Urgent identification and help needed

[vintageprints45]

I have just found this little fella in the garden any ideas what it is? and what to do?

I live in Eastern Europe. Sorry for the photos my camera is rubbish!!

[Amalthea]

Maybe a dormouse?

Pop down to your local supermarket and pick up some condensed milk, live yogurt, and a bit of honey. This is how I reared two wild rats last year.... Boil some water and while that's cooking, mix a teaspoon each of the condensed milk and live yogurt, then a bit of honey to sweeten. Dilute with the boiled water. Check the temp and feed that with a syringe if you've got one, or use a small paint brush.

[sarahc]

Myoxus glis Linnaeus - Fat Dormouse, Edible Dormouse

Object map

Synonym.

Glis glis L.Systematic position.

Class Mammalia, order Rodentia, family Myoxidae, genus Myoxus. There is only 1 species (2 n = 62) in the territory of the former USSR with 3-4 subspecies of 9 known for the genus as a whole. Biological group.

Pest of fruit crops.Morphology and biology.

This species is the largest representative of the dormice family. The body length amounts to 130-180 mm; tail 110-154 mm; ear 16-26 mm; back foot 23-30 mm; weight varies in the limits of 70-189 g. Auricles are rather short, with rounded tips and covered with thick hairs. Vibrissae of moustaches are grouped in bunches with a length reaching 60 mm. The bunches and moustaches move independently of each other. The fur is magnificent; tail is covered with rather long hairs lying along both sides of the tail. The coloring of back is smoky-gray or grayish-brown, lower part of body is white or light gray; belly and breast are white. There is usually a dark ring around each eye. Sexual dimorphism is not expressed in either the size or the coloring. The subspecies differ a little in size, the length of tail, and the coloring of fur. The sex ratio in a population changes by years; number of males is usually larger than that of females. Sexual cycle in females occurs once for the active period with only one litter; 50-60% of adult females usually participate in reproduction. Pregnancy lasts 25 days; amount of young dormice varies from 1 to 10, averaging 5 or 6. They begin to see clearly in 18-21 days and at 25 days the try to start independent feeding; young, fat dormice leave their nest in one and a half months and the migration period begins. First time animals of a litter move jointly, sometimes traveling together for wintering. Sexual maturity of fat dormice comes the next year and reproduction begins only in the second or even third year of life. The age limit for this dormice species is 4.5 years. Males mark the borders of individual plots, participating in training young animals. Families winter by groups in the same nest.Distribution.

The Fat Dormouse inhabits southern, central and eastern Europe including Sicily and Crete islands in the Mediterranean Sea, also Iran and Turkmenistan. In the territory of the former USSR this species is distributed rather sporadically in the middle strip of the European part of Russia, in the Caucasus, southern and western Transcaucasia, Carpathians, Transcarpathian territory.

[sarahc]

Hand-rearing Dormice (Techniques)
See: Hand-rearing of Orphaned Wildlife for further general information. ....
Myoxus glis - Fat dormouse is listed on Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and ...
wildlife1.wildlifeinformation.org/S/00Man/MammalHusbandryTechniques/UKMHusbIndTech/HR_M_Dormice.htm - 26k

[Amalthea]

Go me!!

[sarahc]

I bet you could rear it to.Isn't it cute.

[Amalthea]

It's developed enough that I think it's VERY doable!! About the same age as the rats I got in last year.

[vintageprints45]

Thanks Amalthea and sarahc for the info.

Have attached another couple of photos of the little fella..........he is feeding well at the moment.

Malcolm

[Shell195]

It looks rather big to be a baby dormouse, I was thinking grey squirrel

A dormouse is only this big when adult
The Hazel Dormouse or Common Dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius) is a small mammal and the only living species in the genus Muscardinus. It is 6 to 9 centimetres (2.4 to 3.5 in) long with a tail of 5.7 to 7.5 centimetres (2.2 to 3.0 in). It weighs 17 to 20 grams (0.60 to 0.71 oz), although this increases to 30 to 40 grams (1.1 to 1.4 oz) just before hibernation. The Hazel Dormouse hibernates from October to April-May.

[sarahc]

good luck,all I ever find are down on their luck pigeon chicks,not quite the same appeal.