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Ah, Degus. The diabetic sociopaths of the rodent world. I don't mean that they lack sugar. I mean that, IIRC, as a species they're diabetic (at least this is what I was told, and given that our's promptly went blind after we gave it hamster treats...yeah).
Cute things, but we made the mistake of getting one and thinking that it would entertain itself. You need a BUNCH of the things, otherwise they just become antisocial and bite everything. And run away into the walls of your house, forcing you to hunt them down as if they were mice to get them back in their cages.
...I'm serious. Pikachu (don't ask, it was my brothers') got loose once, and despite being totally blind ran into a cupboard, through a crack, into the walls, and we spent three days finding little droppings around the house until we finally caught him scampering out from under the couch and caught him under a salad spinner bowl.
Our cat got into the ventilation system once, to. Thankfully, she figured how to get out. But until we closed the grate that she kept getting in through we'd be sitting around in the basement and just hear this "meow" from overhead. Looked up, and there, in the grate, would Kit-Kat (our cat, not the Barbelither). She'd look at us quizzically, as if to ask "Where the fuck am I?", and then eventually climb out in the laundry room where the ventilation duct let out. God I love that cat.
I feel I need to, after all that, say something about degus: They are easily pleasured. 90% of their body, it seems, is covered in nerves that respond very happily when you scratch them. Just poke them with a finger and wiggle it and they squinch closed their eyes, lean their body into you, and start thumbing their foot a bit. Also, their fur is soft. |
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Elephants can console, too.
