In Reply to: advice needed ASAP posted by CandiMI on April 27, 1999 at 10:04:18:

: Hi everyone, those who read these posts know my "story" I purchased three adult gliders ( 1 1/2 - 2 yrs of age ) a few months back, they were taken care of but the family didn't have or put any time into tameing them or ever attempting to hold them.. I can now hold two of them outside of the cage and pet the male inside. I believe at least one of my females is with joey ( she sucessfully had a female joey before I got them )and the other might be ( she had and lost two joeys right before I got them ) I have concerns over the dominant female killing the others babies ( maybe what happened last time ) so I've been thinking of seperating them, but I'd hate to stress my one female and leave her alone, I "met" a woman who is selling her 5-6 month OOP male glider ( she claims is holdable and tame $90 ) because she doesn't have the time for him... he's also been housed in a cockatile cage, so I further consider this sort of a "rescue". But I'm not sure if it would be a good idea to house him with my possibly pregnant submissive female, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.. would getting him and putting them together be a good thing for her ( and him ) or would I be better off leaving things alone and just houseing him seperately or not getting him at all? Thank you very much for your advice!

: Candi and Sassy, Bumble, & Max
: ***please respond soon***

I am not exactly sure what to tell you because I haven't had any experience with a PG female, but knowing the way gliders are adversly affected by stress, my intuition would say that the stress of introducing them would be a lot for her to handle. If you have ever introduced two gliders, you will see that they are usually aggressive at first, even if they are perfect matches. Usually one glider will grab the other so they can scent it. Even if they are not too aggressive, it would be a lot of stress to put on a PG glider. She may even harshly reject him, because he is not the father of her joeys.(I'm not sure how likely this is but it could happen.) I don't think getting the other glider is a bad idea, however. I think that it could be a good investment for the future. I just wouldn't put them together now, or try to introduce them because of the stress level. If you wanted to get the other glider and keep them separate until the female was no longer with joeys (including when they are nursing/still dependent on the mom), I think that might work. But after she has the joeys and they are no longer with her(introduction stress on them(joeys)could be too much, too) I think it may be a good idea to get her a new mate of her own. The down side to this is since she is bonded to the other two already, she might not take to him at all, that would be a risk you would take. As far as removing one of the females and putting them in another cage, I would be cautious of that too. I say this because the father plays a large role in caring for the young and without his help the stress may be too much for her to handle and she may reject the joeys. The other side of this is that with two PG females in a cage, the father is going to have to give attention to all joeys and the females may be dominating/territorial towards his attention and fight/kill to ensure the survival of their offspring. Perhaps if everything worked just right, and the female was introduced to the new male at this time, he could act as a surrogate father. Any way you wage it there doesn't seem to be a definite answer with a sure postive outcome. I would suggest considering all of your options and see what you think is best, because you know your gliders better than we can guess at their behavior and you can also experiment to see what would work and what won't (pulling a glider from a cage if you see and signs of trouble arising). I am sorry I can't give you a more direct answer. If you email me I can give you the name of an more experienced breeder, that I trust on all my glider questions and could probably give you better advice than me. Good luck with everything!
Melissa's Onyx

Follow Ups:

• Thank you VERY much Mellisa! I'll keep everyone posted, but I think I'll follow your advice! n/m CandiMI 19:55:45 4/27/99 (0)