Degu Toy Ideas

Degu Toy Ideas

Toys are an essential part of your degus everyday life, toys will keep your negus occupied, wear down their teeth and prevent unwanted behaviours which are caused by boredom. 

Toys in my Degus cage:

A Wheel

Degus need a wheel, this is not optional. When my negus broke their wheel it took me days before I could get it fixed and Oreo started fur plucking Shyva, this is wear one degu pulls the fur off another debug or themselves due to boredom. Without a wheel a degu cannot meet their daily need for exercise. Some degus have been reported to run 4.5Km on their wheel each day. So what type of wheel can you get. Well you can use plastic wheels but these will be chewed up and destroyed pretty quickly. Another option is a flying saucer wheel, which is made of harder plastic it took my degus 2 years to destroy it to the point where it was no longer usable. When the wheel was severely destroyed I decided to get my negus a solid metal wheel, which is indestructible. These can be quite expensive and need to be at lease 12" in diameter. I got my 12" metal wheel on eBay for £35. My wheel was built by the supplier out of a cake tin and the wheel mechanism is completely covered at the back and is silent except for the shacking of the cage as it moves. You can find youtube videos and instructions on how to make your own all over the internet.

A House

My degus house is a bendy wooden bridge, a house is another essential part of your degus cage and provides shelter and a place to hide if thy feel threatened. You can use houses from a pet shop which are big enough, bendy bridges, cardboard boxes with holes, terracotta plant pots on their side ect. 

They also have this tunnel which acts as a hideaway in their play pen.

Wood

Degus need to keep their teeth trim as they never stop growing. One of the easiest ways to do this is by providing wood. Many wood types aren't safe for negus, but these are the ones that are, Apple, Hazel, Hawthorn, kiln-dried pine and pear. Bamboo, Grape vine and Coconut shell are all safe for degus. I love this sand blasted grape-vine by trixie which I bought on zoolplus uk.

This is a wood tunnel which the degus can't fit through or get stuck in which has had the bark chewed off of it. I often fill this with hay.

This is one half of a coconut I ate the other is pictured below, when giving coconut make sure there is no flesh left over. I use this half as a natural food bowl.

This is the other half of the coconut this is in their play area for them to chew on if they want.

This is a carrot hang on side wood chew, I also use it as a perch which is perfect.

Perches

These are great as they allow the negus to reach parts of the cage which are not levelled. This is a rope perch and i personally love this as it can be bended in to shape and the negus seem to love scampering across it.

This perch takes them from their platform to their water bottle, which they started sitting on top pf and started fighting over so I added this for more space.

Their water bottle (which is a living world glass water bottle) is next to there carrot chew/perch.

Tunnels

Tunnels are really fun and allow degus to run through them, try to stand on them as they roll away. My degus favourite wheel is the hay covered one which they will not stop chewing while out in their play pen.

A cardboard tube, this is a mix of cardboard and tunnels, it is important to cut a slit along it as this stops your degu getting trapped inside.

Cardboard

Cardboard is loved by degus and can be used for houses as mazes or tunnels and chews. Pictured above on the left is a piece of cardboard used in packaging ikea furniture instead of styrofoam. The degus love these and i mostly have them in their play area as in there cage they last for about an hour. On the right this is an ikea box for some chairs and has a hole in it already and I added some more on the sides. The negus love running through this and love moving it around while inside it??

Sand baths

Degus love rolling around in chinchilla sand and it keeps their coat healthy, they should be offered a sand bath everyday and mine get theirs in their play pen. To minimise mess i found this box which fits perfectly around the plastic container to stop the sand going everywhere, I have a cardboard ramp for easy access.