Degu Paradise
Hello dear friends!
Do you still know you I am? It's me the crazy Degu charmer from Germany *waves madly*.
Yes yes, the one with the wild hair who loves stripy stockings very much.
Now I don't want to keep you waiting for the Degu story any longer, I know that you came only to hear that one ;-)
What is the last thing you know? *skips through entries*
You know Lilo, the 'Golden Girl', my eldest. You know about Charlie, the rascal. You also know that I got myself two girls as birthday present. They have names now: Yuma, with scars on her feet, and Kiko, the shy. Well not really shy but more shy than Yuma. Both are devils in cute furry disguise because they are still trying to bite every finger that comes near them. But yeah, I love 'em anyway. So the girls brought with them their own home, a bird aviary you could use for budgies or canaries.
The plan was to build a Degu castle. A big box with several levels and enough space for all four of them. And not to forget: Enough space to keep two seperate groups if it wouldn't be possible to socialize Lilo and Charlie with the girls.
I managed to get two old office filing cabinets which should for the corpus for the castle. But my non-existent home improvement skills forced me to ask Marco for help a lot. As usual he had little to no time to do anything. So I kept searching for ideas online. I looked up many many cages and talked to other members of the Degu Forum a lot.
Then, by pure accident, I found an entry of a member saying something along the lines of: Huge cage for free! I looked at the pics and was amazed. This was the perfect cage for Degus. Not even a castle, a paradise! I got in contact with the member, Alex, and agreed on meeting the next week. The thing was: the cage was really huge and with it I had to take three Degu girls and I had to organize the transport because it was about 140 km away from my town. But when I saw the thing from up close I was even more amazed. Alex built the thing on his own and he really knows his stuff.
So I thought about it for one night and then told him I would take it.
I spare you the long, tearful and frustrating story of how I organized the transport. Just let me tell you: I found a huge enough transporter only four days before the whole action was about to start. The transport itself also was a tightrope walk between bursting into tears, laughing and fearing for someones life. Because the boxes (Degu paradise consists of two huge wooden boxes) were REALLY heavy. The lighter one was guessed to weigh 150kg (330lb) and the heavier one was guessed at 200kg (440lb). And now you imagine that two guys, and both are not wishy-washy guys, are trying to get these boxes from the third (US fourth) floor down to ground level, put them into the transporter and at my place get them out of the transporter and the four steps up to my apartment. And everything without getting injured (Alex hurt his knee badly), without damaging other peoples properties, without exploding the motor of the tranporter, without destroying the boxes and without someone getting caught underneath the boxes. Well, we made it. And apart from Alex' knee and a few patches of scratched skin everyone got out of that safe and sound. Only my laminate flooring now has three nasty scratches. But better the floor than a person.
The three girls traveled in a huge bucket and behaved very well. They are a mom and her daughters. Mom, Kyra, is the most shy of them. The two daughters haven't had any names and I must think of good ones.
Now here is the result: I now have two huge wooden boxes in my living room and nearly no light in my kitchen. There are now seven furry bottle-brush tailed imps making noise all day and night. And I love them all. I spend hours sitting in front of my Degu TV, just watching what they were doing. Because Degus always have something to do. And if one group decides to nap, another group will take up the noise making.
Yes, I keep them in three separate groups right now. Two groups, the new girls and the demon girls can see, hear and sniff each other through holes covered with wire. I hope to sozialise them so I can give them all more space together. Lilo and Charlie are completely separated right now. I think that Lilo with her five years is the granny right now. Also she is nearly blind and I don't want her to get beaten up or bitten without an escape route for her. And Charlie, well, I guess he would LOVE to visit all the girls asap. But he has to keep Lilo company and they are getting along togehter so wonderful and cute that I don't want to separate them without need.
You see the whole Degu paradise.
Behind it you can see my kitchen and in front of it is my living room. I successfully separated them now. The dimensions are: 5.25ft high, 5.41ft wide and 2.56ft deep. The top box is divided into two huge cubical parts. The lower box is divided into five parts of different size. Right now Lilo and Charlie live in the top right cube. The three girls have the top left cube, and the two parts directly below it. The demon girls (Yuma & Kiko) have the middle part and the two right parts of the lower box.
This is Lilo, sitting on the hot water bottle. (Which is in fact a spirits bottle with warm water) She loves to warm her creaky old bones on it. But Charlie always tries to shove her of with his furry butt.
One of the new girls, they are a bit scared of everything right now and got completely frantic when I took pics with flash. What you see above the girl is a hanging basket for flowers. It is filled with hay, which Degus eat a lot, and used as bed when I'm not looking. They jump out of it as soon as they hear me enter the room so I never caught them sleeping in it. You can also see the empty nutshell? Degus are great as stand-in squirrels.
This another of the girls. Sitting next to the entry/exit hole. The different parts are connected with round holes and wooden bridges. Most of the time they don't run up and down the bridges but use them as jumping board. Degus are champion jumpers. Charlie once got over a 1.64ft high barrier in one jump. And Degus are seldom longer than a medium sized human hand (exclusive tail).
Trying to sneak a close up from the girl. Sadly the plexiglas reflects the flash.
Now without plexiglas. One of the girls gets bold and sticks her nose out. The two daughters are somewhat brave. They already took food from my hand and came close enough for me to quickly touch them. Kyra, the mom, always stays in another part of the cage when I'm trying to get in contact.
The lower box and a sensitive spot. Degus are natural escapees. They always try to find a way out of their home, no matter how big and nice it is.
So this spot between the perforated sheet (for ventilation) and the plexiglas always gets gnawed at. There is an aluminium band to protect the plexiglas but Alex told me that they managed to bite through that. So I have to keep an eye on that.
And what you see here is an abusive use of a shoe lace. I had to tie it around the knobs to keep the devil Degus from sliding the plexiglas aside. There was a safety latch to keep the doors from sliding far enough to let a Degu through. But even the small gap they were able to open would give their teeth enough space to gnaw. Within no time they would have escaped and crowded my living room and we can't have that now, can we?
Whew, this was a long post. I'm keeping all other topics for a later entry, ok? I want to have my evening now, with Degu TV.
So again: stay tuned!
Do you still know you I am? It's me the crazy Degu charmer from Germany *waves madly*.
Yes yes, the one with the wild hair who loves stripy stockings very much.
Now I don't want to keep you waiting for the Degu story any longer, I know that you came only to hear that one ;-)
What is the last thing you know? *skips through entries*
You know Lilo, the 'Golden Girl', my eldest. You know about Charlie, the rascal. You also know that I got myself two girls as birthday present. They have names now: Yuma, with scars on her feet, and Kiko, the shy. Well not really shy but more shy than Yuma. Both are devils in cute furry disguise because they are still trying to bite every finger that comes near them. But yeah, I love 'em anyway. So the girls brought with them their own home, a bird aviary you could use for budgies or canaries.
The plan was to build a Degu castle. A big box with several levels and enough space for all four of them. And not to forget: Enough space to keep two seperate groups if it wouldn't be possible to socialize Lilo and Charlie with the girls.
I managed to get two old office filing cabinets which should for the corpus for the castle. But my non-existent home improvement skills forced me to ask Marco for help a lot. As usual he had little to no time to do anything. So I kept searching for ideas online. I looked up many many cages and talked to other members of the Degu Forum a lot.
Then, by pure accident, I found an entry of a member saying something along the lines of: Huge cage for free! I looked at the pics and was amazed. This was the perfect cage for Degus. Not even a castle, a paradise! I got in contact with the member, Alex, and agreed on meeting the next week. The thing was: the cage was really huge and with it I had to take three Degu girls and I had to organize the transport because it was about 140 km away from my town. But when I saw the thing from up close I was even more amazed. Alex built the thing on his own and he really knows his stuff.
So I thought about it for one night and then told him I would take it.
I spare you the long, tearful and frustrating story of how I organized the transport. Just let me tell you: I found a huge enough transporter only four days before the whole action was about to start. The transport itself also was a tightrope walk between bursting into tears, laughing and fearing for someones life. Because the boxes (Degu paradise consists of two huge wooden boxes) were REALLY heavy. The lighter one was guessed to weigh 150kg (330lb) and the heavier one was guessed at 200kg (440lb). And now you imagine that two guys, and both are not wishy-washy guys, are trying to get these boxes from the third (US fourth) floor down to ground level, put them into the transporter and at my place get them out of the transporter and the four steps up to my apartment. And everything without getting injured (Alex hurt his knee badly), without damaging other peoples properties, without exploding the motor of the tranporter, without destroying the boxes and without someone getting caught underneath the boxes. Well, we made it. And apart from Alex' knee and a few patches of scratched skin everyone got out of that safe and sound. Only my laminate flooring now has three nasty scratches. But better the floor than a person.
The three girls traveled in a huge bucket and behaved very well. They are a mom and her daughters. Mom, Kyra, is the most shy of them. The two daughters haven't had any names and I must think of good ones.
Now here is the result: I now have two huge wooden boxes in my living room and nearly no light in my kitchen. There are now seven furry bottle-brush tailed imps making noise all day and night. And I love them all. I spend hours sitting in front of my Degu TV, just watching what they were doing. Because Degus always have something to do. And if one group decides to nap, another group will take up the noise making.
Yes, I keep them in three separate groups right now. Two groups, the new girls and the demon girls can see, hear and sniff each other through holes covered with wire. I hope to sozialise them so I can give them all more space together. Lilo and Charlie are completely separated right now. I think that Lilo with her five years is the granny right now. Also she is nearly blind and I don't want her to get beaten up or bitten without an escape route for her. And Charlie, well, I guess he would LOVE to visit all the girls asap. But he has to keep Lilo company and they are getting along togehter so wonderful and cute that I don't want to separate them without need.
You see the whole Degu paradise.
Behind it you can see my kitchen and in front of it is my living room. I successfully separated them now. The dimensions are: 5.25ft high, 5.41ft wide and 2.56ft deep. The top box is divided into two huge cubical parts. The lower box is divided into five parts of different size. Right now Lilo and Charlie live in the top right cube. The three girls have the top left cube, and the two parts directly below it. The demon girls (Yuma & Kiko) have the middle part and the two right parts of the lower box.
This is Lilo, sitting on the hot water bottle. (Which is in fact a spirits bottle with warm water) She loves to warm her creaky old bones on it. But Charlie always tries to shove her of with his furry butt.
One of the new girls, they are a bit scared of everything right now and got completely frantic when I took pics with flash. What you see above the girl is a hanging basket for flowers. It is filled with hay, which Degus eat a lot, and used as bed when I'm not looking. They jump out of it as soon as they hear me enter the room so I never caught them sleeping in it. You can also see the empty nutshell? Degus are great as stand-in squirrels.
This another of the girls. Sitting next to the entry/exit hole. The different parts are connected with round holes and wooden bridges. Most of the time they don't run up and down the bridges but use them as jumping board. Degus are champion jumpers. Charlie once got over a 1.64ft high barrier in one jump. And Degus are seldom longer than a medium sized human hand (exclusive tail).
Trying to sneak a close up from the girl. Sadly the plexiglas reflects the flash.
Now without plexiglas. One of the girls gets bold and sticks her nose out. The two daughters are somewhat brave. They already took food from my hand and came close enough for me to quickly touch them. Kyra, the mom, always stays in another part of the cage when I'm trying to get in contact.
The lower box and a sensitive spot. Degus are natural escapees. They always try to find a way out of their home, no matter how big and nice it is.
So this spot between the perforated sheet (for ventilation) and the plexiglas always gets gnawed at. There is an aluminium band to protect the plexiglas but Alex told me that they managed to bite through that. So I have to keep an eye on that.
And what you see here is an abusive use of a shoe lace. I had to tie it around the knobs to keep the devil Degus from sliding the plexiglas aside. There was a safety latch to keep the doors from sliding far enough to let a Degu through. But even the small gap they were able to open would give their teeth enough space to gnaw. Within no time they would have escaped and crowded my living room and we can't have that now, can we?
Whew, this was a long post. I'm keeping all other topics for a later entry, ok? I want to have my evening now, with Degu TV.
So again: stay tuned!