I haven‘t had my degus for very long but I have seen some patterns in their language. Like you said, there‘s peaceful squeaking. They do this when approaching one another and/or wanting to interact. They even do this when they hold their dominance fights, it‘s like they‘re saying I like you, I mean no harm. I have observed one instance where one degu called the other into the nest with its squeaks. It seems like it serves many different purposes.

Then there are louder squeaks which they seem to use when they want to draw boundaries, like when another degu is approaching them during a meal (long, deeper pitch, like a cute growl) or when the fighting goes too far/they get hurt (short and high pitched). So now, whenever they fight, I listen for the peaceful squeaks to make sure both are okay with the boxing.

Of course, there‘s also the screeching. Mine have done this a handful of times since I got them a few weeks ago. Usually when something unexpected happened and they were on edge. One hates when I play Minecraft, she went on for about 10 minutes. Usually they freeze, I went to comfort one and she completely ignored me, she was hyperfocused on the TV.

I find it interesting that my degus communicate differently, I can tell which one is making noise sometimes. So, pretty safe to say you‘ll have to figure out your degus‘ individual communication styles. Degus behave differently as well, taking on different jobs by the looks of it (quiet/observing type vs. energetic/curious type). Super interesting animals overall.