Raising a baby dormouse

Young dormice are most often found in late summer, when someone happens to discover a nest in an attic, a holiday home or a bird box. Raising a baby dormouse is not easy, because the young are tiny and delicate and need feeding at night too. In this article I talk about the edible dormouse (Glis glis), our largest and best-known dormouse, and at the end about its smaller relatives. You'll learn how to recognise an orphan, what baby dormice eat and when you can return one to the wild.

Dormice are nocturnal, and during the day the female sleeps with her young in the nest. If you have only disturbed the nest and the young are warm, uninjured and together, it's best to put everything back as it was and move away. The female will often come back for them after dark, and sometimes she moves them to a quieter place herself.

A young dormouse needs help if it is:

• cold, limp or lying alone on the ground,
• still blind and barely furred, with no nest nearby,
• injured or brought in by a cat,
• still alone and squeaking after you have kept it warm and watched it for several hours.

An independent young dormouse has thick grey fur, open eyes and a bushy tail, and it climbs quickly and nimbly. A dormouse like this does not need rescuing.

Warm it up first, and only then think about food. A chilled baby cannot digest milk, and feeding it can do harm. At first you can warm it in your hands, then place it in a tall box with air holes, on a soft towel, with a hot-water bottle wrapped in cloth. The baby must be able to move away from the heat source if it gets too hot.

• Keep the box in a dark, quiet room, away from pets.
• Never pick up a dormouse by its tail! The skin of the tail slips off easily, leaving a permanent injury.
• Wear gloves, because even young dormice can bite hard.

Once it is warm, contact a vet or a rescue centre straight away. In late summer young dormice are often dehydrated as well, and fluids should be replaced following an expert's instructions. A list of contacts for associations and rescue centres can be found on our website.

You must not give it cow's milk, as it causes diarrhoea and can kill it. Young that are still suckling are fed a milk replacer for kittens or puppies; agree on the type and dilution with a vet or rescue centre and do not change it unnecessarily.

• Naked young with their eyes still closed are fed on milk only.
• Once they have grown fur and opened their eyes (around the third week), offer soft fruit such as apple, pear or grapes alongside the milk.
• From the fourth week, gradually add hazelnuts, walnuts, acorns, beechnuts, rosehips, sunflower seeds and unsweetened rolled oats. At first, offer nuts cracked open or chopped.

Always give water in a shallow dish so that it cannot drown. Milk is phased out gradually, only once the dormouse is eating enough on its own and gaining weight.

Warm the milk to body temperature and give it drop by drop from a fine pipette or a small needle-free syringe with a soft tip. While feeding, the dormouse sits or lies on its tummy, never on its back, because in that position milk easily gets into the lungs. If milk comes out of its nose, stop feeding and tilt its head downwards.

• The youngest babies feed every two to three hours, including at night.
• As they grow and get their fur, the intervals lengthen to three to four hours.
• Once their eyes are open and they start nibbling solid food, four to five meals a day are enough.

At each feed, a baby drinks roughly one-twentieth of its body weight, but the real guide is its appetite and its tummy, which should be full but not taut. Weigh it every day; steady weight gain is the best sign that rearing is going well.

Baby dormice cannot pee or poo on their own until their mother licks them. So before or after every feed, gently massage the tummy and genital area with a lukewarm, damp cotton pad until the baby urinates and defecates. Keep doing this until it starts eating on its own.

Wipe any milk off the fur straight away with a damp cloth, because dried milk irritates the skin. Change the bedding every day and wash the feeding equipment thoroughly after every feed.

Dormice are skilful climbers and need a spacious fine-mesh cage or aviary with branches, ropes and several wooden nest boxes to sleep in. Edible dormice are social and grow up best in a group; if you have only one baby, a rescue centre can often put it together with others of the same age. Once it is eating on its own, keep handling to the bare minimum: a well-prepared dormouse must be afraid of people, because in the wild that will save its life.

You'll notice that it is active at night and hides during the day, which is perfectly natural.

A young dormouse is ready when it is fully independent, strong and agile at climbing, usually at seven to eight weeks old. However, dormice spend the winter in hibernation and need enough fat reserves for it. Young found late in the season that do not reach at least 200 grams by autumn must not be released before winter; instead, they overwinter in a rescue centre and are released in spring.

• Release them in the early evening, in fine weather, as they are active at night.
• The ideal place is mixed beech and oak woodland, preferably near old orchards and far from houses, where poisons, traps and water containers pose a threat.
• Release them together, with a few nest boxes put up and extra food for the first few weeks.

Besides the edible dormouse, smaller dormice also live in Croatia: the hazel dormouse, the forest dormouse and the garden dormouse. Their young are even tinier and more delicate, so hand them over to a rescue centre immediately. The hazel dormouse and the forest dormouse are strictly protected species. The same applies to all dormice: long-term keeping and rearing are permitted only for rescue centres or with a permit, and the goal is always a return to the wild.

Dormice do not pose a major disease risk to people, but they can have fleas and mites, and their bite is painful. Wear gloves, wash your hands after every contact, and if you are bitten and the wound is deep, see a doctor.

Raising a baby dormouse takes warmth, the right milk replacer, feeding on its tummy and a great deal of patience, day and night. I advise entrusting the dormouse to experts as soon as possible or working under their guidance. Once it opens its eyes, starts nibbling hazelnuts and runs away from your hand, you'll know it is well on its way back to the forest.