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Degu or Chinchilla ?
Hi
My daughter has had rats for a few years, but now wants a pet with a longer lifespan.
One of the things we love about the rats is how they come out to meet us and seem to really enjoy being handled and can be allowed to run around without immediately trying to escape or hide.
Does anyone have experience with Degus or Chinchillas ? Is there anything to be considered in particular for either of them ?
Are they friendly and do they enjoy being petted and allow lots of handling ?
I'd be grateful for any experiences and advice - as I do not want to buy a pet that will live for many years without being sure about it.
My daughter has had rats for a few years, but now wants a pet with a longer lifespan.
One of the things we love about the rats is how they come out to meet us and seem to really enjoy being handled and can be allowed to run around without immediately trying to escape or hide.
Does anyone have experience with Degus or Chinchillas ? Is there anything to be considered in particular for either of them ?
Are they friendly and do they enjoy being petted and allow lots of handling ?
I'd be grateful for any experiences and advice - as I do not want to buy a pet that will live for many years without being sure about it.
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Thanks
Never heard of those. Even more research to do now !
Jirds are basically big gerbils, with a similar temperament to standard gerbils, if I remember correctly, if not someone one else with a more recent knowledge can advice you better.
Xdow is usually up to date on small furries
I have kept several chinchillas. They have the most wonderfully soft fur but must be provided with dust bathing facilities.
Most Chinchillas will tolerate handling once you have gently caught them but many are not too keen on being caught in the first place. If chinchillas get frightened, or you try to grab them, they have a defensive mechanism of "fur slip" whereby they instantly drop the fur from the area grabbed, like a less drastic version of a lizard losing it's tail!
I have kept several rats and, when well-handled from young, they really do make great pets so, short of going onto a cat or dog I think it is difficult to replace them in terms of intelligence, tamness and keeness for human interaction, although ferrets can be very similar in those areas and have many good points, and are very good pets, aside from the characteristic scent
Rabbits can be variable but you do get much more out of them as house pets than if they live outside.
Unfortunately my daughter is set on change - so I will have to choose.
degus can he hard to tame and chinchillas stress very easily - fur slip can be a big problem in them and if they do it, it's so fine, i end up sneezing for a good half an hour after dealing with the ones at college
chinchillas are also very prone to weight gain, as are degus if i remember rightly
shaws jirds and lybian jirds are like larger gerbils, and i believe they have similar temperaments to gerbils
may sound strange, but you could try a ferret - they're not the freshest smelling animals but if you have tolerated rats, a ferret wouldn't be much harder to keep fresh
and neutered ferrets are much less stinky than entire ones.
there is a possible problem with them and aggression though, however neutering can correct this in a lot of cases - females do have to be spayed though, or you can have her kept with a neutered male, or injected to take her out of season (as without this, they will constantly be in season and could perish as a result of anaemia)
livespan of up to 18 years too, which fulfils your need for a longer lived pet.
another option could be guinea pigs - easy to keep, and have a longer range than rats at around 8-10 years
not as friendly though, unless kept indoors, and don't climb
guinea pigs can be a cheap pet too, as they are relatively hardy and don't require any vaccinations.
noisy when hungry!
rabbits as mentioned above also make good pets with a lifespan of 8-12 years
also easy to keep, but do require vaccinations against myxomatosis and VHD, also neutering.
i think myxi and VHD jabs are twice yearly if they're kept outdoors, once if indoors - not entirely sure as i'm lucky enough to live away from any wild populations and don't have my buns vaccinated (some people may also call me dumb for not having them done, that's fair enough)
all your small rodents with good personality and playfulness do unfortunately have shorter lifespans i'm afraid.
i'd suggest chipmunks, but they need a lot of space and a very secure enclosure, difficult to tame too.
i might even go as far and suggest a chicken, may be a bit of a strange one
8-10 years again from a chicken. i hear they make good pets though, as do ducks
budgies can be fun pets too, at 2-7 years, they can be long lived (some even go to 12 years or more)
so long as you can put the time in to tame them, they can make wonderful pets.
More like 5-8 years. Keep my two indoors and they're lovely friendly boys. They've even litter trained themselves so can have free run of downstairs during the evenings
just remembered the sign i'm remembering my info from is wrong, it is 5-8 years
you're very lucky to have a litter trained pair - i've got 18 of the devils and i think about three have taken to going in one place - the others won;t have any of it
I would love one (well, two or three) but can't commit the time at the moment. But IMO they are the natural progression from rats. Intelligent, friendly and much more interactive than Degus or chinchillas.
I know both working and pet ferrets - all as easily handled as a pet rat because they are regularly handled. They do do that 'taste' thing that rats do (as in gently 'bite' to taste you) but they 'kiss' as well and love a fuss.
Their basic needs aren't massive - a big cage of the size you'd have for a chinchilla anyway or outside hutch of a size suitable for a rabbit (basically five times the size Pets at Home would say was suitable) plus a hammock.
Xdow already mentioned the issues with Jills - they do need spaying or keeping with a neuter male or their health is at risk.
Hadn't thought of ferrets - definitely one to look into I think. For some resaon I can picture her with a ferret. Not sure if they would be able to live in the current rat cage in her bedroom though (~ 2ft square and 5ft tall with various shelves). Do ferrets need to be kept in pairs - any recommended gender ?
Maybe we should investigate birds as well as rodents.
She did mention Parrot (which I dismissed without really considering) - but Budgie is a suggestion I could make. Seems to me a better option then the Sugar Gliders which she is rather keen on too!
Ferrets are indulced ovulators, via a very caveman-like approach by the much larger male (hob) dragging the female (jill) about by her neck for a long time.
If not mated they can stay in extended oestrus so you need a sterile male who will still mate her, to end the season, without producing endless kits.
It is recommended them not be kept singlely and the easier way of having them get on is proably to get two young kits from the outset.
Like rats ferrets like to sleep in hammocks and to have tunnels to investigate.
The rat cage might be a bit small but it would depend how much time they spent in there and how much outside playing.
Personally I think the jills are prettier, being smaller, finer and slimmer, but I didn't notice much difference in temperament between hobs and jills.
Suger Gliders, although very cute and pretty, can be very demanding, needing careful feeding, spread urine trails and may only be tame with one familiar person, if at all.
I was considering keeping a pair until I did detailed research :eek::(
Budgies tend not to have the complex psychological needs and behavioural problems that can occur with parrots.
I have kept pet falcons that I trained for free lure flying, I also trained them to fly along from tree to tree following me while I walked the dogs but that might be a little advanced as an avian starting point
I also had pet mandarin ducks who were beautiful and friendly
they also like to leg it away from you and need lots of space
i have a friend who had three ferrets in a cage like you describe - they were often allowed out to run around
she even managed to train one of them to roll over
budgies are very nice animals to keep - but you're best off with a male.
and they do need quite a while and effort to tame if you go down that route
they're not so good at playing with, but have you considered any reptiles?
a leopard gecko can be a very interesting pet, as can a snake (corns and kings are two quite easy species to keep)
and bearded dragons
At the moment, we are thinking Corn Snake. Does anyone have experience with them ? Do they tolerate being handled well ? Is it possible to tell how large they will get, and how long do they take to outgrow 'starter' vivariums.
you'll probably get a good year or so out of a starter viv, minimum
snakes can be intimidated by larger enclosures so basically if what you keep it in is is at least 3/4 of the snakes length, by 1/2 of it's length width they're fine
however - i would check this, i'm relatively new to the reptile keeping world.
they do tend to tolerate handling well, and are quite easy to tame
but as with any reptile though - it's best not to handle them too much as they can get stressed easily through over handling
females grow larger than males, i think they can get to between four and six feet as adults, where they would be feeding on i think, either small or medium rats.
i have a 4ft cali king snake, who i tend to handle every other day and allow her 4 days to digest after a meal before handling her again (she's a rescue case and will vent if she doesn't want to be picked up)
she's in one of these vivariums from wilkos
which she'll probably be fine in from now on, even if she grows any larger
i'll share the link with you as the wilkos vivs are quite good for the money especially if you're only upgrading and have all your equipment already.
Degus get cloudy eyes and cataracts due to diabitetes. They love raisins but they're one of the worst things to give them!!
the ones in college all had cataracts or damaged eyes