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Husbandry and Breeding in the Octodon degu (Molina 1782)

Article  in  Cold Spring Harbor Protocols · April 2013

DOI: 10.1101/pdb.prot073577 · Source: PubMed

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Husbandry and Breeding in the Octodon degu (Molina 1782)

Adrian G. Palacios and Theresa M. Lee

Cold Spring Harb Protoc 2013; doi: 10.1101/pdb.prot073577

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Protocol

Husbandry and Breeding in the Octodon degu (Molina 1782)

Adrian G. Palacios1 and Theresa M. Lee2,3
1
Centro Interdisciplinario de Neurociencia de Valparaíso, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Valparaíso,
2360102 Valparaíso, Chile; 2Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Program, University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109

The Octodon degu is a native rodent species from South America, which lives in colonies with a well-
structured social organization grouping of 5–10 young and 2–5 adult animals sharing a burrow system.
They show a temperature-dependent diurnal-crepuscular activity pattern. In nature they rarely survive
2 yr, mostly because of predation. However, in captivity, females reproduce for 4–4.5 yr, and both sexes
live for 5–7 yr. Males remain fertile until death. Some care is required to maintain healthy degus,
particularly breeding females. Here we describe husbandry and breeding guidelines from the experi-
ence of the University of Michigan degu colony. With the husbandry practices described here, 90% of
pups born in our colony reach maturity (6 mo of age), and no diarrheal diseases are apparent in our
adult population.

MATERIALS

It is essential that you consult the appropriate Material Safety Data Sheets and your institution’s Environmental
Health and Safety Office for proper handling of equipment and hazardous materials used in this protocol.

Reagents
Alfalfa
Animals
There is no commercial breeder selling degus. Laboratories and zoos that maintain colonies are usually able to
provide some pairs to begin a breeding group. Degus can also be found in some pet stores in the United States
as well as in Europe.

Reagent for acidification of water

Rodent chow (e.g., LabDiet 5001, PMI International)
Wheat-based PMI diet (ProLab RMH 2000 5P06)

Equipment
Bedding (preferably an inert material such as corn cob or paper chips)
Bathing dust (e.g., LM Chinchilla Dust Bath, purchased from pet stores) can also be used (see Step 1).

Breeding cages (opaque polypropylene; 20 in × 20 in × 8 in)

3
Correspondence: terrilee@umich.edu
© 2013 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
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Husbandry and Breeding in the Octodon degu

Housing cages (opaque polypropylene; 10 in × 19 in × 8 in) for 2–3 adults

Cages are available from any dealer providing laboratory-style rodent housing.

Water bottles and overhead hoppers

Sipper tubes with balls help prevent cage flooding by those individuals that like to play with the bottles.
Very young animals need extra-long sipper tubes and food put into bottom of cage until they can reach
the hopper.

METHOD

Housing and Diet

1. House degus in opaque cages with overhead hoppers and water bottles. Use small quantities of dry
inert bedding.
Housing in opaque caging reduces hyper-vigilant behavior and is particularly helpful in promoting success-
ful breeding. Laboratory degus do not expend much effort in building nests, and can be quite messy in
kicking bedding out of cages because they have a strong drive for sand bathing and scent marking. It is not
necessary to good health to provide dust for bathing, but it is good enrichment. Because of their adaptations
to an environment with limited water, they produce little urine.
2. Maintain the housing temperature at 18˚C–20˚C to maintain diurnal activity patterns.
This is cooler than typical for myomorph laboratory rodents (21˚C–23˚C) (Lee 2004), but is important to
maintain normal diurnal activity patterns if animals are housed with running wheels. Standard animal room
temperatures are satisfactory for breeding animals.
3. Maintain a 12:12 light:dark (LD) cycle.
The 12:12 LD cycle is particularly efficient for circadian studies. However, we also find that degus main-
tained on ad libitum water and food can be housed in any photoperiod and remain fertile, although other
laboratories have found some decrease in male sperm production.
4. Feed the degus a life-stage-appropriate diet.
• Feed a wheat-based PMI diet to support gestation (90–95 d), lactation (5–6 wk), and juvenile
growth (Colby et al. 2012). Deliver alfalfa twice per week (one handful per animal). Place it on
the top of the cage or in the hopper.
Alfalfa is particularly helpful for good growth in pregnant females and the young, under the age of 6 mo.
Non-pregnant adult animals still enjoy alfalfa, but it does not seem to impact health.

• Feed a broad-use rodent chow after they reach adult body size (185–225 g) at 5–6 mo of age.
Degus should never be fed fresh root vegetables or fruits (which are high in sugars and carbohydrates).
They readily become hyper-insulinemic, and this leads to cataracts and kidney damage (see Octodon
degus [Molina 1782]: A Model in Comparative Biology and Biomedicine [Ardiles et al. 2013]).
5. Provide fresh sanitized water bottles twice weekly to inhibit growth in standing water. Acidify the
water provided to pups through 3 mo of age.
Degus are susceptible to Pseudomonas infections. After 3 mo of age, acidification seems unnecessary.

Breeding
6. Form breeding pairs when animals are at least 6 mo old. Keep one male with one or two females
and their litters (Ebensperger et al. 2007). Monitor their reproductive maturation by observing
the timing of vaginal opening in females and penile development in males (see Fig. 1; Labyak and
Lee 1995).
Laboratory-housed degu males become fertile between 2.5 and 4 mo of age, and females a little later
(Hummer et al. 2007). However, they do not reach full adult body size (180–250 g) until 6–8 mo of age
(Reynolds and Wright 1979). Adult males are
10% larger than females.
The development of a mating relationship is best when males and females are familiar with one another for at
least several days before estrus. However, even familiarity does not ensure a successful mating pair, and it is
not unusual that individuals need to be re-paired with a new partner before finding compatibility.

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A.G. Palacios and T.M. Lee

FIGURE 1. Female photos (A,B) are non-estrous females,

showing that the opening to the vagina is closed during
2 wk of luteal phase. Photo (C ) shows female vaginal
opening at onset of estrous, and (D) swelling and fluid
discharge during estrous. The male photos show (A,B)
non-erect penis, and (C,D) erect penis with extended
spikes. Reprinted from Colby et al. (2012).

7. Determine the likely date of mating.

Female degus have fertility cycles at
3-wk intervals until they are 4–4.5 yr of age. Mating can occur
periodically throughout a 15-h period on the first day of vaginal patency (Mahoney et al. 2011). Vaginal
patency occurs when estrogen levels are at a peak; it lasts for 1–3 d at the beginning of estrus (21-d cycle).
Gestation is 90 d (Mahoney et al. 2011; Colby et al. 2012).
8. Monitor cages for newborn pups (Fig. 2).
The first litter a female produces typically contains 4–6 pups and subsequent litters have 6–10 pups
(Long and Ebensperger 2009). Pups are precocious, born fully furred, eyes open on the day of birth,
teeth erupting, and they are readily mobile (Fentress 1981). They remain in the nesting site, closely attended
by the dam until
2 wk of age. By that age they begin gnawing on pieces of food and moving around the
entire cage.
9. After the litters are born, keep the sire with the dams.
Immediate postpartum mating is common in degus, but only about half the females become pregnant from
those matings; otherwise females will not become pregnant again until the first cycle following weaning
(Mahoney et al. 2011; Colby et al. 2012). Males do not direct any aggressive or cannibalistic behavior
toward the young; in fact, males will huddle over the young. Females of this species are also unusual as they
do not show any signs of maternal aggression when their pups are handled by an investigator.
10. Wean the pups at 4–5 wk (at 60–80 g), but maintain them in groups of at least 2–3 animals until
maturity (6 mo of age).

FIGURE 2. Octodon degu mother with 2-d-old pups (A);

4-d-old littermates (B), and pup within a few hours of
birth (C ). Note that pups are fully furred, ears and eyes
are open on day of birth. Teeth begin to emerge within
first week of life. Bedding in the cages is shredded paper,
corn cob, and alfalfa stems. (Photos by T.M. Lee.)

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Husbandry and Breeding in the Octodon degu

This is required for normal brain development and adult behavior (review in Lee 2004; Colby et al. 2012).
Poeggel et al. (2003) reported severe behavioral and neural deficits in animals raised in isolation after
weaning. We have also found that young isolated animals exhibited excessive fear of conspecifics at a
later age and became very difficult to handle. After 6 mo of age, isolated housing does not appear to
cause behavioral anomalies, but continued socialization is recommended. In nature, degus are a highly
social species, living in small, related multi-female adult groups with one or two adult males, which are
territorial (Mahoney et al. 2011; Colby et al. 2012).

RELATED INFORMATION

For information on the degu as a model organism, see Octodon degus (Molina 1782): A Model in
Comparative Biology and Biomedicine (Ardiles et al. 2013).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was partially supported by a grant from FONDECYT # 1110292, CINV-UV ICM-P09-022-F.

REFERENCES

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