So you have just bought / adopted degus - great! The first and in many ways most important aspect of keeping degus is the enclosure, where your degu is (most likely) going to spend the entirety of its life. This is an important and expensive decision however you go about it, but once this challenge has been conquered the rest of your degus requirements will fall into place so easily. Choosing the right enclosure will prevent many issues from arising. The right enclosure reduces the risk of degus fighting, allows them the opportunity to exercise (and therefore is related to health), allows them to exhibit a much more natural behavioural pattern and much more. I am a strong advocate of wooden enclosures (and just a little bias!) but both metal and wooden enclosures have their advantages. After the break I will attempt to sum up the pros and cons of each to help you better make best the decision for you and your furry friends. First things first, I would like to briefly cover the basic features that should be present in all degu enclosures. Metal wire or wooden, all enclosures should meet these minimum standards.
Wooden enclosuresAdvantages
One of the great things about building your own wooden enclosure is the sheer scope, variety and options available to you. You can build enclosures that best fit the shape and size of the room. You can build interesting and unique designs and you can easily provide your degus the space they require. Building on the idea of customization - inside the enclosure it is possible to easily add lighting, you could have different heights for each level or perhaps you could add a system of smaller ledges throughout the enclosure for your degus to hop between. One of the best features of a wooden design is that you can build deeper levels in which to add lots of substrate to provide your degus with digging opportunities. The possibilities with wooden enclosures are limited only by your imagination!
Wooden enclosures can be very easy to clean. They often have removable glass, doors that swing open or removable levels (depending on your design). This means that cleaning a wooden enclosure is often much easier than cleaning a wire counterpart. Wooden enclosures permit easy access to all areas that need cleaning (no more bending trying to get to those hard to reach places) and there is no need to scrub individual bars, rather you have one plain flat surface to wipe clean. Wooden enclosures also have the option to have perspex, plexi-glass or glass front. This prevents the degus from kicking all of their bedding out of the enclosure and onto the floor.
A wooden enclosure makes a great focal point for a room. You can paint it to match the room or stain the wood in a colour of your choice (or leave it bare). I have seen many designs that incorporate the enclosure into a book case or TV cabinet of some kind. You can improve the look of your enclosure by landscaping the inside. By creating a very natural set-up inside it is possible to improve the appearance of your enclosure greatly - not to mention it is also fantastic for the degus! Natural aesthetics are easy to achieve, the key is using natural materials such as stones, branches and plants and earthy warm colours such as browns, oranges, creams. A splash of green from branches really helps to complete the look. With a little bit of effort you will have something fantastic to look at!
When it comes to cost, the outright expenditure of a wooden enclosure can be quite steep. A wooden enclosure will more than likely be more expensive than any commercial metal cage however in terms of value per square inch, wooden enclosures are much cheaper. Not only this, but the initial investment is well worth it in the long term. A wooden enclosure can carry more bedding at a time and will therefore take longer to be soiled, the average enclosure clean time is every 4-5 weeks. You will also save time cleaning less often and the degus are unable to kick their bedding outside of the enclosure. My personal enclosure has certainly paid for itself in terms of reduced bedding costs. As for the time spent building the enclosure, I have earned this time back due to time saved cleaning. Additional assorted benefits
Next week!Next week I will be discussing the advantages of wire cages, so check back if you want to read about that! I think it is fair to assume that in most cases the disadvantages of wooden enclosures are the advantages of metal ones, so to save time writing and you reading I will not be summarizing the disadvantages of each.... OK, well maybe a couple.
1 Comment
12/24/2014 02:46:09 pm
The right enclosure reduces the risk of degus fighting, allows them the opportunity to exercise (and therefore is related to health), allows them to exhibit a much more natural behavioural pattern and much more. Leave a Reply. |