BABY CENTRAL
your one stop shop for information on five fluffy little babies. info will be updated as needed!
what is a degu???
degus are a medium sized rodent originally from Chile, considered an exotic pet in the UK, the US, & many other parts of the world. they're often compared to chinchillas or squirrels, but they really have similarities to a lot of different rodents and small mammals!
facts about degus:
they have long paintbrush-like tails. if their tail is pulled or gets caught they "deglove": the end of their tail literally comes off! it can look pretty gory but usually heals itself - but the end of their tail doesn't grow back
the fur on their undersides & bellies is UV reactive. degus can see UV light!
their diet is pretty specific; they don’t digest sugar & are very prone to diabetes. they can't have any fruit or vegetable with natural sugar any more often than a tiny bit once a month & they definitely can't have treats with added sugar!
they love to chew literally everything. they often spend hours at a time just chewing on the metal bars of their cage, ignoring their toys & chews because they prefer the sound of the metal
good degu treats are oats (like for porridge), cardboard, and wood (but only some kinds, some are toxic). they’re very good at chewing & can demolish toilet paper tubes in minutes
they live a lot longer than a lot of rodents their size - around 8 years in captivity
like chinchillas, they need a sand bath at least every couple of days to keep clean and comfortable
they're very social & do much better in groups or pairs than alone!
About us
now you know what a degu even is let me tell you about our degu family!!
scully was born in spring 2018 & has been with us since early 2019. she is currently 2 years old. she came to us with her older cagemate and best friend, mulder. scully was extremely anxious, & would barely come out of the corner of the cage for months, panicking whenever we moved nearby. mulder was much braver, probably because he was a rescue found in a drainpipe, so nothing scared him.
mulder passed away in january 2020, & scully hated being alone, so we found her some friends.
snufkin was born in very early 2019 and is currently approaching 2 years old. lentil is his son, born in December 2019, and now approaching 1 year old. we brought them home in february, when lentil was 8 weeks old.
at the time.... we thought scully was male, & with her being so anxious we weren't able to check. so, we moved her and the boys into the same cage. she was very happy about this, and also learnt from watching them interact with us that humans were okay really, and now she is the opposite of anxious and yells at us a lot.
and then, after a couple months of her and the boys living together, we discovered that, actually, she was not male and was very much in possession of a uterus, & now, courtesy of snufkin, there were babies in it.
so, along came ripley and little my on May 28th 2020, along with three brothers who then went to a new home. after she gave birth, scully & babies moved back into her old cage, to prevent any more babies appearing, and now scully, little my, & ripley live in one cage, while snufkin & lentil live in the other next door. they consider this a great injustice.
about our humans
some info about the humans who tend to these babies!
newt is 22, autistic, jewish & non binary, and the one who writes all the tweets. their main twitter is @krelbom
smiff is 23, autistic, & non binary, and takes some of the pictures. their main twitter is @chaoticweird
who's who
a guide to identifying us
but if you still have trouble don't worry, our humans mostly rely on personality that gets lost in photos
SNUFKIN
less fluff on the end of his tail
always chewing bars
obsessed with scully and the girls
ever so slightly bigger
light feet, light belly, pink nose
LENTIL
lil bit of a scratch over his right eye
light feet, light belly
big dramatic eye triangles
likes to clench one fist as if holding a microphone
looks off into the distance with big wide eyes
SCULLY
upper thick eyeliner, very slight under eyeliner
big round eyes, always O_O
black, hairless feet with white toes
darker brown undercoat
sits like an orb and stares at you
RIPLEY & LITTLE MY
twins who are still growing and can be the hardest to tell apart!
little my tries to escape when you open the top of the cage
ripley tries to get into the boys cage
little my likes to cuddle up with mum more
ripley gets random big bursts of energy and sprints around the cage
right now, September 2020,ripley has a little mustache where her fur is shedding, and little my doesn't. I'm sure this will change imminently
