Housing
Cages for small rodents are not ideal when keeping dormice, since they easily escape between the cage bars. You'll notice that they are real escape artists. But nowadays you can buy plastic cages without bars, designed for small rodents, in some pet shops.
A terrarium or an aquarium will become a nice home for your dormice.
Make sure that the tank is well ventilated, or else it may become too hot or too humid inside. The lid can be made of wire mesh for example.
The cage should be placed in a quiet room where it's protected from draughts and loud noises. Never place the cage in direct sunlight, especially if it's a glass tank.
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It's certainly worthwile purchasing a large cage, since the dormice are territorial. They are also very active little animals and a larger cage is easier to keep clean.
The bedding material should be absorbent, dustless and nontoxic. I use wood-shavings as bedding material. Always buy it from your pet dealer and never from a lumberyard.
Put a little paper in the cage for the dormice to shred into nesting material. They will drag it into the nestingbox by themselves. I also give mine some hay, but they rarely use it as anything else but a hidingplace.
How often you need to clean the cage depends on how big it is and how many animals you keep. Clean the cage during daytime, when they are fast asleep.
Because of the dormice's cleanliness and little odor they're easy to take care of. They often use an empty house or a toy as a toilett. Toys and houses made out of plastic, metal or ceramics are easier to keep clean than those made of wood. But wood preserves the animals' smell even after cleaning and they are, according to me, more beautiful.
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Dormice live in trees in the wild, so they love to climb and need constant stimulation.
Add some tree branches to the cage and create several hiding places.
Use nontoxic branches (like those from apple trees), in case your little fellows will taste the decoration.
If you don't have access to tree branches you can use rope, made of plant material, instead.
Wicker finch baskets, with as small opening as possible, are appreciated nesting places by your dormice.
Hang them on the branches and put some paper and hay inside.
Wooden nesting boxes, intended for hamsters, will also do. The dormouse doesn't like it's nest to be too light inside.
We use wooden bird nesting boxes, where the roof is detachable.
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You'll need one or two food dishes and a water bowl, or a water bottle.
A bottle is to be preferd, just make sure that your dormice know how to use it. I prefer ceramic bowls for the food, they are easy to keep clean and do not tip over easily.
Sice they are very playful pets they will enjoy hamster and bird toys, paper rolls, branches, ropes and an exercise wheel. To avoid injuries try to get a solid exercise wheel, where their feet and tail can't fall through the wires.
If you want the tank to have a more natural look, you can use reptile bark as bedding material. The house in the picture is easy to make yourself and is appreciated by your dormice. Instead of colorful hamster toys you can decorate the tank with rope made out of hamp, twigs, rocks, big pieces of bark (used for reptiles) and big tree roots. This will give the tank a beautiful natural appearance but is a little harder to keep clean.
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The dormouse come from a warm enviroment. Normal household temperature is adequate. Make sure that it doesn't get too cold in the room or your dormice might go into hibernation. An other thing that might cause them to hibernate is lack of food or if the daylight time is getting shorter.
I have the lights on in the room, for at least 8 hours a day, during the winter.
It can be fatal for a dormouse to hibernate in captivity, because of the risky job of waking them up in the right way.
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