What do baby dormice eat

Lancashire's 'rare' dormouse find. Hidden treasure leads to Dormice. Rare dormouse boost for reservoir. Dormouse population on increase.

First dormouse spotted at reserve. BBC Nature - Dormouse. Hazel dormice are an endangered species and mainly found in the southern counties of Britain. They hibernate when food is scarce to conserve energy. 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. 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. Home: Dormice are nocturnal so they sleep in the day!

They build themselves nests, usually in a hollow tree branch. Their nests are domed like little cottages, made of strips of honeysuckle bark, weaved into a ball and sometimes surrounded with leaves to make it extra warm. In the winter, dormice build themselves a new nest, deep inside hedges or on the ground where they will be warmer.

They make their winter nests out of wool, leaves and grass and fill it with food just in case they wake up early from their hibernation. Mating and Courtship: Male Dormice use calls to attract a mate, a bit like house mice.

Dormice can mate between May and September, but unlike house mice the females only have one or two litters a year, usually of four babies. Once a Dormouse is pregnant she will get her nest ready and the male will go and find another mate.

Babies: The babies are born blind, without any fur, like lots of baby animals. By seven days old they have grey fur, and by eighteen days old they can see and hear and have grown brown fur. When they leave home they are a lovely honey-colour like their parents.