I have a weak spot for cute things, so much so that I thought I was going to break when I saw the baby seal on Frozen Planet.
I believe my craving for cuteness is why there are 11 degus living in my house, When I see degus up for adoption, I have to rescue them, especially if they’re on their own.
The most recent addition to the Esparcieux-Butler household is a little guy called Penda. A blue degu with a belly and a habit of sleeping on his back. He was the last degu in the litter at the Pet store and was unable to live with the next litter as it takes months and a lot of effort to integrate degus. So he was living by himself, without human or degu interaction for 11 months. He was the incredibly feral, you literally couldn’t change the position you were sat in without him running away and hiding for ten minutes, it took over a month of coaxing him with food before he’d voluntarily get on our hands and he couldn’t be let out of the cage as he’d just run and hide. I’ll admit I was a bit worried that he’d never be comfortable around people and thus wouldn’t be allowed around other degus.
But last night, after a week of forcing him to eat with humans outside his cage, he was ready to be introduced to the friendliest degu and he finally met Chauncey. There was no fighting which is unusual, they just seemed to get along straight away.
This is only the first step to fully integrating him with the litter but a huge breakthrough. He’ll have a friend to groom him and sleep pile with, it’s his first companion for a year so it’s really exciting to see the progress he’s made.
Next up we’ll introduce him to Wynne but that’ll be in a few weeks time.
Success!
