The London Regional Show - Luton.

I'm not a huge fan of animal shows as I think that they encourage overbreeding when the rescues are full. But they are a good place to provide information to people and so I have left up this story from 2000.

Last Saturday, the 28th October 2000, we attended the London Regional Show in Luton with Willow and Pumpkin the Degus. Jackie from the National Gerbil Society had kindly agreed to let us have a space on their stand to talk to people about Degus and give out leaflets.

You can hold your cursor over the pictures for a description and click on them for a proper image.

Us doing our Degu bit.

Those people who were at the show please feel free to use any of these photos - just please credit eRodent if you use them on the Web. The quality of these images it quite low for speed reasons but if you would like a better quality copy of any of these please just e-mail me . Apologies to those of you whose names have slipped my mind - I met so many people and I'm getting a bit old!

I spent a few days putting together a Degu Information Sheet helped no end by the owners of several Degus sites being kind enough to let me use some of their information and pictures. Particular thanks goes to the Octodon Degu Site for this.

It was a really foul day - it was tipping it down with rain on the journey down. Willow and Pumpkin don't like travelling at the best of times but the drumming rain just made matters worse. Poor little Willow just quivered at the back of her cage the whole journey.

Luckily when we got to the show ground the Stewards let us take our car right up to the front door so we didn't get too soaked. We took the girls to the NGS stand where there were literally piles and piles of gerbils in small display tanks. I don't think I've ever seen so many - I think the judge told my husband that he judged 140 but I may be wrong.

The Gerbil Society Stand - piles and piles of Gerbils.

Once things were a bit more sorted we set up shop with our board and leaflets and started to talk to people. Both of the Degus had settled down once we got them out of the car and didn't seem to mind the noise too much. I was glad to see that Burgess pet foods had a stand as I had forgotten the Degus dinner and we were staying with relatives that night. I had an interesting conversation with a lady on the stall as she was interested in what we fed our degus. Apparently they get enquiries from people sometimes. We feed Supra Guinea pig because the pellets prevent selective eating. She was also interested in my idea about a pelleted food for gerbils and hamsters as we have terrible problems with our animals picking out the bits they like and leaving the bits that are good for them. The problem is I don't know how well something like that would sell.

One of the exhibitors at the gerbil stand had a pair of beautiful baby Persian Jirds which were really tame. I couldn't imagine what would happen if I tried to walk around a noisy show hall with Amy and Eric in my hands. Well I can - they would just teleport to the other side of the hall!

Gerbils and Jirds on the Gerbil Society Stand.

It was tremendous fun seeing all of the gerbils being judged. There were a couple of big tanks of baby gerbils for sale and I thought I was going to have to hang a "please do not sell gerbils to this man" sign on Chris. We just don't have room at present.

Lots of people came to talk to us. One very interesting man was telling me about when he used to have a small zoo quite a few years ago and imported what he thought were probably the first Degus into the country. I also talked to a lady involved with the RSPCA who had just had some in and didn't know how to feed them so that was worth it alone. Simon and Julie who I had contacted about being on my Degu Breeders list also turned up so it was good to meet then.

I felt a little bit inadequate at times as I am not the worlds most experienced Degu keeper but I also picked up lots of interesting bits of information as well. For example Willow is the less dominant of the pair of our Degus and tends to be somewhat overweight. One of the rabbit ladies explained that what can happen is that the less dominant animal moves around as little as possible so as not to draw attention to itself and then spends a lot of time comfort eating! Although they were quite happy to come and see people we had some slightly strange behaviour from the two Degus and I suspect that they were a bit stressed. Pumpkin refused to "speak" to us until we got her back to a familiar environment the next day.

We had quite a lot of interest in Willow and Pumpkin's Wodent Wheel and had to disappoint many of the Rat people by telling them that I had imported mine from the States. I don't think people are very confident about ordering from abroad but it isn't really a problem if you have a credit card and are willing to spend the postage. If I had known how much interest I was going to get I think I would have imported a dozen or so to sell!!

There were a number of stands with people selling pet products. We got a bone china gerbil mug, a nice line drawing of gerbils which is now on the wall at home and some dried hedgerow herbs from a company called Galen's Garden which are quite popular with the Degus and the Chinchilla all of which turn their little furry noses up at fresh vegetables.

People took a good number of Degu information leaflets either for themselves or for people that they new with Degus and the breeder list was even more popular so I felt that the day was a success. We hardly stopped talking all day and I was quite exhausted when we left.

Also present were Rats, Mice, Guinea Pigs and Rabbits. I always love the rabbits and have to keep myself away from the rabbit auction. One of the rabbits on show had a toy stuffed rabbit in the pen with him which was really sweet (see picture below).

Thanks again to Jackie from the National Gerbil Society for letting us have the Degus on their stand and everyone who came and talked to us and showed us their animals and generally made us feel welcome. Poor old Will and Pumpkin got a little damp getting them out to the car but we all soon dried off and went on to visit relatives where they were also a great success.

The Rat Stand.

Rabbits and others.

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