The Degu is a very sociable animal. Therefore, it is best to keep at least two animals. Do not keep only one degu, as it will not be very happy and will not live as long as it could have if it had a friend. If it is kept alone, it could become depressed, even if you pay a lot of attention to it. Loneliness might also cause it to become aggressive. Besides, the more degus you keep, the more interesting they are. I recommend to keep two or more degus of the same sex - if you keep degus of both sexes, it's very probable that females will be pregnant all the time and will die till the age of 2 years. I hope you don't want this, so breeding degus would require more room - you should have two cages to keep males and females separated. Then you can ensure, that female becomes pregnant once a year maximum. So if you decide to keep degus of the same sex, it doesn't matter very much of which sex. Watching a degu family is much more entertaining than watching television. Especially brothers and sisters get along very well and almost never fight.

The degu a day animal, but they don't sleep at night so if you don't sleep well, you shouldn't keep them in the same room where you're sleeping. They have short periods of time when they are awake and short periods when they sleep and these periods go one by other. They have more periods of being awaken during the day, but there are night times when they make quite a noise. During the day degu can be quite like a cat, often resting with his's eyes slightly closed. Sometimes he might get up, run around a little, and then rest again. Degus are most active in the morning and in the evening. It is a very curious animal, and they are not usually afraid of people. Sometimes, they can even be too friendly (For example, while writing this article our male degu, Bobo, is nibbling on my notebook). Although degus love people and understand them, they don't like it when they are being held very tight. You can caress them, but not for a long period of time. When you need to catch them, put your hand beneath them and wait while they climb onto it. They are most likely to do this if they are used to it. While doing this, you should encourage them quietly. They will recognize your voice, and know who you are. Do not, under any circumstance, pick them up from above. By instinct, they are very afraid of this action as in nature, the biggest danger for degus are birds of prey that attack from above.

It is nice to watch a degu standing on it's hind feet, eating out of your hand. They also like being scratched behind their ears, and you don't need to be afraid of being nibbled upon. Degus nibble everything but people, and if they do, then only it's only slightly and most likely with good intentions. If you hurt them, though, it's a different situation all together.

The degu can distinguish between voices and other sounds. It is more relaxed with its owner than with strangers. When we come home, our degus run to the door of their cage, hoping that we will allow them to go out. You always have to be nice to your degu, because their memory is good. If you hurt it once, it will never fully trust you again.

In nature
Despite the quiet atmosphere, degus will stockpile food in their dens. They are considered pests because in nature, they have been known to destroy orchards and vineyards. They build large dens with a number of entrances.

Degus are keen on building nests. In their natural, habitat they collect twigs. The bigger the heap of twigs, the better social standing a degu has in the colony. In a cage, they have no twigs (unless you provide them with it), and are very grateful to get any material suitable for building nests like paper, napkins and so on.

Introducing a degu to other animals
If you have one degu and intend to buy another, you should keep them separate in the beginning as they have to get used to each other. The best way in which to do this is to divide the cage into two parts and let them live separately for some time. After this, try putting them together and see how it goes. Sometimes they will fight. Don't panic, as they are just deciding who will become boss. If they are fighting constantly, however, separate them again. Clean their cages and all accessories properly and introduce the degus to a new cage which neither of them considers his own home or territory. Then add a little vanilla essence (or something else which is very aromatic) to their sandbath and let both the degus roll in it. When you allow them back together again, they should not be as aggressive, since they will no longer see each other as enemies (due to having the same smell). Now they may get used to each other slowly. If this doesn't help, either, they simply don't like each other very much and can't live together. But this does not happen very often.

Degus can live peacefully with rabbits, chinchillas and guinea pigs, but first of all let them get to know each other the same way as when introducing two degus to each other. Watch them closely to find out if they fight or not. But be careful - degus can't eat the same food as other animals. Something can be similar (pellets), something can harm degus.

It's a big mistake if you buy a new degu and do not care for the previous one anymore. It will of course become very jealous of the new degu.

Their social and curious character can be dangerous for them if they meet a bigger animal, like a cat. Degus are not afraid of cats and won't flee, but on the other hand - the cat can believe the degu to be a mouse... Everybody knows what will follow. So don't let such other animals go into the same room as your degus.

What to do if a degu escapes
You should let the degu out of its cage to run a little bit now and then. You should also watch that it doesn't escape. It does not likely intend to escape and will always go back to the cage because that is where it feels safe. A degu searches everything, so it is possible that it might get lost and have trouble finding its way back to the cage. There are various techniques on how to catch it. You should do this immediately, because he can injure himself by nibbling on electric cables or eating poisonous plants.

If you have more than one degu, you can catch the lost one by holding the other one near the place it has escaped to. It might be under a bed or behind a wardrobe, because degus like dark, warm places. It will feel another degu, its friend, and will come back. Another way to find or catch your degu is to pass its favorite food to it. You can also put the cage near the place where it is hiding. It will go back because he feels safe there and knows that food is waiting inside it.

The sounds the degus make
Degus have a large spectrum of sounds. Males whistle to let you know their puppies have been born or after a successful mating (after an unsuccessful one, they whistle disappointedly). Degus also whistle if they are scared, and sometimes they beep without any apparent reason. But they don't whistle that often. Don't worry, degus aren't noisy pets.

Degus show favor to each other by grooming each other on their back and behind their ears with their hands and mouth. Through this, they make very quiet sounds which resemble the warbling sounds of small birds. The males also warble when they want to mate. Very young puppies can't make this sound, so they make another sound instead… like a high-pitched whistle. They also make this sound when they want to nurse or when they are satisfied.

Besides these pleasant sounds, degus can also argue, like when they get some food and the degu who is the boss sits in the food bowl and doesn't want to let any other degu eat it. Arguing sounds a bit like the sound hamsters make and a bit like creaking. They make this sound towards invaders (strange degus) sometimes, as well.

I don't have a good technique for recording degu sounds, so I downloaded some from other sites about degus. One of these sounds, I received from Petr (thanks, Petr) so you can enjoy them.

         Whistling (after mating or after babies have been born) – wav file 13 kB
         Warbling (when they are grooming) – wav file 65 kB
         Raving degu (Petr gave him a nut and then tried to steal it back from him) – mp3 file 410 kB
         Other sounds from the degu cage – wav file 203 kB
(By clicking on the link with your left mouse button you will play the sound. If you click on the link with your right mouse button and choose "Save target as...", you will save the sound to your hard disk).