Mona is my first degu. She was born Aug, 2001 and adopted in Nov, 2001. For the first three months of her life with me she lived alone in a birdcage eating chinchilla food and running happily in her wheel at all hours of the night.
In Mar, 2002 she was joined by my second degu Sara (born Jan, 2002). There were a few problems integrating them at first. They fought to establish a pecking order, so we put them together slowly and only under supervision. After a few days they got along so well, that if I tried to separate them, they would chirp to each other from their different cages. Now they play together, sleep together and groom each other.
A few weeks ago Sara had a near tragedy. While playing in her cage, my roommate's 13 year old cat crept up and bit her tail. The skin on the tip sloughed off leaving the cat with a mouthful of tail and the degu with a bloody stump. Of course this happened on Easter Sunday when every store that could help was closed. Searching the interent gave no advice of what to do, so I decided to leave it up to nature. It took a few days, but the tip dried up and the two degus chewed it off. Now Sara is perfectly fine, if not a little stubby.
Mona and Sarah both have very different personalities. Mona is very independant and has no interest in cuddling with me. If I want to take her out of the cage, I have to chase her with my hand until I trap her in a corner. Once she is out though, she explores everything she can. Sara is much more docile. She loves to be picked up, although she is much more careful since the cat incident. She lets Mona eat first and have the best sleeping spots, but has no compunctions with kicking Mona out of the wheel.
Both Mona and Sara love dust baths, running in their balls, and eating dried bananas. They just moved into a bigger cage and are enjoying the newfound freedom.