Do degus eat vegetable?

Question

My degus seem to eat just chinchilla dry food, the eat nuts and other dried fruit but they don't seem to eat carrot or spinach, or salad, or cabbage. They eat grass only.

Any advise how i should make my degus eat more veg?

Answer 1

if they want to eat veg they will but degus can be just as fussy as a chinchilla so just give them what they want

Answer 2

you should stop feeding nuts and fruit. fruit is too high in sugar and nuts are too fattening and high in protein. fat and/or sugar leads to diabetes which goos are already prone to. also make sure the food you feed in the ingredient list has no sugar or molasses. though i agree, if they don't want veggies, they don't want them. good food for goos are sunseed degu food, zupreem nature's promise chin or cavy food, or gerty guinea pig.

Answer 3

Do NOT give them that food anymore. You are slowly killing them by giving them that.

Degus are highly prone to getting diabetes, like us. So too much sugar and garbage will make them severely sick, and they will not live as long as they could if they were feed a healthy diet. They also can get cataracts, which also alters their health.

Degus, as well as other animals, can not have iceberg lettuce. That's the light green kind from the pre-packaged salads we buy from the store. It has no nutritional value, and can be toxic to them all.

Degus are like little kids; They'd rather eat junk food than healthy food. You need to get rid of that stuff, and replace it with chinchilla or guinea pig food with no molasses, cane sugar, or any other kind of sugary substance used in the food. And without seeds, fruit, etc. Also stay away from fillers like corn. Here is a link with some brands of food which are safe for degus. http://www.paw-talk.net/forums/f12/world... .

The overall best food I've ever seen for degus is Sun Seed Sunscription Vita Degu Formula. It has no sugar, fillers, fruit, nuts, seeds, etc in it.

Here is a little list of some vegetables that are safe for degus.

Broccoli

Carrot (Every few days)

Tomato

Cucumber

Cauliflower

Lettuce (Romaine)

Sweet Potato (AS A TREAT) (remove the skin as extremely toxic to degus)

Radishes

Brussel Sprouts

Green Beans,

Spring Onions (scallions)

Fresh Peas

Cabbage (white and savoy)

Green Pepper

Butternut Squash

Leek

Mangetout

Pumpkin

Courgette

Runner Beans

Sugar Snap Peas

Spinach

Here is a link with a more vegetables and herbs:

http://www.btinternet.com/~p.long/deguto...

While you can not force them to eat more vegetables, if you supply them with a healthy diet of timothy hay (NOT alfalfa!), safe pellets, and give them fresh veggies each day, they will eat them if they want them. Some degus like other veggies more than others, and you'll find out which ones each likes more eventually. They are just sticking with the garbage in the food you are supplying them with now, and thats not good.

Here is a list of sites I suggest you look at:

Have you done a lot of research about them beforehand?

And degus are best kept in pairs or more.

It also depends on how the ferret cage is. How big are the bars spaced together? Is there any plastic? It it tall enough? Can you attach things for degus to climb on? What are the bars made of? Degus are avid chewers and certain things are toxic to them.

Here are some websites that I often tell people to look at:

http://www.degurock.moonfruit.com/

http://www.degutopia.co.uk/

http://www.paw-talk.net/forums/f12/

http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/degus/p/d...

http://degoe.tripod.com/engels/

http://www.degus.com/deguz.html

Good luck.

-Jessica

Answer 4

Try Cucumber.

Answer 5

they love carrot and brocolli and greens

Answer 6

Degus were originally found in rocky areas where the only food was grass, seeds and cereals. There are a lot of sugars in fruit, raisins and some kinds of vegetables, and degus cannot digest sugars so it is best not to give them too many. They can get problems with their intestines by eating sugars, and possibly they develop diabetes! :o

Answer 7

You can't make them- if they want to, they'll eat it.

I mean, I give my gerbils fresh veg daily, but they prefer the fake chocolate drops from their free starter kit!

So you can't MAKE them eat more veg- if they don't want to, they won't eat it. Just offer a wide variety of safe fruit and veg and you may find something they like- and you may not.