Brooktech's Digital Photography

Degu World...Briefly: a degu is (currently) a rodent of order Caviomorpha that lives in Chile in South America. Highly social herbivorous mammals, they live in groups, nest in burrows and are diurnal (active during the day). They are about the size of an adult person's open palm and have brown pelts (fur), pale UV reflective ventral (belly) fur, light rings of fur around their eyes and orange teeth. They also have a medium length tail with short, wiry hair becoming longer at the tip. Degus are sometimes referred to as 'brush tail rats' or 'trumpet tailed rats' but are entirely unrelated to rats.
Degus were transported to Europe and North America from Chile, where they live from the West Coast to the Andes Mountains. I have read that one reason for this was to do research into diabetes as they are very prone to it.This means that they need to be fed carefully to keep them healthy - more details below. There seem to be varying reports of how long Degus will live in Captivity. It is safe to say that most Degus will live at least 5 years but a few will make 8 or 9 years.

© Brooktech Photography Copyright 2013..