Don't keep degus solitarily!

Degus are social animals and need partners of their own kind. Housing a single Degu is inappropriate to the species.

For some detailed and well-founded information about keeping degus visit:
http://www.degus-online.de/english.htm

Pictures by AngelRei, archimedes, BeMyAngel, ChiChi, coco-chan, DunklerEngel79, E.ViiE x3, guerteltier, honeyguide, Kaeferchen, Katy110471, Krizzy, Lucita, MelliMaus, Nicoelsche, Paramecium, Tess, Tinkii, vogel and 19Uhr30.

Music by Creed.

Thanks to Biene for Degus-online.de and to all who want to keep their pets appropriate and are willing to think about what they could do better...

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• degu
• degus
• solitarily
• solitary
• alone
• lonely
• solitariness
• loneliness
• koszatniczka
• octodon

[mokonekochans]

We had a single degu for eight years. He was happy, and lived a long time (obviously) you can keep them on their own, they just need more attention from you, than if they had a second degu with them.

[19Uhr30]

@mokonekochans Oh sure! Just like humans can be perfectly happy without other people. They just need a gorilla around who gives them a hug every now and then. That makes perfect sense! Thank's for these great insights! (And people say sarcasm does not work in written form...)

[mokonekochans]

@19Uhr30 Well sorry, but leaving comments saying that having single degus will cause them to die early deaths and be miserable and catch diseases etc, is just silly. Lots of people have solitary degus that do just fine.

[19Uhr30]

@mokonekochans I do not think that's silly. But I would also say that is not what I do. I do not claim that lonely degus are sicker or die earlier. I stand on an animal protection point of view. Animals should be able to live out natural behavior as much as possible. Therefore social animals must have conspecifics around. That's keeping a pet appropriate to it's own species.

[alabasterdoll007]

@19Uhr30 in that case, since you're so worried about them living out such a natural life, why are you keeping them as pets? they're native to chile. why are you supporting them being taken out of chile?

[19Uhr30]

@alabasterdoll007 My degus have never been in chile. Neither have their ancestors for generations. There are degus here that are only used to live under human care. I do not support the import of new degus. I do not support the breeding of new degus. I support giving the degus that we have here a life under appropriate conditions.

[NightwishRaven999]

Did the exotic animal vet also tell you degus are not supposed to be kept alone ? Lone degus often resort to biting because they reject human contact...they need others of their kind to feel happy.

I see you are in North Carolina....north american vets also know very little about degus.

Have you spoken to other degu owners ?

You might be surprised to know that degus are considered to be among the rodents least prone to biting.

Make some research and check it out for yourself ; )

[nikolettacubegirl]

cute <3 love degus

[lodowydragon]

ja mam koszatniczki phoeniks i iskierkę oraz 6 małych

[bdaman97]

i had two but then one died and they stopped selling them at the pet store. he is not nearly as happy as he was so i definitely recommend getting more than one

[xX1Kelly1Xx]

Awww There so Cute! I Have to and i love them loads! <3

[AquaPearl10]

@avrillavigneiscool12 Day-Goo. I see your confusing, I kept calling it Deh-Goo