Welcome Pechu!!

About 3 weeks ago we lost one of our degus, Miss Vida. Vida will be sadly missed by all, but in particular by her BFF, Baby Shiloh.

It became clear very quickly that we needed to find Shiloh a new friend. She became withdrawn and nervous in the first week of Vida’s passing. I searched high and low for a new cagemate. The only real requirements were that the new degu must be female and in good health. I checked Petfinder.com, the SPCA, Craigslist, and even phoned around to all the local pet stores that occasionally rehome animals. No luck. So with the help of my friend Chenoa (http://twitter.com/#!/0nedove), I decided to try putting an ad up on Craigslist.

SHILOH (AKA BABY)

Days went by with no responses and I was starting to lose hope. But then yesterday morning I received an email from a family that had 4 degu siblings, 3 boys and 1 girl. The girl, Pechu, was just under a year old and currently living with her 3 brothers. Prior to arriving to their loving family, they had all almost become snake food! But lucky for them (and us!) the snake wasn’t much for degus, and they were adopted into a happy family and even reunited with a long lost brother! Hoorah!

Being the only girl, Pechu, was sometimes the odd man (or shall we say woman) out. And her new family wasn’t too keen on having baby degus taking over the cage. So when her mom saw that Shiloh was in need of a friend she contacted me about her girl, Pechu.

PECHU

Pechu arrived just this morning and seems to be fitting right in! I set up her cage for her so that it was all ready for her arrival :) She explored all the levels, ate some hay and pellets, and seemed interested in smelling through to the cage below her to check out her new friend, Shiloh.

Over the next few weeks the girls will slowly be introduced. Introducing new degus can be a little tricky but we’ve had lots of success in the past. This is the method we use: http://www.degutopia.co.uk/deguintros.htm

I’ll keep you posted on their progress!