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Animal Age

How old does a Common degu get? (age expectancy)

What is the maximal age a Common degu reaches?

An adult Common degu (Octodon degus) usually gets as old as 7.08 years.

Common degus are around 90 days in the womb of their mother. When born, they weight 14 grams (0.03 lbs) and measure 5.1 cm (0′ 3″). As a member of the Octodontidae family (genus: Octodon), a Common degu caries out around 5 little ones per pregnancy, which happens around 2 times a year. Fully grown, they reach a bodylength of 28 cm (1′ 0″).

As a reference: Usually, humans get as old as 100 years, with the average being around 75 years. After being carried in the belly of their mother for 280 days (40 weeks), they grow to an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″) and weight in at 62 kg (137 lbs), which is obviously highly individual.

A Common degu gets as old as 7.08 years

The common degu (Octodon degus; ), or, historically, the degu, is a small hystricomorpha rodent endemic to the Chilean matorral ecoregion of central Chile. The name degu on its own indicates either the entire genus Octodon or, more commonly, just the common degu. Common degus belong to the parvorder Caviomorpha of the infraorder Hystricognathi, along with the chinchilla and guinea pig. The word degu comes from the indigenous language of Chile, Mapudungun, and the word dewü, meaning ‘mouse’ or ‘rat’.The animal may be kept as a pocket pet, except there are prohibitions on their ownership in some territories. As a pet, the animal is larger than a golden hamster but smaller than a fancy rat.

Animals of the same family as a Common degu

Not really brothers and sisters, but from the same biological family (Octodontidae):

Animals that reach the same age as Common degu

With an average age of 7.08 years, Common degu are in good companionship of the following animals:

Animals with the same number of babies Common degu

The same number of babies at once (5) are born by:

Weighting as much as Common degu

A fully grown Common degu reaches around 203 grams (0.45 lbs). So do these animals:

Animals as big as a Common degu

Those animals grow as big as a Common degu: