# African pygmy dormice!



## Cranwelli (Mar 24, 2009)

Just wondering what seed mixes, fruit/veg, and protein sources you guys give your pygmy dormice? 

I also want to see your enclosures as I am working on a new one!

For their diet... I don't really follow a weekly 'plan' but they get fruit 3 times a week which includes mostly apple, but also banana, blueberries, and red/green grapes. Cheddar cheese they get once a week or a boiled egg.

Also once a week I release a tub of crickets/locust for them to hunt or give them a bowl of calcium-dusted mealworms or injured woodlice. This combined with the cheese seems to give them enough protein. 

Does anyone here give cat biscuits? Do they actually eat them?

And how often do you give your pygmys honey/maple syrup? I give honey to them twice-thrice a week, but in a bowl. That seems to do the job... but thinking of getting a bit of wood and making some holes to fill with honey so it's more natural for them and seems more like getting 'sap'.

















:notworthy:


----------



## Elina (Jul 22, 2009)

Mine adore Royal canin kitten kibble as the pieces are little.
Not heard of anyone feeding them cheese I must admit but your mice look healthy so.
Mine have sour cream or Greek yogurt with strawberries/blueberries/raspberries on top drizzled with maple syrup every night and if any is left I take it away in the morning, they love this. 
Grapes are bad for allot of animals so I avoid feeding them those.

Mine also love live insects, they get a box of locusts once a week and a few morio worms every day as I feed them to the fennecs every day and I am sure Inari and Kit do not notice one or two going missing hehe.

I add mix dried mealworms into their dry food which they seem to like.
-Elina


----------



## Nell (May 3, 2011)

Aw those pics are just adorable! I'm currently looking at getting a couple of these guys, and their diet doesn't sound too different from my suggies which is always good!
Elina, that mix sounds delicious - I'd get jealous feeding that to them everyday! (minus the livefoods... :mrgreen


----------



## Cranwelli (Mar 24, 2009)

Elina said:


> Mine adore Royal canin kitten kibble as the pieces are little.
> Not heard of anyone feeding them cheese I must admit but your mice look healthy so.
> Mine have sour cream or Greek yogurt with strawberries/blueberries/raspberries on top drizzled with maple syrup every night and if any is left I take it away in the morning, they love this.
> Grapes are bad for allot of animals so I avoid feeding them those.
> ...


I heard a lot of keepers feed _very small_ amounts of cheddar cheese. It also suggests it on some care websites. Apparently as long as you don't give too much it's just another source of protein and calcium. 

How come grapes aren't good for them? The zoo I used to work at gave grapes to their slow lorises, pottos, fennec fox, mongooses, etc. 

Greek yogurt with fruit on top drizzled with maple syrup... that sounds delicious. :lol2:

Would you suggest maple syrup over honey?

I might start giving my dormice livefood more often, but because there are only two dormice in a large exo terra not everything is always eaten and come the next morning there are still a few wondering insects. 

Thanks for the reply.


----------



## Amalthea (Oct 2, 2007)

I wouldn't give grapes (or raisins) to any of the critters in my care. It's been linked with the renal failure (and death) or dogs, skunks, parrots, sugar gliders, etc etc etc. Nobody seems to know WHY, but it's better to be safe than sorry. For fruit, I give my APDs the same mix my gliders get with a drizzle of honey. I feed a mix of gerbil, dwarf hamster, and myna bird mix with dried mealies. Plus I throw in a tub of live locusts or crickets from time to time.


----------



## Cranwelli (Mar 24, 2009)

I didn't know that. Well I'll make sure grapes are no longer included in their diet.


----------



## Amalthea (Oct 2, 2007)

Yeah, it's not a widely known thing, which is a shame....


----------



## Nix (Jan 23, 2008)

I may be wrong and I don't have anything to back it up (could just be a myth) but I thought it was due to the relatively high levels of cyanide in the seeds and some mammals not being able to detoxify this?


----------



## Amalthea (Oct 2, 2007)

It may be... Not sure. But it's so worrying that an animal may be fine eating bushels grapes one day then the next, eat just one grape and be dead in less than 24 hours.


----------



## Elina (Jul 22, 2009)

I feed maple syrup more often then honey as they eat or, I suppose you could say 'drink' the sap from trees in the wild and that is what maple syrup is though I do also feed honey but like I said I do that less often. You can feed red nectar which they also like.

Grapes and raisins are known to cause vomiting, kidney damage, and hypocalcaemia in dogs and foxes, although the exact reason why is unknown. I avoid them all together as some people have also had trouble with their rodents. Better to be safe then sorry.
-Elina


----------



## Cranwelli (Mar 24, 2009)

Elina said:


> I feed maple syrup more often then honey as they eat or, I suppose you could say 'drink' the sap from trees in the wild and that is what maple syrup is though I do also feed honey but like I said I do that less often. You can feed red nectar which they also like.
> 
> Grapes and raisins are known to cause vomiting, kidney damage, and hypocalcaemia in dogs and foxes, although the exact reason why is unknown. I avoid them all together as some people have also had trouble with their rodents. Better to be safe then sorry.
> -Elina


I'm going to replace honey with maple syrup as soon as it runs out. I read on websites such as Crittery that grapes and honey were okay to give. I might e-mail them and tell them about the problems with grapes and the lack of certain amino acids in honey. 

Anyway I was considering giving them small amounts of vegetable to see that they'd eat. I know they're not essential but it'll be nice to give them the choice.

In the house at the moment I have carrots, peas, cauliflower, and broccoli. They seem to love peas and nibble at carrots, but not sure about trying the latter two.


----------



## Amalthea (Oct 2, 2007)

There's veggies in the mush my lot get (since it's made for the gliders)  Sweet potato, spring greens, carrot, etc etc etc


----------



## Cranwelli (Mar 24, 2009)

Amalthea said:


> There's veggies in the mush my lot get (since it's made for the gliders)  Sweet potato, spring greens, carrot, etc etc etc


Ah okay. Today in my geeky reading I read that dormice don't have a caecum so have trouble digesting the cellulose in vegetable matter? Seen a couple of websites that say they shouldn't be fed it. Hmm


----------



## Elina (Jul 22, 2009)

I never feed mine anything green as the above is correct. 

-Elina


----------



## Amalthea (Oct 2, 2007)

Hmm... Learn something new every day!! Thanx!


----------



## Cranwelli (Mar 24, 2009)

Currently feeding the blighters this:

Various bird seed (without chilli) mixed with Gerri Gerbil (without dried raisens), apple, banana, blueberries, strawberries, Greek 'honey' yogurt, honey, mealworms/darkling beetles, woodlice, prawns (not in brine), and cat biscuits. Cuttlefish bone in there for extra calcium.

Just checking of anything else that can be given? With the exception of crickets, locust, and maple syrup. How do yours take to other non-citrus fruits?


----------

