Your African Pygmy Dormouse Vet-Prep Sheet
Hayfold a warm home for small-pet folk · hayfold.com African Pygmy Dormouse — Vet-Prep Sheet
🔍 Find an exotic-mammal vet — before you need one
- Search the AEMV find-a-vet directory (the Association of Exotic Mammal Veterinarians), or, in the UK, the RCVS Find-a-Vet tool — or search “exotic / small-mammal vet near me”.
- Call ahead and ask the key question: “Do you see small / exotic mammals?” Not every vet does. Ask the exam fee while you’re on the phone, so the cost is one less panic in a crisis.
- Find and save one now, while things are calm — not in the middle of an emergency.
📇 Fill this in now — before the crisis
Two minutes now saves ten in a panic. Print it and keep it with your care notes.
🚨 Is this an emergency now?
See a vet promptly if you notice any of these:
- A cold, torpid, unresponsive dormouse when it shouldn’t be — warm gently and get advice
- Not eating, weight loss or lethargy in a normally-busy animal
- Wounds from group aggression (often overcrowding or breeding season)
- Any breathing difficulty, or a visible skin/coat problem
When in doubt, a vet call is never wrong — most issues are reversible if caught early.
🚗 On the way / while you wait
✅ Do
- Keep it warm — small mammals chill and dehydrate fast, and cold makes almost everything worse.
- Bring it in its own bedding/carrier with some familiar food.
- For rabbits and guinea pigs, keep offering their normal hay, greens and water — a gut that stops is an emergency.
- Bring a fresh dropping or urine sample if you can.
- Keep it calm and quiet.
⛔ Don’t
- Don’t give any human or OTC medicines — some common antibiotics are fatal to rabbits and guinea pigs.
- Don’t withhold food from a rabbit or guinea pig.
- Don’t let it get cold.
- Don’t handle it more than necessary.
🎒 What to bring
- A fresh dropping or urine sample, if you can collect one.
- Photos and a short video of the behaviour or symptom — it may not show it in the clinic.
- A note of your setup and exactly what — and how often — you feed.
- A note of eating, drinking and toileting over the last day.
- The animal in a secure, warm carrier.
🗣️ What to tell the vet
A general vet may not know this species. Come ready to explain its correct care:
- Enclosure
- Arboreal and escape-proof are the two non-negotiables. Provide a tall enclosure with a climbing structure and elevated nest boxes — evidence shows they use the highest spaces and nest sites, and that vertical climbing prevents stress behaviour (glass-scratching). Because they’re tiny and astonishingly fast, the housing must be genuinely gap-free (fine mesh or glass). (No authority publishes a specific minimum cage size, so aim as large and tall as you can rather than to a fixed number.)
- Companionship
- Strongly social — they nest communally (wild nests can hold many adults) and should be kept in compatible groups, not singly. But they’re also territorial: males form hierarchies and can be aggressive in the breeding season, and lower density improves welfare — so provide multiple separate nest boxes and avoid overcrowding.
- Temperature
- Keep them warm and thermally stable — they begin to enter torpor/hibernation at around 15°C, and their comfort zone is well above that (research colonies keep them about 20–23°C). Cold triggers torpor, so steady warmth matters.
- Substrate
- Provide natural nesting material (they line nests with plant material and moss) and a safe, absorbent bedding. (No authority specifies a particular substrate product or depth, so avoid dusty or scented bedding and focus on good nesting.)
- Enrichment
- Height and climbing above all — a climbing grid or branches (of a diameter they can actually grip) plus multiple elevated nest boxes markedly increase natural behaviour and remove stress behaviours. Add foraging opportunities and safe things to gnaw.
- Diet
- Insect-forward omnivore. In the wild they eat insects, buds, fruit, seeds and nuts (and occasionally eggs or small prey). In captivity they show a marked preference for insects (mealworms, crickets, waxworms) and benefit from a higher-protein diet, alongside fruit, seeds and a little other animal protein. Always provide fresh water.
- Supplements
- Standard insectivore best-practice (gut-loading feeder insects, and calcium/vitamin balance) is sensible, but no authority specifies a calcium-dosing regime for this species — follow an exotic vet’s guidance rather than a fixed dose.
⚕️ Small mammals are prey animals and hide illness until it is advanced, so any change in eating, droppings, drinking or behaviour is urgent — in rabbits and guinea pigs, not eating or passing no droppings for 12–24 hours can be a life-threatening emergency (gut stasis). They also chill and dehydrate quickly, so keep it warm. Tell the vet about your diet and any remedies you’ve used, and ask for exotic-mammal-safe medicines and doses — several antibiotics that are routine in other pets are dangerous to rabbits and guinea pigs.
Then note which of the warning signs (above) you are seeing, when they started, and whether they are getting worse.
❓ Questions to ask
- Do you routinely see small / exotic mammals? If not, can you refer me to a vet who does?
- What are the likely causes — and could my setup or diet be contributing?
- What is the treatment plan, the likely cost, and what should I watch for at home?
- How do I prevent this from happening again?