In our country, the animal known as the degu (pronounced day-goo) is not very well known. That's a pity, as the degus are lovely household animals. They do not need a lot of attention and are a lot more intelligent than other and more familiar rodents, like hamsters. In addition, you may have more fun with degus. Don't think that I have something against hamsters - I've even got one of them myself, but with degus you really do have more fun.
I met a degu by coincident the first time. I was sitting in a restaurant when a foreign girl came up and asked me whether I would like to take her "Chilean squirrel", as she was not able to keep it herself anymore. I had no time to think about it, so I simply agreed. And I'm not sorry about this incident. I must say that at home we have damaged cables (when we don't take properly take care of them) and during the night we don't sleep because of the miscellaneous sounds that come from their cage, mostly caused by their running wheel (don't sleep in the same room as your degus). On the other hand, we have a lot of fun with them. I feel like I'm in love with my degus.
Degus were transported to Europe and North America from Chile, where they live from the West Coast to the Andy Mountains. The primary reason for this transportation was that the animals were used in laboratories to test diabetes on them. They were used because of their lacking ability to digest sugar. In Europe, degus are available in most countries. In America, however, they are less often found in pet shops, caused by the import restriction placed on the species. In the Czech republic, you can buy them in some pet shops and the price is between 150 to 200 crowns.
Interest - tail
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Never try to catch a degu by his tail. In defense against their natural enemies, degus can loose the end of their tails. The result is a bloody injury, and the end of their tail slowly dries and then falls away or degu chews it away. About a third or even a half of the tail goes away and it'll never grow back again. So better don't touch degu's tail.
Look at illustration picture of degu without the end of tail.
Life expectancy
Field studies have shown that 50 % of wild degus live less than 1 year, only 1 % reaches the age of 2 years and only one of 5 400 trapped individuals was found to be 4 years old.
On the other hand, degus in captivity often live 5 years or even more. I've even heard of a cases where a degu lived 9 and 11 years. Females usually die much sooner, because if they live with males they get tired out from the frequent pregnancies.