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6K views 15 replies 11 participants last post by  andreaS15 
#1 ·
I'm curious to what you all use for bedding/litter in your degu habitats. Also are they in a cage or Tank?

I mix a pine pellet litter which i use for the rabbits too, with some aspen shavings.
I have corn cob for all my other critters and it is great, my worry was the Goos may eat it.
 
#2 ·
I use aspen shavings with mine. Since degus are pretty neat and don't smell it works out nicely :). I'm considering layering with some Yesterday's News on the bottom...not sure yet.

Oh, and I have an all-metal cage with three levels. It's taller rather then wider. I used to have on with a plastic base but Rosie chewed a hole in it. I don't feel aquariums are good for degus unless maybe you have a tank topper.
 
#4 ·
I layer newspaper pages on the bottom then aspen shavings. the paper pages help when i clean out the cage, i pick up the corners then just drop it into the garbage. saves a ton of time. i give them a few socks and toilet paper. they love just laying on them, it's funny, they pull them around, play tug of war, they certainly don't chew them so i'm not worried. they have a huge igloo looking thing built in one corner right now, a big pile of the socks and tp. also, they dig through the shavings to find the edges of the newspaper so they can tear off pieces. watching them pull a HUGE strip of newspaper through the cage is funny, because you can barely see her, just this shaking slithering paper. my girls live in a wire cage about 3'wide 2'deep 4'tall. it has 2 big shelves, 3 smaller shelves, hammocks, tubes, perches, ladders, a bulk kraft dinner cardboard box (hutch) and a cardboard case of dr.pepper (hutch). they linked them together themselves so it's a house with a few rooms and a hall lol. i give them tp tubes that they stack inside. i also have a log thats about 4" diameter 1.5' long that i just have inside leaning up against the corner (the tp igloo is under it) so they can chew or climb it. they also have long bendy sticks and a wooden spoon. these i stick both ends into the wire caging and they just do as they wish. some they leave there to chew on (they like the option of now holding it, sometimes they run around in a fury then stop for a quick chew), and some they take out and put in their 'house'. i used leftover caging (i built their home) to make a few bridges (i bent them into fun shapes) to fill up empty space (to prevent falling far).
 
#5 ·
I use carefresh bedding and they use their extra hay in their nests. I used to use aspen bedding but it seemes to start to smell faster. We have 5 cages and with our 3 male chinchillas in their own cage I would have to clean/sanitize their cage at least every 3 days before it would smell. I found myself cleaning cages constantly to avoid the smell so we switched all of our pets to carefresh. Now that we use carefresh I have longer period of time to clean the 5 cages which is a lot less work for me. I also like carefresh because it seems more comfy for them, I personally wouldn't like to sleep in wood chips!
 
#6 ·
kandy said:
I personally wouldn't like to sleep in wood chips!
Mine don't sleep in wood chips, thats just what i use on the floor at the bottom as they are in 4 tier cages, they all sleep at the top of the cage in their slumber tunnels and hammocks looking all snuggly and cosy, oh i wish i was a degu ;)
 
#7 ·
My boys sleep up at the very top on the hammock or one of the top floors. The females will sleep on the floor of their tank, but they also sleep in their wheel LOL.... they love that thing.
 
#8 ·
Our degus make their nests on their lower level :). I think for Xmas I might make them some nest boxes though. I noticed most of you use them for your degus and I bet they love it :).
 
#10 ·
I DID use aspen shavings until I ran out, so I'm stuck with a HUGE bale of pine my mum bought. At least she didn't get cedar, I really pounded that one into her head! :D When I run out, I'll probably switch back to aspen.

How well does corn cob work? I heard that it's okay if you change it every day, but it goes mouldy fast, and gets kinda stinky before that.

And does Yesterday's News have harmful inks in it? I'm curious. And how is it for pee-smell? (I'm looking for a good shaving alternative that isn't too expensive)

My goos are in a plain old extra large rabbit cage with a plastic base. So far, they haven't nibbled at the plastic once. Roger has tried chewing the bars, but he never does it for very long, so I'm not too worried about brain damage. The cage doesn't have climbing levels, but I put a bunch of toys and ladders and even a large dog rope toy hung from the top for them to climb.
 
#11 ·
I find that the aspen makes our girls sneeze up a storm, it's prolly the dust. We started using CareFresh again and it doesn't seem to be as stinky as aspen. They also have a hammock in their cage (this is the fourth one in a year) and they will nest there. Two of the girls are big on building the nest in the hammock and will bring hay and chips up. If we give them some Kleenex, they will carry it proudly to the hammock like a trophy.
 
#12 ·
I use aspen shavings with my boys. They are in a cage with a few different levels. It was originally a guinea pig cage but I modified it and built some stuff on it. On one of the levels, they always have a little cloth to lay on. They love it and usually sleep there. Sometimes they drag the cloth down onto the bottom level and get it all covered in shavings though. I also put in some kleenex or paper every now and then (they love shredding it up).
 
#14 ·
Mine are in a tall 3 level sugar glider cage (or at least, sugar gliders is what the guy had in mind when he built it). We use aspen.
 
#15 ·
christine said:
have you ever tried yesterdays news?
I use yesterday news for my bunnies, it works really well and is really absorbant and just nice all around:)

But, my two Goos are in a chinchilla cage, as the bars need to go all the way down to the bottom so that they cant get out and I use pine shavings as bedding.
They're pretty happy little Goo's. Not to mention that I paid 100 and some bucks for their little condo lol. But, whatever makes them happy, I'm willing to do.:D
 
#16 ·
With our next cleaning I'm going to use Corn Cob. I use it for all my other critters and just love the stuff. asked my Vet his opinion and ho wI wa a bit worried if they injested it, He said that if they did eat any their bodies are so used to very fiberious things in their diet that it would not harm them. So we'll see how it works, my only problem now is thinking of how to keep in INSIDE the cage as they like to toss everything outside of the cage LOL...
 
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