Reproduction
Female fat-tailed dwarf lemurs give birth to litters in the Spring. Click image for larger version.
The strong seasonality of breeding found in mouse and dwarf lemurs depends upon a variable "photoperiod," or day length.
Dwarf and Mouse lemurs breed at the DLC from mid-April through July. Gestation is 58-62 days. Both species commonly have litters of two or more offspring.
All captive dwarf lemurs are provided with a wide variety of nestboxes, ranging from PVC tubes of varying sizes, to wooden boxes, to suspended enrichment boxes, all suitable for sleeping and raising young. Mothers give birth in the nestboxes and generally will keep their infants hidden inside these shelters. If they need to move their offspring, they do so by carrying them in their mouths. Mouse and dwarf lemur offspring of up to three weeks of age are transported by the mother in this fashion, but by the time the infants are two months old they are behaving much like adults and are capable of independent locomotion.
On average, mouse and dwarf lemurs reach sexual maturity at one year of age, although females generally are not capable of giving birth until they are 18 months of age. In the wild, juvenile dwarf lemurs tend to enter their first period of dormancy later than adults, perhaps providing the youngsters with a period of reduced feeding competition in which to put on additional pre-torpor weight.