How to tame a degu?
When you buy a degu in pet shop, it's sometimes worried of people. Sometimes they may have even bad experience with people, more probably if this degu isn't a baby already, then it's probable that he spent many time in pet shop where no one took proper care of him. It's also possible to tame such a degu, it just will take more time. Some degus are tame within couple days and with some it can take couple months. One of my degus wasn't completely tame almost a year, but it doesn't mean that he was bad, he just didn't want me to hold him on my hand. But now he isn't worried anymore.
Taming comes mostly through treats. When degu is afraid of your hands, give him some treat, first through wires and later you can open the door so the contact with your hand is closer. And yet later you can hold the treat, not let the degu take it, so that he must chew every piece from your hand. Just don't give treats to degu too often so that he stayed healthy. Sometimes it don't have to be a treat - just before feeding give him a piece of his normal food, he'll take it rather from your hand thatn from food bowl.
Except treats, you will probably want to take degu out of his cage. But don't grab him by force. This is very frequent mistake. All degus are afraid if you try to grab them like hamsters or other pets. Degus are not lap pets, they would think you could be some predator if you take them from back and they can't see that it's you. Then they might become frightened yet more than before. The right thing is to place your hands and wait till degu will come to them.
While you play with your degu, speak to him. He'll remember your voice and when he gets used to it your voice will calm him down, he'll recognize you or even come when you call him. If you often say his name he'll remember this sound and he'll know that you speak to him when you say it.
Biting:
Some degus can also bite even it's not very often. Mostly he is just defending from some bad experience in the future. Behave the same way to this degu, just be careful not to leave your finger before him too long - he won't try to find your fingers, he would bite you only if they are neat his mouth. If you be patient and he'll recognize you are nice to him and don't harm him (and give treats to him), he should stop biting.
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