Can rat live with degu?

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William kong

New Member
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Oct 13, 2019
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I have an opportunity to purchase a degu for 10$ which is practically free. Can a degu live with my three rats in the same cage or WI they eat each other. The degus pretty big so I'm concerned about it. Anyone ever have a degu and rats live together happily? I'm not concerned about my two younger rats becoming aggressive with the degu, but I am worried about my other 4 month old fancy because he's incredibly terrirotial. And also worried that the degu will eat my boys
 
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I would strongly recommend against it. A quick Google search said that degus are diurnal, while rats are typically nocturnal. And degus are incredibly social, just like rats, however the two speak different "languages." Living together would be beyond frustrating as they would not be able to effectively communicate with one another. Imagine living in a room with a person from a different country with different values, cultural norms, and they speak different language. That's what it'd feel like to be that degu or that rat.

And if we're bringing diet into this, a degu would not fare well on a rat's diet and vice versa.


I have my sweet, sweet male rats too. They would never hurt anything around me. They want to kiss me all day, crawl around with me, and nap in my arms, but the moment my bird lands on their cage (despite being discouraged from doing that), they will go after him. Bite his toes, his tail feathers, anything and everything.

If you ever worry about different species eating each other, just don't do it. Better safe than sorry.
 
Rats should never be mixed with other species.
Rats are either prey (cats, dogs, ferrets, large birds, reptiles etc) or predators (mice, hamsters, degus, small birds etc) depending on the other type of animal. Your rats will kill the degu. Rats have been known to grab a hamster through cage bars and dismember the live hamster

rats need to live with at least one other same sex rat (gradual intro steps are used so no one is hurt)
 
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