Two checks that protect a degu twice over
Degus carry a particular pair of risks: teeth that grow throughout life and can overgrow painfully, and a metabolism that handles sugar badly, making them prone to weight gain and diabetes-type problems. A weekly home routine covering teeth and weight watches both risks at once, in about five calm minutes. Degus are social, busy, and quick, so do the checks when yours is awake and settled — often mid-morning or late afternoon in their active periods — and keep the session short and predictable.
Because degus usually live in groups, check each animal individually. The boldest degu at the food bowl can hide the fact that a shyer companion is losing weight or struggling to chew.
The incisor check, degu edition
With your degu held securely or sitting in a familiar container, use a fingertip to ease the lips back and look at the front teeth. A healthy degu's incisors are a deep yellow-orange — in degus that colour signals normal, iron-rich enamel, not staining — and the uppers and lowers should meet with an even, straight edge ground by constant chewing.
Concerning findings are teeth that are different lengths, a diagonal wear edge, white or pale patches on normally orange teeth, a broken tooth, or a mouth the degu resents having touched. Around the check, watch behaviour: drooling, a wet chin, taking food and dropping it, chewing slowly on one side, or going to the hay and walking away are the degu's way of reporting cheek teeth you cannot see at home. Those back teeth belong to a vet with a scope.
Weighing a degu fairly
Place a small box or tub on a digital kitchen scale, zero it, and let your degu step in — many degus will sit in a familiar container for a seed-free moment if handling is routine. Weigh weekly, at the same time of day, and write the number down for each animal separately. Day-to-day readings bounce with gut fill; the value is in the trend over several weeks.
For degus, movement in either direction matters. Steady loss alongside picky eating points back to the teeth. Steady gain, especially with lethargy or drinking and urinating much more than cage-mates, points toward diet — degus should not be fed sugary treats, molasses-containing foods, or sweetened mixes at all, and a gaining degu's whole menu deserves review with a vet rather than a home crash diet, which can harm a small animal quickly.
Logging what you find, animal by animal
Keep a simple page per degu: weekly weight, incisor appearance, and one line on appetite and behaviour. In a group, add who is being pushed from the bowl, since social rank changes can present as one animal's weight loss. Note hay intake honestly — long-strand hay is the degu's dental workout and fibre base, and a degu quietly eating less hay while still taking soft foods is showing you a classic early dental pattern.
Photograph the incisors monthly if your degu tolerates it. Comparing photos makes a slowly slanting wear edge obvious in a way memory does not, and vets find a dated sequence genuinely useful.
Knowing when to hand over to the vet
Book an exotics vet promptly for drooling, dropped food, uneven or pale teeth, weight trending down across three checks, or weight climbing with heavy drinking. Dental and metabolic problems in degus compound each other, and both are far easier to manage caught at the home-check stage than after a degu has stopped eating well. KinsLe's Pet Passport gathers each degu's weights, tooth notes, and diet history into one portable record, so your five-minute weekly checks turn into evidence your vet can act on at a glance.