Degu Food

Just like us, degus have cetain food requirements for food. For example, we need (or should have) a meat, a veggie and potatos for a meal plus snacks are something that we eat anyway. Also just like us they tend to get bored if they don't have variety in their diet. Degus require a simple day-to day food for basic nutrients. This can be found wiht a 50/50 mixture of guinea pig pellets and chinchilla pellets. Hay is also very good for them and they should always be supplied with either timothy hay or alfalfa hay. The dried hay cubes are okay- however degus don't like them as much. The timothy or alfalfa hay can be placed in a dish, a manger, or the nest box.

Degus require an orange and green leafy veggie as well. This could be yam, sweet potato, carrot, lettuce (romain not iceburg), dandilion leaves or maybe even some green beans. All of these veggies have qualities that make them good for your degu. Yam and sweet potato should be peeled to make sure the degus will not ingest any pestacides etc, however if you grew them yourself and know there are no chemicals on them you may leave the skin on. I give my degus half a slice each every two days or so. If you are going to feed them dandilion leaves make sure that they were NOT sprayed for ANYTHING. Chemicals such as pestacide and weedkillers can harm your degu.

Like any animal- even and especially humans- degus enjoy treats. A few sunflowers every few days and the odd peanut half is apprieciated.

Water should be given to them in a water bottle because they make a HUGE mess if it is in a dish- wood chips among other things if your degu sits on the dish can get into their water. Also the food dish should be ceramic so that it cannot be chewed and it cannot be tipped over.

NOTE: DEGUS CANNOT DIGEST SUGAR! Don't feed them any foods that contain sugar. They do not know how to process simple sugars and will develop diabetes if they are fed sugar containing food. This is not a genetic problem however, it is just that sugar was never present in their natural diet, and therefore they do not know how to process it.

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