Degu Progress

Eating Degu Pellets

2011-12-15T11:52:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

Just want to share this picture with you. My degus NEVER eat thier pellets since they have been fed thier natural mix, this unfortunately left me with a few KGs of degu pellets. Usually I try to add them into the natural mix but the degus never fall for it ... causing my to throw away many pellets. Today while one was sat on my leg I tried to give him a pellet and he just started eating them! Its a mircale! 30mins later he was back to throwing them at me when I offer them :(

Degus never make thier mind up...

CRAZY DEGUS!

Cleaning natural branches and logs

2011-12-03T05:29:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone I just wanted to quikcly share with you a couple of methods you can use to clean wood. (note: this is for wood you have found in the wild and wish to bring home and use, not wood that needs to be cleaned becuase of degus)

I was recently given a collection of large stumps and branches by a friend who is a gardner.
(These are the stumps, I did not get chance to photograph the branches as I was busy getting ready for work, but I will share these another day) (These stumps are all from an oak tree)

So as you can see it was a nice varied collection. I have some that I can use upright as posts for them to stand on and some smaller thinner peices I can use to line the cage or bridge a gaps between ledges.

However all the peices were dirty and needed cleaning, there is not often a problem with freshly cut wood as the tree's natural defences should deel with most parasites and infections. My peices had been fell for quite some time, leaving fungal infections on the wood.

The first task was to scrub away any dirt and infection, I used warm water, fairy liquid and scratchy spounge. This part takes quite a long time from my experience. After this I boiled the kettle and poured it over the wood to remove any remaining dirt and fairy liquid (I had to boil the kettle about 5 times before I was done). Finally I put the peice into the oven and baked it on about 150 degrees. This is the important part now! Please, please keep a close eye on it the hole time it is in the oven and please seek parental guidance also. While my stump was in the oven it did give off smoke but never caught fire. after about 10mins I removed it carefully and left it to cool.

Getting the log wet then baking it in the oven helps it to go rock hard.

The finished product should look something like this.

As you can see it is very clean and the wood is now more of a golden brown colour as opposed to the creamier colour before it was baked.

The other option you can take is to use a plainer to remove all the bark and then just scrub and hand dry the wood, this is a method I used on some of my branches, I will be sure to share pictures of this shortly.

Thanks for reading, have a nice weekend!

Smithomatic

Cage Glass Runners

2011-11-30T05:07:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to make a quick post about how I fixed my glass runners to the cage.

My 1st job was to attach the side runners to the sides of the cage. These give the glass something to slot into nicely when closed. When you attach these runners make sure that the runner is flush on the inside of the cage or the degus will chew thier way out.

I used screws to attach my side runners - 3 screws, one at the top bottom and middle. When you put your screws in, do so diagonally, this should prevent the wood from splitting. Then you need to counter sink them.

To count sink : drill a larger hole above where your screw will be. Once screwed in, the head of the screw should be flush with the wood. Otherwise the Glass wont close properly.

As you can see my screw has not been counter sunk, forunately my side runners are deep enough for this not to be a problem.

Your side runners should reach the full stretch from top to bottom, as your main glass runners will fit inside them. Your side runners should also Not be "double u" runners.

See how the main runners fit inside the side runners:

The next job was to glue the bottom and top runners in place. For this I used GripFill.

GripFill is a very strong adhesive that dries relatively quickly and sets like concrete. So be careful not to get it anywhere else on your cage, its a nightmare to remove.

I squeezed a thin line of GripFill along the edge where I wanted my runner to be. Then I press my runner down firmly in place, ensuring that it was flush on the inside of the cage. Now I used all the clamps I could get my hands on to keep it firmly in place. Be careful when attaching the clamps, I myself had to make many adjustments to the runners position as every time I tightended a clamp; the runner would move slightly. Take your time and make sure you get it right.

You need to leave the runners to dry for 24hours minimum. I left mine for 48hours and they have set nicely. For the few months I have had sliding my heavy glass windows along them they have no budged at all.

If you have any excess GripFill (no doubt you will) that gets squeezed out over the edge, you can use terpentine or white spirit to remove it while its wet. Just be careful as terpentine and white spirit are dangerous.

Make sure that if you are choosing to use Glue, think very carefully about what you are planning to do. I had to remove the roof of my cage to slide the glass in, so I made sure that nothing glued would prevent me from doing this. You need to do the same. If you realise you need to take a piece off that you have glued so you can slide your glass in; you will need a new panel of wood.

Many thanks for reading, have a great afternoon.

Smithomatic

Degu Diet

2011-11-29T18:22:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, I just wanted to share some information with you about my Degu's deit. Please see the pictures below with descriptions. (Please be aware that all oweners feed thier degus differently, this is my way and will not be suitable for all.)

My collection of food

I always purchase a few bags of mountain medow and country garden herbs from the local pet shop. You get lots of exciting things in these like dry crispy birch leaves, rose petals and small twigs which my degus love to chew / gnaw on (especially the twigs!?)

Seeds: I purchase 3kg of bird seed, it is very cheep the more you buy and keeps for a long time. This bird seed lasts for about 8 - 9 months. I buy 3 different kinds of birdseed.

The first seed I buy is Niger seed.

I also purchase 2 different bags of regular bird seed. One is lower in fat and the other higher, containing sunflower seeds etc. The reason for 2 different bags is because I can easily decrease or increase the fat % of thier diet without having to individually pick out the fattier seeds.

Low Fat

High Fat

I buy 6kg of assorted Guinea Pig / Rabbit / Chinchilla food. This selection consits of dried carrots, peas, locust beans, rolled oats and a few other things. There are 2 important things to know about these mixes; 1st is that you should make sure that there are no raisins or other sugary foods in your mix, 2nd is that if you are choosing to use locust beans try to limit them to about 1 -2% of your mix as they contain very small traces of sugar. Degus are diabetic, this is why the no sugar rule is important!

Although there are some pellets included in the rabit mix I also offer Pets at Home Degu Nuggest as well. My degus tend not to bother eating these but I like to offer them as they tend to be very hard which is good for degus teeth.

Treats

My favorite treat to offer is millet spray. Some owners offer this as a regular supplement to thier degu's diet, which if fine. The reason I offer it as a treat is becuase my degus get so excited whenever I open the box, I dont want to spoil thier excitement by always making it available.

Next we have Oats. I list this under treats however more and more owners have started to move toward feeding this as something to build wellness after injury or sickness, including myself.

Also under treats, I have Monkey nuts. These are so high in fat! Please do not feed your degus more than 2 of these a month. Degus go very crazy for monkey nuts, VERY!

Finally, Carrot logs. I tend to keep 1 of these in the cage almost all the time. They are great for the degus teeth, as they try to get to that "carroty" inside they must 1st chew the wood around the carrot.

Hay

Finally and most importantly - HAY. All degus should be provided with fresh hay all the time. In order to keep my degus interested in thier hay I try to change it up once a week. I generally rotate between regular hay, dandelion hay, camomile hay and natural hay from a local farm shop which is really fluffy and long (below).

I am intending to create another post that details my completed mix, portion size, proportion of ingredients and my Degu's eating habits. Hopefully this should help with any questions anyone might have.

Thanks everyone for reading.

Many thanks,

Smithomatic

Degu Cage is finished! Bottom level looks like a forest..

2011-11-26T07:54:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, I know I have not posted for a long time but I have been really busy with my degus lately. Please see below some pictures of the bottom level of my finished degu cage.

I have added Birch tree and Oak tree branches (with the leaves still attached) to the cage. It helps the cage look much more natural, it gives the degus something to clamber on, they can chew the branches and they love to tear and rip at the leaves! They will often eat these leaves too.

When introducing a mini-forest to your degus you must be careful. You must remember that nearly all degus are born and raised in pet shops and often do not have access to these materials. Most degus will be completely fine with Birch and Oak (Degus are adapted for a high tannin intake) but precautions must be taken when introducing these items.

It is best to introduce the new woods and leaves slowly. I began with introducing the Birch first. I added a few leaves removed from the branch mixed in with thier hay and a few twigs of Birch littered around the cage. I then monitored thier reaction to it over a week, once I was happy with the "all clear" I began to introduce hole branches of birch with the leaves still attached. Increasing over time. I repeated this entire process for introducing the Oak Branches. They have gone down a treat!

I used some slabs of Oak and some Bark to create this small shelter in the corner of the cage (below). They are currently using this as thier nest, it is crammed full of leaves they are using as nesting material. On the bottom level they also have access to clay roof tile tunnel (above). These make fantastic tunnels as they are a great shape, durable and easily cleaned. Bury these under your bedding as your degus love to dig and uncover these tunnels!

This is just the bottom level of my degu cage guys, I will hopefully post some more pictures soon of the hole cage. I would like to do this level by level so I can talk a bit more in detail about each one.

Many thanks,

Smithomatic - Have a great weekend!

2011-10-04T15:40:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Quick update before the glass arives. The cage is finished now, I'm just adding the final furnishings. This is a picture of the vivarium in place and ready to go.

While the cage is being set up and prepared the degus are living in a make-shift pen in my room.

Im still looking for some decent branches and logs to put into the cage, im attaching some small shelves and ledges at the moment. When you build your vivariums, try not to throw anything away! You can make some cool extra ledges and things from offcuts and spares. Below is a picture of what I made out of my offcuts:

Offcuts

What you can Build!

To join these together, I used Gripfill. I don't usually agree with using glues and pastes to fix things together in a degu cage as they do like to chew and I'm worried they will ingest the glue. However, in this case I ran out of budget. I have glued them in a way so the joins are not easily chewed, I will also be monitoring thier chewing; if I see them taking a special interest they will be immediately removed.

Thanks for reading everyone! And to finish a quick picture of the new baby, hes about 7 weeks at the moment.

Smithomatic :)

Degus getting ready for bed

2011-10-04T05:51:00.000-07:00

Hello,

I just wanted to share this video with all of you, its a video of my degus getting ready for bed time after a play. I have had it sat in my computer for ages and never released it. The cage in this video is the one they used to live in, back when I made this post. The video also gives a bit of an idea of my old cage set up.

Degus featured are Chewy and Scut

Enoy! :)

Glass has been orderd!

2011-10-03T01:32:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

The glass has now been orderd should be here in the next 3-4 days. I have also managed to give the garage a huge clean out, so I will be able to get some better snaps of the set up. Also I am hopeing there will be enough space on the floor in front of the cage to create a run for them.

The glass is more much more expensive than PVC windows, I will display in a future post why PVC may be unsuitable for many cages. My current degu cage uses PVC, I bought one large sheet from Wickes and cut it to size my self. You can see the PVC I used here http://www.wickes.co.uk/acrylic-sheet/invt/210002/. Unfortunately I could not find a link to the same material in BNQ however I do know that they sell it and that it is cheaper there.

I ordered my glass from Roman Glass (http://www.romanglass.co.uk/), they have a fair few outlets across the UK. When you order the glass, be sure to ask for it Edged and Toughened, this will strengthen the glass so that if it does break it will be in large peices (not the dangerous spikes and dust that some glass smashes into). Having it "edged" will also help it to slide in its runner. The total cost for my 4 peices of glass was £120.00 inc. VAT.

Roof Tiles

2011-09-28T15:53:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Quick update, I just wanted to share these with you while they are fresh in my mind. You can get them from building industrial estates, offer to buy the spares off people who have just had extensions to thier homes or Ebay. Obviously they will need a tidy up depending on thier condition. Stay tuned to the blog, I myself have some of these roof tiles and will post them here when I get my cam fixed.

They make excellent tunnels and hiding holes for Degus, I love the lip at the front of the tile. Reminds me of a little hobbit home or something. They are great for burying under bedding for the degu to find aswell! They still look very natural above bedding too, I cant wait to share my pics of the ones in my cage.

Degu Cage Progress

2011-09-21T15:59:00.000-07:00

Please find below a video of my degu cage progress so far. The cage is structurally ready, just need to add the furnishings, metal work and glass. Very near the end now!

Please also note that it does not take as long to make a degu cage as I have been taking. I have been purposefully only doing small bits at a time as my degus live in the garage and the garage is also my only place to perform wood work. I do not wish to disturb them too much or fill the room with saw dust.

Many thanks all,

Smithomatic

Degu cage - Shelves

2011-09-21T15:53:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to show everyone that I have built and installed the shelves (or levels) of the degu cage. Below are some pictures of the steps I used.

As you can see below, I have the shelf already cut (I had this done previously when I had all my peices cut) and I have trimmed off the 4 corners so it fits inside the cage around the (inner) frame.

I have used a jigsaw to cut 2 holes into the shelf at the back, this way the degus can get from level to level.

In the middle I have bolted 2 strips of pine down. My "divider panel" will slide in between these 2 strips, this gives the degus an equal share of the cage without being able to get to each other.

In the picture below my "divider panel" has a large rectangular hole in the middle. This will be covered in mesh so the degus can see each other but not attack each other.

I then attach two long panels of pine wood onto the front of the shelf. This will keep the bedding in. I bolted two strips of pine wood frame to the front and then bolted my two pine wood panels to them.

This is what the finished product looks like:

I then had a friend hold the shelf in place while i drilled the holes through the side and into the frame underneath the shelf. We then bolted everything together.

Below are some pictures of the shelves inside the cage.

Many thanks everyone, keep an eye, more updates to come!

Smithomatic

Degu Home - Top Tier

2011-09-19T11:49:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

I wanted to post some pictures of the Degu cage. Progress has been slow trying to fit the build in around work.

I have added the back panel of the cage, this panel is made of 2 smaller panels as BnQ were not able to provide a sheet of MDF big enough!

As you can also see, I had to take the picture from just outside the door, the garage is very small with all the DIY kit out. Not only this but the cage almost touches the ceiling.

I have also finished creating the top tier.

I have left a small gap in the frame to allow for the runners to fit inside. I got the idea for this top tier here (this is a very informative degu website by Nightwishraven999). I decided however that I could use the entire space by making a shelf here, thus giving the degus more room to explore. Half of this top tier will be behind glass (I need to add a hole to this top shelf so the degus can get up) and the other half will be a balcony for them to come out and visit us on!

Below are some pictures of longtail (one of my degus) exploring the top tier and checking that everything is in order. He seems to be quite pleased with the results.

Many thanks everyone, stay tuned!

Smithomatic

Back Panel

2011-09-16T10:55:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

Back panel has been attached, pictures soon. Do stay tuned!

I will also be releasing a complete list of materials and tools required, aswell as where you can get them and at what cost.

Many thanks,

Smithomatic

2011-09-15T15:41:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, I just wanted to clarify one of the pictures in my designs.

As some of you may have noticed one of the pictures in my designs is half blue and half purple. This is because my 3 degu boys do not get along. The purple area is the space I have designated to one of the degus and the blue area is the space I have designated for the other two degus. They will all be living in the same cage.

Build progress so far

2011-09-15T15:30:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, heres another update for you.

So I have started to build the cage and below is the progress so far...

So in this first picture you can see the base of the cage and some pine strips that I am using to construct the frame. The front back and side panels are going to sit on top of the base, because of this the frame needs to be 18mm inside the base (18mm is the thickness of the MDF sheets). It is also not important if the frame stretches all the way around, it will work as long as the pine strips hold the panels to the base.

I am using 55mm bolts to attach everything in the cage together. Bolts are good because it means that each panel is easily removed in the future and replaced if required. Bolts, unlike screws, will not move around in the hole you drill if the structure wobbles (this will make the holes bigger and the structure will become more and more wobbly!). Bolts go straight through and keep everything really tight.

Below you can see how the front panel has been attached, a steel "double u" glass runner will sit exactly on top of this panel at a later date.

I use about 3 bolts to secure a panel, depending on whether or not it still feels a bit wobbly. If it still does not feel secure I use 3 - 5 bolts, you shoudnt need more than this. (unless you are building a HUGE cage!)

There will be 4 strips of pine wood in each corner to secure all the panels to each other. As you can see below I have 1 strip attaching the side panel to the front panel, and another strip ready to secure the side panel to the back panel. The side panel also has 2 bolts securing it to the base.

I have also secured another front panel that will frame the glass sliding doors. I used another long pine strip and 3 bolts to secure this smaller panel.

More build updates to come (hopefully) this monday, so stay tuned!

Many thanks guys! :)

Panels for new cage have been cut!

2011-09-15T14:41:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

The panels for the new degu cage have been cut! As you can see from my plans in the previous post, I worked out which panels would fit onto which sheets of MDF. Building has now started, more to come on my progress this Monday or Tuesday.

Below is a video of one of the sides being cut from a sheet of MDF. (A big thanks to luke in the video, very helpful member of staff and very patient with my large order!)

*EDIT UPDATE*
I would recommend to anyone that has access to this service to make use of it, even if it costs extra! It saves so much time and is a far more accurate way of cutting large peices of wood. Accuracy is so important on projects so large, a few millemeters out at the start can cause disasters at the end!

Blue prints and planning!

2011-09-14T19:19:00.000-07:00

As im sure you all know, coming up with a bullet proof plan for any building project is important! (Especially with degus, needs to be degu proof!) Planning out carefully what you are going to do is very important, below you will be able to see the detail I have gone into with my plan.

(note: the pictures below do not represent all my planning. I have worked out costing, exact materials and tools needed etc. I will be sharing these at a later date.)

Ok, so here are some of the plans / blue prints I have been working on. Exact measurements are very important! These pics show some of my thought scribbling, working out the measurements and the overall idea for the cage design. I am hoping to start buying the materials later today, I am very excited!

Enjoy!

2011-09-12T12:06:00.000-07:00

Hello again everyone,

While looking to see if I had any more pictures for degu cage building, I stumbled across some old pictures of my degus. I though it would be nice to share these with you.

I guess what I am trying to say is, although building a wooden cage is a great experience, it is not for everyone. These pictures clearly display that degus can be just as happy in a wire cage of the correct size. Wooden homes do reduce a large quantity of the mess but can be more difficult to assemble.

Smithomatic

New Degu Cage

2011-09-11T17:42:00.000-07:00

Just to let everyone know I will be adding another, hopefully more detailed guide, on how to make a degu cage. I am looking to build a new bigger cage for my boys.

So if this is something that you will be interested in, please stay tuned.

Building a degu cage (Issue 1)

2011-09-11T17:27:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone, I just wanted to share with you my experiences of building a degu cage. From what I have seen, scouring the internet, more and more degu owners have begun to build their own degu cage. I decided that this was a venture I would like to embark on. Below is a breakdown of the stages involved when I constructed my degu cage.

Step 1

Ok, so the 1st thing to do was to build the frame. I selected pieces of MDF and had them cut at the local hardware store. I then used strips of kiln dried pine to bolt each piece of MDF together. The base had 4 strips of kiln dried pine attached, I then bolted the sides and back onto the base. I also attached a small panel to the front; this is for keeping all the bedding in later on.

At this point we had to take quite a large break between Steps 1 and 2, so we started building again about 7pm. Some of the pictures from here on are a little dark because we built it outside on the drive.

Step 2

The next step was to attach planks of pine wood to the top of the degu cage; this makes the cage look neater and gives you something to staple the mesh onto.

It is important to make sure that you get a mesh that is too small for the degus to squeeze through, or to make sure that the mesh is high up enough that the degus can’t reach it.

In one of the pictures below you can see we have turned the degu house upside down so we can staple the mesh to the inside of the cage.

The mesh you can see in the pictures was too large and was later replaced by smaller mesh and a wooden lid.

It is also important to make sure that any structural frame work is covered with metal strips or is on the outside of the cage. In my design the degus are able to chew the pine strips inside the cage but fortunately doing so does not compromise the structural integrity of the cage and does not allow them to escape either.

Step 3

After the mesh is attached, we glued on some PVC runners to the top and bottom. It is important to make sure that these runners are flush.

Once the runners are in place you can add your windows so that you can see your degus playing in their new home. Using PVC windows is easier for this design as they are flexible and can be removed and replaced easily by simply lifting them out. However as a negative, PVC is much more easily scratched and cracked. This is something that has happened to me since finishing building my degu cage. Glass is much sturdier and resilient to biting and scratching.

Step 4

Once the main "DIY" jobs were completed I moved my degus new home to the place that I wanted it (in my case our garage, it is a large well ventilated room that remains at just under room temperature through most of the year).

I attached 2 more panels of pine to the top of the cage to keep it looking neat.

I then added the middle shelf and another panel of pine to hold in the bedding.

Left over pieces of MDF were added inside the cage to be used as ledges and shelves for the degus to climb and jump on.

Step 5

Finally add your choice of bedding; in my case I used wood shavings from Pets at Home. I added plenty of hay for them to forage in and use as nesting material as well as adding some shredded paper and fluff.

Add your cage furnishings. In my case the degus wheel, some wooden branches for them to climb and I used an old curved roof tile for them to use as a tunnel.

Then just put in your degus and enjoy watching them explore their new home!

I would say that in total, for an inexperienced cage builder (such as myself) that it takes around 6-7 hours to build a cage. (Unless you are wood gluing your cage together, as this may take longer.) Make sure to hoover out your cage and clear it of any potential splinters that may be left in the cage from the build. It may also be a good idea to observe the degus in their new home for a short while to make sure that you haven’t missed anything and that there is no escape routes.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post on how to build a degu cage.