Hello everyone, time for round 2! In todays article I will further expand on my degus diet. I am now at a stage where I feed a completely natural diet to my degus, however in this article I will demonstrate my 50/50 natural mix. When I started my venture into 50/50 natural nutrition I was very strict with my feeding routine. I planned to feed 1 portion of the mix (a fast food container filled) to my 4 degus per day. I created 7 portions in advance each week. This may seem quite a strict routine, (and a lot of effort) but the notion of feeding degus natural ingredients instead of hard feed is a new concept to many countries. Germany appears to be ahead of the game in this department leaving the UK, America and Canada to catch up. Natural nutrition, being such a new concept, of course made me weary - hence the strict portions, better allowing me to monitor the degus progress and response. After the first month I was pleased to see excellent results and that my worrying was for naught. The most difficult aspect of creating a good natural feed is learning what is safe to feed your degus. Don't let this fear stop you; it really can be a fun and exciting experience. With my 50/50 mix I first add the processed feed, filling half way. I used a generic rodent hard feed containing dried vegetables and some extruded products. Please check that the product is degu safe before use. Once the 7 containers are half filled I began to add the seeds. I added my niger seed first but the order from this point onward is obviously unimportant. I added one handful of this seed to each container. Following this, I then added a handful of bird seed to each container. The birdseed it composed of millets, grass seeds, quinoa and oats. The seed mix also contained a fair few sunflower seeds. Looking back, I would have removed these; the hard feed in the mix provides the degus with high energy and fat, so there is no need to include a high energy seed such as sunflower. Sunflower seeds are now a staple part of my degus diet as I no longer feed the hard mix. Next I added large handfuls of herbs and grasses. The herbs were varied; they included nettle, marigold, camomile, thyme, rosemary, mint, parsley and sage. I also added some dandelion leaves, birch tree leaves and apple and blackberry leaves. If I remember correctly there was also a small quantity of rose petal. Once all of the desired ingredients were added, I gave it a quick mix (being careful not to make a mess - I found pinching from the bottom and dragging the ingredients about is better than "stirring") and was ready to go. It's important to monitor carefully your degus reaction to their new food. Keep a keen eye for any health issues that develop; sneezing, discoloured faeces and cataracts are all possible signs that the degu is receiving too much or little nutrition. Its also important to remember that your degus may take a while to come round to their new diet. Mine took about 2 weeks before they realised most of the ingredients were indeed edible. I wish any owners that intend to embark on this project the best of luck! You won't be disappointed! If you have any questions at all, please check the degus international forum for great advice. Alternatively you can leave comments below; I will endaevour to answer any questions. Please stay tuned as I will be elaborating on my degus feed soon. I have recently been experimenting with fresh and dry vegetables, grasses, dead flora, tree bark, fresh weeds and flowers. I now feed a 100% natural diet.
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