Videos of African Pygmy Dormice
African Pygmy Dormice Orphan pups
Raising orphan dormice pups can be very hard, and the chances of survival are very low and nearly impossible if under one week. The following tips should not be considered a substitute for contacting your local wildlife rescue or breeder.
Wild pups
If you have disturbed a nest of wild African Pygmy dormice pups the first thing to do if possible is to ring a local wildlife rescue for advice. They can offer you advice and hopefully take them in themselves, as raising orphaned African Pygmy Dormice pups is very difficult and best done by someone experienced.
If the dormice pups are furred then they are at least 1 week old, and you can check to see if the mum will return to them. If the nest is damaged, try picking the dormice pups up careful with a gloved hand and placing in a makeshift nest such as a small cardboard box or plant pot near where you disturbed them. Monitor for mums return for no more than an hour.
If you need to take the pups inside, place in a secure container such as a plastic or glass tank. Add some warmth such as a hot water bottle full of warm water, not hot. You can also try filling an old sock with rice and heating in your microwave. Shredded paper makes a good nesting material. Then follow the feeding instructions as given below.
Handrearing
Use kitten milk, and a nylon paint brush for your orphan dormice pups. If the litter is very young then kitten milk could cause bloat - warm a small amount of milk on a radiator or in hot water. Do not microwave.
Feed every two hours morning and night and use a alcohol-free baby wipe or moistened cotton bud to stimulate the anus after feeding and encourage them to toilet. This is important as they will not yet have the ability to do this for themselves yet and the mum would normally lick their anus to teach them this.
At two weeks, you can introduce fresh foods. Mushy banana is a good starting point, after feeding milk soften banana between your fingers and let them sniff and attempt to link. If they refuse, try mixing a tiny amount of banana into the milk. If banana is refused, other fruit can be attempt but steer clear of anything strongly acidic.
At three weeks they should be trying more solids. If they are not, just reduce the milk portions to every 4 hours. Try adding some millet seeds and honey to a small shallow dish, and some live mealworms in another.
At four weeks they can have the full feed in a dish, and feed only twice with milk. Continue until they refuse, likely stopping at around 6 weeks.
Sexing African Pygmy Dormice
Dormice reach sexual maturity around 5 months and are one of the hardest rodents to sex. The best method in sexing pygmy dormice is to place pups in a see through jar or container that they cannot escape from.
- The space between the genital and anal openings is greater in the male than the female.
- In the centre of the genital vents the female has a dot and the male has a more button-shape - similar to Guinea Pigs.
- Once they are sexually mature the Males have large testicular bulges under their tails making this much easier to identify.
- Female dormice have prominant nipples if pregnant or lactating, blowing on belly fur may help reveal this for young dormice.
Due to the difficulty in sexing, and the long time to mature you may find a lot of breeders sell their young as unsexed.
Introducing new Dormice
To prevent inbreeding, it is important to introduce new blood in the colony. The best option would be to introduce young dormice, but since you cannot tell gender you may want to introduce adults to avoid issues later on. This is done on neutral territory.
Things to help the introduction include:
- Try rubbing a menthol vapour on the dormice and the newly cleaned enclosure - paying particular attention to the genital region to help disguise scent and reduce the fighting instinct.
- Spray a strong scent such as lavender, vanilla or diluted washing up liquid with a lemon scent around the enclosure.
- Change all bedding and clean all nests and alter the layout for them.
- Make sure you have plentiful food supplies with multiple feeding stations and numerous nests.
- A deep layer of hay can be a good way of diffusing fighting.
- Distracting food treats things like live crickets or millet sprays.
Your new Dormice may nest alone for a few nights, but this is normal. In my personal experience I have found that it can be difficult to integrate family groups - I have found that the young and adolescents may be accepted but not the adults. Some dormice personalities may not match, and I've had girls before that will not accept any other females other than her own daughters.
Always make sure you have a spare, secure tank or vivarium so you are prepared for dormouse territory disputes. Keep a close eye on your colony so you should be aware if you need to separate your animals. The danger signs are quite obvious, especially with males where there is excessive chasing, fighting and one dormouse may be pinned with the other holding it down.
African Pygmy Dormice Health
Rapid breathing is a sign of distress, equally the Dormouse sounds for anger are very sharp and easy to recognise. Do not be concerned if a dormouse pauses for longer periods of time at once - this is part of being a prey animal since movements would attract the attention of predators. Your dormouse is may be quite lethargic in daytime, becoming more active at dusk and dawn.
They will conceal signs of illness very well, and often you will only see the very end stages of a problem. You should therefore keep an eye out for any significant changes in behaviour, coat condition, and injuries. Territory disputes can be brutal; you should always ensure you have a spare habitat to separate animals into if needed.
Make sure your chosen vet has experience with exotics, and ideally with African Pygmy Dormice. Your vet needs a decent level of expertise to counteract the stress caused to your African Pygmy Dormice by being in a strange environment. Try asking in exotic forums for recommendations near you.
Torpor
If your dormice is cold to the touch however, it may be in a state of torpor. This means that the temperature is too low for your animal, or it believes it needs to conserve its own body fat due to a lack of available food. If this is the case warm up your creature instantly - the warmth of hands is useful for this, and cupping your hands and blowing gently on its fur. Dormice can die from this state so it is important to ensure you keep their environment at a warm enough temperature and your Dormice have plenty of bedding and access to food and water.
Dormice can get stressed out very easily, which can also lead to torpor. If you have to take them on a long car journey try to break this up wherever possible and ensure they have a secure, dark place to hide.