Abstract
The degu, which has recently become well known in Japan as an exotic pet, is a herbivorous rodent adapted to a low energy diet. If fed a rich diet it could be at risk of developing diabetes and dyslipidemia. We investigated the diets highly preferred by degus and their influence on postprandial blood glucose levels. We determined the normal fasting blood glucose levels（64.2±2.2mg/dl, SEM）in clinically healthy adult degus（n＝6）before the preference test. We used four types of diet―usual（pellets）, high fiber（timothy grass）, high sugar（dried pineapple）, and high fat（sunflower seeds）―to examine the animals' preferences and the influence of each diet on blood glucose levels after feeding. Intakes after 17 h of fasting were in the order of high fat（2.7±0.2g, SEM）, high sugar（2.4±0.2g）, high fiber（1.6±0.3g）, and usual（0.6±0.1g）. The peak postprandial blood glucose level was highest with high sugar（91.8±7.8mg/dl）, and lowest with high fat（68.7±3.9mg/dl）, but the levels on all diets were in the physiological range and returned to normal fasting levels within 150 min. Therefore, we suggest that the use of highly preferred diets is unlikely immediately to adversely affect the health of degus, although it may still do so in the case of permanent or habitual use.
