Thames Valley Rodents

microtus guentheri

Once upon a time this species was rarely seen in captivity, notoriously hard to breed and with an ambiguous diet, to put it lightly... it was not a species for the uninitiated. The Guenthers vole is often referred to as the Mediterranean lemming although this is inaccurate from a taxonomical standpoint. These days it is reasonably easy to come by and simple to feed.

Housing:

This is a species that likes to burrow so a tank or aquarium set up is best. for a pair a bare minimum is a two foot long tank. Although peat is often used as a substrate it has a tendency to get rather moist and this cannot be good for your voles and I'm personally not a fan. For this reason my opinion is that the best form of bedding is a product like Aubious™ or Bliss™ or even something paper based like CareFresh™ or MegaZorb™ and plenty of fresh hay. The voles will dig the hay into the shavings and construct tunnels and burrows in which they will spend some of their time. The cardboard inserts of toilet rolls and kitchen towel will provide environmental enrichment and will give them something to gnaw on. I was suprised at just how active this species is during the day. They are nosey enough that any movement near their enclosure will have them wandering around trying to peer at whatever is going on around them.

Feeding:

Feeding these creatures was something of a stab in the dark when I was breeding them and no one could really agree on a suitable diet. I was feeding them on a mixture consisting of small seeds, chinchilla pellets, unmollassed alfalfa cubes, Orlux™ softbill food and loads and loads of fresh grass and hay. Every now and again they get given a small amount of the normal rodent mix or a few cat biscuits just to top up their protein levels (particularly important if they are breeding). Raw potato and carrot was given occasionally as was curly kale and dandelion leaves. They were originally assumed to be sugar intolerant although I find myself questioning this slightlyif only because a major constituent of their natural diet is tubers and roots.. both high in naturally occuring sugars. I kept them on a reasonably low sugar diet to be on the safe size but over the generations increased the amount of rodent mix in their diet considerably with no ill effect.

This species seems to mature fairly slowly and it can be safely assumed that the average life expectancy is around two years. The gestation period is approximately twenty-two days and litters are usually reasonably small although the last litter my original pair had consisted of ten offspring!

This is definately a fun species but don't bother keeping them if you want something to pick up and cuddle. I would love to hear from current keepers and find out what Guenthers Voles are like now that they have been being captive bred for a fair while because even after five generations of selectively breeding for temperament and all handling babies from a very young age I couldnt breed out one very irritating characteristic of the fearless guenthers vole...

They bite.

Hard.