Lesser Mouse Lemur : Reproduction
At the age of 13 months females can give birth. In the wild births occur between September and March , but in captivity most births occur between March and July (in Europe). They can produce two litters in one breeding season.
The gestation is varying from 54 - 69 days.
Most of the births take place in the early daylight hours. Labour takes about 45 to 60 minutes. The interval between infants usually is 5 minutes. The afterbirth is eaten by the parents. They can cling to their mother from birth. The first three weeks the babies stay in the nest. There eyes open after 2 to 4 days.
They usually give birth to twins. Sometimes 1 or 3 monkeys are born. When more than 2 monkeys are born it may be necessary to remove some infants for hand-rearing.
The weight of the infant is appr 5.5-7g (depends on litter size). After appr. 30 days the weight of the young is appr 30-40g.
After 12 minutes the babies start sucking (this takes about 20 minutes or longer).
After 21 days the babies start to take some solid food.Lesser mouse lemurs can live 11 years in captivity.
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