i've had many degus over the last couple decades. my first pair was Wakka and Chappu. then when Wakka died, i adopted Diego and Charlie to keep him company. when Diego died, i adopted Cabot and Boone to keep Charlie company. after those three passed away, i was degu-less for a few years before finding Deanna, Will, and Wesley. sadly i had to rehome Will and Wesley for reasons outside of my control, but Deanna lives with me now. :)

my lovely Deanna. she's my buddy. her cage is directly next to my desk, so we hang out together all day whenever i'm home. keeping a lone degu is strongly discouraged, as they are highly social animals. if they don't have other degus around, they can literally die of loneliness- they'll stop eating and waste away.

there is a veryyyyy long story behind this, and a lot of it is very personal, but basically, the only reason i am comfortable with keeping her alone by herself is that i provide her with lots of enrichment in her cage, and lots of personal attention, since she's practically always by my side.

Will and Wesley, two males who i adopted along with Deanna (don't worry, they were housed in separate cages so there were no more "oops, i thought they were all males" litters). sadly, due to the Long Story Reasons mentioned above, i had to surrender them to a local rescue org. i hope their next forever home is the best it can be.

this was Charlie. he was the snuggliest degu i've ever known. all he wanted was to be plastered to me all day long. he would nap on me for hours, until he needed to pee, in which case he had would let me know by getting wiggly and giving me a light nip on the hand.

and this was Diego! i adopted Diego and Charlie together from the Rhode Island SPCA way back in yonder years. (er... 2010?) Diego was Charlie's uncle/grandpa (you know... from an "oops, i thought they were all males" sitch). both of them were so cuddly it broke my brain. i miss them every day.

Diego loved to play a couple games: one was Catch The Wind, where i would blow softly at him and he would... try to grab it??

another favorite game of his was Groom The Hoomin, where he would rather enthusiastically groom my hair. felt pretty good tbh. sorry this video sucks, it was taken on a potato in like 2011.