Degu Diet

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