Dormouse Gets Stuck Inside A Bird Feeder After Eating Too Much Food

Nature is full of adorable moments. In the UK, dormice provide plenty of these cute moments with their sleeping habits. Since they spend half of each year sleeping and make their nests in flowers, the resulting scenes are quite adorable. Wildlife photographers are known to photograph these cute, furry critters asleep in beds of flowers, and it’s the most precious thing.

But one person from the Isle of Wight got a different kind of a photo of a dormouse. They were quite surprised to find a sleeping dormouse in their yard. But rather than being asleep in a beautiful flower, the little mouse was sound asleep in the birdfeeder! It turns out, the rodent was searching for food to prepare for hibernation when he discovered the birdfeeder and its treasure of birdseed.

It’s the time of year when dormice search for food and get ready for their wintertime hibernation. During this period, the mice will often double their size in bodyweight! This dormouse was definitely preparing well. By the time he had finished eating the birdseed, he was too big to get back out of the birdfeeder. So, he took a nap instead.

Uncertain what to do with the stuck, sleeping dormouse, the person quickly snapped a photo and went online for help. They posted in the Hampshire Dormouse Facebook Group asking “was it a dormouse and what should they do!?”

As the owner of the group, Cat Hadler, shared, “The dormouse (as indeed it was) has entered the bird feeder and eaten so much bird food that it WAS TOO CHUBBY TO GET OUT….Safe to say this fatty will survive hibernation just fine.”

Thankfully, they were able to release him and “successfully sent him rolling on his way.”

As Halder pointed out in her post, while “Sir Chunksalot” was trapped inside the feeder, birds continued to use it. Perhaps they didn’t notice or perhaps they didn’t care. It clearly didn’t bother the chunky mouse too much, considering he fell deep into a food coma!

At least he’s well-prepared for winter now!