Abstract: To explore and develop a practical way for hand rearing tree shrews, which is one kind of very useful animal in medical research. 5 pairs of adult tree shrews were housed in breeding cages, fed on the food mixed with purified standard diet, cheese,fruits and vegetables. Newborn tree shrews were moved out from their mothers' cages soon after birth and kept in an incubator for about 3 weeks. The infant tree shrews were fed on a milk formula for the first 3 weeks, then they were moved out from the incubator and fed on a transitional diet for 10 days when they got ready for adult food. There were 31 pups in 11 litters were born in 7 months by 5 pairs of adults, in which 27 pups were hand-reared from birth and 25 of them survived to 7 weeks of age when they were used in an experiment. The average period between the day of pairing and the day of parturition was 52 ± 8. 9 days. The average litter size was 2. 8±0. 4. The results showed that the survival rate of hand-rearing the newborns in this experiment was 92.6%, which is higher than those reported in related publications. The success in hand rearing tree shrews would make it possible to meet the increasing demand of tree shrew in medical research, especially in the field related to liver cancer and hepatitis.

Key words: Tree shrew, Hand rearing