Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anybody heard of these? Theyre a rodent similar to chinchillas. A local pet store has alot of these and I didnt know if any of you raise these for your snakes? I did a little googling on them and one site said they are good for poor feeding snakes. Any input?
Thanks

If I remember right they are from south america, I raised a few back in the 70's, mostly fed them to hawks when I was in falconry, and a few to burms. Haven't seen, heard of or even thought about a degu in decades. Can't help you much, I never researched them. A friend gave me a trio, I put them together and they produced a couple of litters, I think about 4-6 per litter.

Claude

Dont know if they make good snake food, but they make excelent pets. They are realy smart. You can teach them tricks with clocker training.

I ment CLICKER training, not clocker

they get diabetes really quickly from any sugar source....I fed mine corn and I think that did it...they get cataracts real fast.....make sure you feed them just the proper foods...

....they get bigger than a gerbil....didn't breed here, got the cataracts real fast and were killed off....Plus they were said to be illegal here? so ...not sure.....you'd have to ask USDA.

......only other note I would mention......the skulls are really hard...watch out for binding?....people say that balls can get bound up from eating too many gerbils...so degus would be as bad...but I have no idea if it is true or not...

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....dumbest thing ever created...
NO, not a hybrid....well....it is becoming one....

They do not reproduce as quickly and have fewer off spring than rats. Another problem you may run into is I have seen balls that did not eat well and gerbils were tried. The problem is that in some cases the snake would refuse to eat anything else from that point on, this could happen if you offers degus. If that happens to you and there is not a good source for them you could have a bigger problem than now.

degus are south american rodents related to guinea pigs and chinchillas...i found this on their feeding requirements (notice that, yes, they are prone to suffer from diabetes) i don't know their nutritional value for snakes, bur i am sure there has to be some info out there on this issue...

The basis of a good degu diet is a combination of high quality chinchilla or guinea pig pellets, and rodent blocks. Grass hay (such as timothy hay) should be available all the time (you can get small hay racks to make this easier), and a small amount of alfalfa hay can also be offered. A variety of fresh vegetables can be given, especially sweet potato (peeled, uncooked), carrots, broccoli, leafy greens, green beans, and dandelion leaves (must be pesticide-free). These should be offered in small quantities only or they may cause diarrhea. Vegetables that are members of the cabbage family (cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, kale) should be fed only in very small quantities and some degu experts advise avoiding them altogether.

Degus are prone to diabetes and are designed to eat a diet high in roughage and low in carbohydrates. Do not let your degus get overweight or obese, and keep sugary foods to a minimum. Fruit should be avoided as a treat (including raisins) due to their high sugar content. For treats, most degus relish seeds (e.g. sunflower seeds), peanuts, and whole nuts in the shell. However, these should only be an occasional treat, due to the high fat content.

Make sure you change the water in their bottles regularly - they often do not drink a lot but it is important that they have a supply of fresh clean water available at all times.

hope this helps!
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