Hello one and all! Today I wanted to share with you some of the foods that make up my degus diet. It is important to note that all owners feed their degus differently; this is my way and will therefore not work for everyone. I am currently in the process of changing some aspects of my degus diet. When this process is complete you can expect to see the changes I have made in a new post. Click to read on past the break! Nom nom nom... Fist item on the list is herbs! I often feed my degus herbs such as Rosemary, Mint, Basil, Parsley and Thyme. You can feed these herbs both fresh and dry, I serve them whichever way is most convenient at the time. You may find your degus will not show an interest in fresh produce, you will therefore need to dry it before feeding. I also purchase bags of herbs from the shops. Mountain meadow herbs are an excellent choice available in pet shops or online. Seeds also make up a large part of the degu diet in the wild. I have one batch with a higher oil and fat content (mostly because of the sunflower seeds) and one lower. Birdseed is generally acceptable; make sure it does not contain fruit or peanuts. I also like to buy a bag of niger seed seperately. I also buy large bags of generic rodent feed from a local store. Please, please be careful if you are feeding guinea pig or chinchilla food, it is not designed for degus and can contain sugars which degus struggle to digest. Check the ingredients carefully before purchase. My batch contains: dried peas and carrots, rolled oats, locust beans, hay, popped corn and fan extracted wheat. This is the aspect of my degus diet that I am trying to move away from, in favour of a completely natural diet.
Next up is pellets. I do not really feed these pellets anymore, they are whats left over from the start of my adventure into degu keeping. I find that generally they are not stimulating enough for the degus. They are often ignored when I add them to a mix and most end up in the bin. Treats
Hay and StrawPlease always provide your degus with fresh hay and straw. This is possibly the most important aspect of their diet, they need hay for their digestive system. I usually provide one large handful everyday. Occasionaly I will remove the stale hay but the degus will often use it as bedding. If you are struggling to persaude your degus to eat their hay, try different kinds. I generally rota between normal hay, straw, camomile and dandelion hay and a few others.
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