[LynnWings]

My degu usually chews and pumice stones to help keep his teeth manageable, and I have plenty of other chewing options for him he gets bored of that, but recently his teeth have gotten ahead of us again. I usually monitor his teeth and I noticed them getting pretty long again a week ago, and he seems uninterested in his toys.

I don't really want to take him into the city vet as they would have to put him under anesthesia to file them and he has a respiratory condition that makes that inadvisable, so any help, tricks or hints would be well appreciated.

 

[Nibbler]

i dunno if degus can have them but some rats that iv had in the past have used them, baby blocks and baby teething rings.

 

[Sasami]

He shouldn't need anesthesia, is it because he struggles too much or something? You can clip the teeth like you would nails.

If they're really long it might be too late to fix them using chew toys. But try willow, apple branches, yucca, cholla, grapevine, balsa, and/or cardboard. Also make sure he has plenty of hay since hay is the main thing that keeps their teeth at a normal length.

 

[Sasami]

i dunno if degus can have them but some rats that iv had in the past have used them, baby blocks and baby teething rings.

I wouldn't recommend any toys with plastic for degus. They can easily destroy the plastic and may swallow it. Baby blocks could work although they're not considered too exciting by degus.

 

[LynnWings]

That's a good idea! Thanks, I'll look into it!

 

[LynnWings]

He struggles like h*ll, I can't even file his nails, so I wouldn't touch his teeth. Luckily his nails are a healthy size though.

And yeah, I have absolutely no experience with teething rings so I was thinking that they'd be too hard to shred, especially if a rat could have them.

He has tons of hay, but it's timothy hay. I could easily give him horsey hay if that's better. How does hay even file down his teeth? I may end up just holding him down myself to clip them and suffer through the horrible bite I'm sure to get. He's bitten all the way through my finger more than once, and a few times to other people too. So if you have any tips on that, they'd be greatly appreciated.

Also I'll get him some willow and grapevine tomorrow. She if he likes them any better than apple.

 

[Sasami]

The grinding motion of eating hay wears down their teeth since they munch on it all day. I would still feed timothy hay but you could try mixing in the horse hay (as long as it isn't alfalfa) to see if it helps .

My degus always loved willow so hopefully yours will too.

As for the teething ring, degus are actually more destructive than rats in my experience :lol:. Plastic rarely lasts. I had a degu chew threw the thick plastic base of a cage within hours. I put her in a hard plastic carrier while I went out to buy a new cage--and she chewed out of that too!

 

[LynnWings]

I've got hay and willow and grapevine. I'll see if that helps, and if not I'll get someone to help me trim his teeth. I've been monitoring his weight, and it's staying at his normal level, so I'm not to worried right now.

Haha, see I've never had trouble with my degus and plastic, instead of chewing on these things, my degus would rather collect them and put them in piles around the cage. They have a plastic ladder and cat toy balls that have never been chewed on.

In other piles they have sticks, nut shells, sticks, pumice stones, blankies, cardboard, and food items. One also like to steal things and hide them in places where the other can't get to them, the cheeky brat.

 

[warren]

I have a Pecan tree and I cut large branches off and put in cage. They will chew all the bark off in no time. some are as big as 3" dia. and maybe 1 foot long. They can have Pecan, apple, pear, bradford pear, dogwood, but not much else. The branches still have leaves in summer, and they will strip them off in an hour or so. I even pick up leaves in fall and give them. Just make sure they haven't been sprayed with anything.