The Story of My Degus
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The Story of My Degus
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Posted 2024-04-06 15:58:31 (edited)
Degus are small rodents that originally come from the Andes Mountains in Chile. You could say they look similar to rats or mice, but they are a completely different species; and they're awesome. I am a fan of the Hamilton musical, and I decided to tell their story when I heard the song "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story" yesterday. I'll not show any pictures of dead or very weak degus in this post since it might trigger some people and I'm not even sure if it would be allowed here on Wolvden. I'll talk about my degus and only show pictures of their living time. I will talk about how Waldorf and two other degus of mine died before him, and I will describe what happened, though I won't describe any blood (there wasn't blood, anyways), etc. If you're still triggered by that, I don't recommend reading any further. The first degus In March 2015, we got our first two degus, Waldorf and Statler. In fact, we once had degus before that, but it was a much longer time ago, I was just one year old and it's a completely different story. However, we still didn't have mats on the different stages yet. Everything was totally different from the way the degu cage is furnished now. Meet the degus Name: Waldorf Gender: Male Favourite Food: Walnuts, Parsnip, Beetroot Crisps Family: Statler (biological brother) Looks: His face was a bit broader than Statler's, that's how we differenciated them. His fur colour was agouti and his eye colour black. Character: Waldorf was a calm, but curious young degu. He mostly followed his brother Statler around and wasn't very dominant. He just tolerated other degus and never fought with his brother a lot, just occasionally did little playfights. He also ran a lot on the running plate.  Name: Statler Gender: Male Favourite Food: Walnuts, Carrot Crisps Family: Waldorf (biological brother) Looks: His face was slimmer than Waldorf's and his nose a bit pointier. His fur was agouti and his eye colour black. Character: Statler was a cheeky, curious little boy. He would always try to do hatch something; everything but boring stuff! Just like Waldorf, he ran a lot on the running plate, but in contrary to him, he was more dominant and feisty. Waldorf is on the left, Statler is on the right  Over time, the way we furnished the cage changed. For example, we got hemp mats and more stuff for them to play with or sleep in. They had a hammock, even though not for very long because they always shredded it after a short time  Statler's death We were cleaning the cage when Statler fell out of it. After we got him back in, he hid and we were worried about him. The next day, he passed away shortly after I went to school, at least that's what my mother told me. He was three years old, while degus have an average life span of six years. Rarely, they do get eight though and in individual cases, they can get ten. From what I've heard, the oldest degu in the world was twelve years old, so double of the average lifespan. However, Statler was young and it broke our hearts that he died so early. It's always sad when a pet dies, but especially if they could've had so much more time in life  He's buried in our garden opposite the cellar door. I don't have a picture of his grave on my phone, maybe I'll take one tomorrow. Waldorf couldn't stay alone Degus can't stay alone, that's just torture. Even if you spend all your time with them, they need someone to clean them, to cuddle them in their nest, to playfight and play in general. A human could never be the replacement of a conspecific. In the few weeks he was alone, we talked a lot to him so he at least wasn't feeling completely alone, though we knew it wouldn't help him a lot to be happier. Then, we got Mantis and Justin. The three immediately got along with each other. Normally, it's a long and difficult process to get two degu groups strange from each other get along, and some degus will never be friends, since they have characters, just like humans. But sometimes, degus also just get along on first sight. We had the luck that that was the case with Waldorf, Justin and Mantis. Meet the newcomers Name: Justin Gender: Male Favourite Food: Walnuts, Carrot Crisps, Corn Family: Mantis (biological brother), Waldorf (adoptive brother) Looks: Justin had a slim face with a pointy nose. His fur colour was agouti, though he had some white patches. His left front paw was a light pink instead of the typical agouti-grey. His eye colour was black. Character: From the very beginning, Justin reminded me of Statler. He was cheeky and more dominant than his brother Mantis, though there were differences. Like all of our degus, he loved to run on the running plate, but different from Statler, he was more indepent from his brother and also did things alone.  Name: Mantis Gender: Male Favourite Food: Walnuts, Beetroot Crisps, Corn Family: Justin (biological brother), Waldorf (adoptive brother) Looks: Just like Justin, Mantis has a slim face and pointy nose. Different from his brother, he has no white patches and only a standard agouti fur. His eye colour is black. Character: Mantis is a sweetheart and always caring for his friends. Whenever Justin or Waldorf didn't feel good and went to sleep when they would normally be awake, he was there to cuddle them. Though he definetly can be cheeky at times! He often playfighted with Justin and sometimes with Waldorf, but after fighting was done, ghey cuddled again because cuddling with his brothers is awesome! Even though he didn't follow his brother or Waldorf around the whole time, he sometimes did hatch something with them. "Hm, our humans want to give us fresh food? Let's go s(h)it in the feeding bowl and refuse to come out, no matter what (except there are walnuts)." Oh, and he's picky with food. Super picky. I'm actually not sure what he actually eats and doesn't sometimes   A wonderful time I can actually remember the time with Waldorf, Justin and Mantis better than with Waldorf and Statler. It's probably because I was younger back when Statler was still alive. Justin and Mantis brought new life to Waldorf after Statler's death. They cuddled a lot, played, playfighted, and of course had a lot of stupid ideas. I spent a lot of time with them, and my cousin did, too. Mantis actually even learned the trick "give paw". The shock of Justin's death Justin was completely healthy, at least from what we could tell. He fell out the cage twice, but never from a big height and that was six months before his death. Just like Statler, he died when he was a bit more than three years old. He died on the 21st of June 2022. I came home from school normally, just to be told Justin was dead. We still don't know why he passed, but he's buried next to the cellar door in our garden. I actually even have a picture of his grave. I made it on the day he died. I dug away some earth and then put there a walnut for him. Then, I buried it again by scratching the earth back over it.  Togetherness Waldorf was seven years old when Justin passed, and Mantis was of course a bit older than three years old, just like Justin. Waldorf got older and grew a tumor, but he was happy and ate and did everything normally, though he wasn't as active as he once was. Mantis looked a lot after him and while Waldorf slept more than in his youth, Mantis did, too, so Waldorf wasn't alone in the nest. They cared for each other and were always really cute in general. Waldorf started cuddling more with me in that time span, too. They also got a new, bigger and better cage. Waldorf's death that broke my heart He died today, on the 6th of April 2024 with an age of nine years and five months, an incredible age for a degu. But still, it hurt. Yesterday, I saw him lying on the side. He couldn't stand up. After comforting him and trying to give him water or food -unsuccessfully-, we got some old clothes for him to cuddle in. I sat there most of the day and sang him calm songs or comforted him. I also told him stories. Mantis sometimes came to look after Waldorf and see what exactly was going on, but most of the time, he hid in the nest, he probably knew that something was wrong; of course he knew, he's intelligent and animals can sense scenarios like that, at least that's what I think. Later that day, we put him in the nest to Mantis. I slept terrible last night. This morning, I immediately went to look after Waldorf, and he was still alive, but only sleeping on the side. We tried to give him water or food again, but he didn't want any, so we knew he probably wouldn't make it. My mother held him in her arms a long time today. He slept there like a little baby, curled up. I always went checking if he was still breathing. He slept the whole day in the nest, and today, Mantis spent most of the time there, too, keeping him warm. This evening, I looked after him again and wasn't sure if he was breathing. We checked and he wasn't. Mantis hid in the back part of the nest, but still cuddled Waldorf's back. We will bury Waldorf tomorrow, and until then, we put him in a little box. We cleaned the cage stage he was in. I'm glad Mantis could say goodbye. Animals understand death, but they do not understand abandonement. He at least knows what happened to Waldorf, though it breaks my heart to know he lost his best friend and pretty much adoptive brother. Me? I cried a lot. Yesterday and today. And by a lot, I mean a lot, I am a very sentimental person and Waldorf's death hit me very badly. If you ask why we didn't went to an animal vet to put him down: We had a positive corona test (without real symptoms though) and even though it's almost negative, it still is positive. We kept distance from the pets and were careful when we fed them, but when Waldorf felt so bad, we of course couldn't just keep distance anymore. Also, we wanted him to be at home when he passed away, where he had been all of his life, and together with Mantis. And we didn't want to leave him to the stress of being driven to an animal vet, etc. In our region, we don't have animal vets that really know something about rodents, too. So they couldn't have done a lot. The end? It's not clear, but we will probably get Mantis some younger degus so he isn't alone. We couldn't bring it over our hearts to give him away to another home. But that's something we'll sort out tomorrow, it's late and the hurt of Waldorf's death is still fresh, I actually don't want to think about it today. I'll make a reserved for future use post and post there old pictures of the degus with a little text sometimes. I wanted to tell their story because I think it's one worth telling. I hope that's okay for everyone. Whatever happens in your life currently, I hope it'll get better. Have a great day/goodnight! 
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 Midnight #116791 |
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Posted 2024-04-06 15:59:46
-> I'll post old pictures of the degus with a little text to each one How intensiv? Maybe once a week, twice a week, depending on what I have and how I feel] |
Midnight #116791 |
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Posted 2024-04-13 04:07:59
Say hello to Scooter and Percy! Percy (the picture is a little bit bright)  Scooter 
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Midnight #116791 |