likely be more expensive depending on your possibilities and time available. The seeds wont be too expensive and there are a few different way to get a hold of them. The greens is where it become a bit trickier. There are a bunch of different dried green mixes on the marked, but the quantity needed when they don't get a store bought mix is rather high, and in the long run you will end up spending a lot of money on it. You can also gather or grow your own plants and dry them yourself, but it takes up a lot of space and it will take some time too. The greens should be a mix of different plants and different parts of plants. You can buy dried mixes or dry your own. You can also give them the opportunity to get some fresh plants by planting a few pots and let them gnaw it down, but it might take a while for the degus to get used to this if they haven't been fed much with fresh plants before. |
If you choose to make you own food, the composition should be roughly as followed:
45% Greens 25% Hay 15% Seeds 8% Vegetables 7% Treats (Each percent is about 0,2g depending on your degus appetite, weight, exercise etc...) When mixing the seeds you need to be aware of the nutritional value. The mix should contain about 70% of these seeds: - Celery - Coriander - Cumin - Dill - Fennel - Nigella - Poppy - Sesame Poppy and Celery seeds are very small and might be used in home made treats instead of the feed mix. However, some degus might not have any problem eating the small seeds. For the remaining 30% of the mix you can choose any other seed from the seed list. |