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WHAT DO THEY LOOK LIKE?
When I brought Marmalade home for the first time, I wasnt 100% convinced I even had a Degu! He was tiny! And when you bare in mind that your Degu will eventually grow to a size similar to a rat, by adulthood reaching a length of about 15cm for the head and body, and then a further 10cm for the tail, they are quite big! And can weigh about 300grammes!
The picture to the right is a very early one of Charlie. As you can see Degus
are quite small to start, and very different to the adult appearance.
The fur is a mix of light and dark brown, with courser black hairs sticking out slightly further around the haunches. The belly is a lighter creamy colour, and this is repeated in a ring of colour around their eyes. The tail is covered in a thin fur until you reach the end which bushes out with black hairs, giving a bottle brush appearance!
The Degu is a rather stocky little fellow, but with a lot of power for his size. I frequently see mine throwing cardboard tubes around when they get annoyed with them! They have short legs, but powerful back legs should they need to make a fast getaway!
Their ears are a dark colour without hair, large, but very
thin, paper like texture.
Like all rodents their teeth will grow throughout their lives. They naturally have very orange teeth, due to the chlorophyll in the greens that they eat. (see feeding section)
It is possible to identify an ill Degu if the colour of their teeth should change. You also need to make sure that they can gnaw on things to keep the length of the teeth down.