Why degus need the never list most of all
Most sitters feed by kindness: an animal looks hopeful, a treat appears. With a degu that instinct is dangerous, because degus are exceptionally prone to diabetes — their bodies handle sugar badly, and sweet foods that are harmless marketing for other small pets are a genuine health risk to him. The trap is that sugary degu food rarely looks sugary. It looks like a honey-glazed seed stick, a colourful muesli, a dried banana chip, a yoghurt drop. A sitter who would never dream of spooning sugar into the cage will offer every one of those in good faith. Your chart exists to close exactly that gap, and its most important section is the one that says no.
Part one and two: what he does eat
Open with the always-available line, because it is the simplest instruction in degu care: hay, refreshed daily and never allowed to run out, and clean water, checked morning and evening. Then the daily section: his own plain pellets in the rough amount you specify, any hay-based food or dried forage he usually gets, and the safe fresh items if you offer them, named specifically — a sitter should be choosing from your list, not improvising from the fridge. Keep quantities in handfuls and scoops rather than precision; the chart's job is to be followed at a glance, not to read like a laboratory protocol. Bring all of his food with him in its original bags so the sitter can compare labels against what you have written.
Part three: the never list, written out in full
Head this section so it cannot be missed and list the offenders by the names a sitter will actually meet: fresh and dried fruit of any kind, including raisins, banana chips and apple pieces; honey sticks and any seed stick with a glazed coating; sweetened muesli-style mixes; yoghurt drops and similar 'treat' drops; and anything at all whose label lists sugar, syrup, molasses, honey or fruit juice concentrate. Then add the master rule that covers everything you forgot to name: if it tastes sweet or its ingredients mention sugar in any form, it stays out of the cage — when in doubt, leave it out. That single sentence protects him against the treat a neighbour offers and the unfamiliar product a sitter buys as a kindness.
Making the chart physical and obvious
A chart in a folder is a chart unread. Fix the feeding chart to the cage itself at eye level, or laminate it beside the food storage, so it is in front of the sitter at the moment of feeding rather than in a drawer. If other people in the sitter's household might feed him — children especially — the chart should say plainly that nobody else offers food, because the commonest sugar accident is a second person who never saw the instructions. Leave your number on the chart itself, next to the never list, so 'can he have this?' is a quick message rather than a guess.
Where the chart lives after the stay
A feeding chart this specific should not be rewritten from memory every time someone else feeds him. Attached to his KinsLe Care Pass, the three-part chart — always available, daily foods, the full never list — travels to every sitter and boarder as part of his handover, so the sugar rule is never the detail that depends on how thorough your last conversation was.