Anyone with first hand experience with...

[Jeanne]

degu's?

OK, I know I said no more rodents, however, when I went to the pet store, I noticed these sweet little degu's.... got to handle one, he was so sweet... and I think I am in love...... so, I need to know:

Do they have a stench that all rodents tend to have to some extent?

What are thier personalities like?

Some of what I read, says they do better in pairs, others say they do fine in single housing.... whats the real scoop on this as far as personal experience?

I did do some research as far as caresheets, however, they surely dont tell you everything you wanna know. The guy I talked to, owns the pet store, and he breeds them himself... he says they do fine alone.... and a bunch of other things, however, I wanna check it against others personal experience.

[Rapture]

They sold them at a pet store I used to work at, but I wouldn't pass on information on caring for them coming from that place... :\

I know they are fast and should be handled regularly if you want to keep one as a pet.

[Shelby]

My cousin had two males.. very much like super sized gerbils. I didn't notice them being particularly stinky.

One of them was quite calm and would let you hold him without a fuss, and the other was a little livewire.

They really like to climb around too.. my cousin had ropes rigged up through the cage and they'd run and jump around like squirrels.

[recycling goddess]

all i remember about them, from selling them at the pet store is they are diabetic so make sure they get NO sugars... that includes fruits. where they come from there are no sugars in their diets so they don't know how to process them.

and... they have a lot of energy so a wheel is absolutely essential for them.

other than that... i am of no assistance whatsoever. sorry

[steveo]

yeah no sugar is very important , we have them at my store , degus are highy social creatures and we will only sell them in a minimum pair or more (ie 2 males or 2 females or male and female if the customer want to breed them or as a group of as many as they want.) they are very endearing and have a well sweet nature to them ive never seen any aggression what so ever. give them a large cage ( i always reccomend at least 4ft high x 4ft wide and a depth of 2ft ) with loads of room to climb and run about and a wheel is important also id recommend a solid wheel over the metal open rung wheel as they can get their tails trapped and it will come off very easily. also give them a dust bath as you would with chinchillas it helps the fur from becoming greasy and they love it! make sure the cage is a metal one as they chew like nothing ive ever seen before lol . overall apart from the obsolutey no fruit what so ever rule there care is very much like that of chinchillas, i think there related to chinchillas and guinea pigs and they are native to chile

[Ginevive]

Yeah, my friend nad some at her store, and I do remember her saying that they had to be in pairs at least; they had some specialized diet; now that I read everyone's posts, I guess it was b/c of the non-sugar-ability.