In Reply to: Granted I dont believe in "jumping into" these "fights" but I HAVE to respond to this last one "flamer" posted by CandiMI on May 09, 1999 at 12:29:20:

: : Tim,she has them in a house bigger than most people home that is air conditioned and heated.She has 1 pair of gliders per cage and 1100+ water bottles.The 31 in the small cage were just pulled and put in a small cage so they would not climb and hurt themselves.How many do you think the importers crammed in a cage to be shipped to the states so you could have a precios glider cause you probably wouldn't give 6,000+ dollars for an import license plus the cost to have 1 glider shipped in from indonesia.Small scale breeders could NEVER have met the demands for this market.Do you know how many people have gliders or want one?If everyone just got one it wouldn't be so bad but they are addictive and YOU want 2 to start with.Why dont you just get 1 and be sure you like them.If you dont like them afterall where are yours going?and if everyone gets 2 what do they do with the babies?sell them.
: : Well it could be that they make such good pets that they dont need or deserve the name exotic anymore.Maybe some people hope they will come down in price like the EXOTIC parakeets so some sweet little old lady on a fixed income can afford one.I have not met anyone yet jumping to give theirs away rescue or not.Need i say more?????????????????

: Completely ignoring anything about this particular breeder or situation... and not bothering to repeat everything that Tim said so well... I am in utter shock that "flamer" or anyone who has ever been with a glider or read these posts would try the arguements he's using! The 31 in a small cage so they wouldn't climb and hurt themselves, in the wild these little critters are born in trees... climbing is something they are more then ready to do if they are old enough to goto new homes, now maybe saying they were put in the cage simply to give the buyer a chance to see them all and chose one MAYBE I could have understood... maybe 2)the whole line about them being imported bla bla bla, once again probably very true... but speaking for myself and a few other people I know personally we won't even buy a glider from out of state due to the shipping stress, let alone would I buy a wild caught glider... this is why many of the small scale breeders exist, we love our pets.. we know how hard it was to find any babies when we first started looking, so now that we have and love them we're willing to breed once or twice if there is a demand and good local families for the babies. I personally also would have much rather paid over $200 each for a glider then have ANY animal suffer AT ALL just so I could get a "better deal"! 3) this statement REALLY got to me, "why not just get one and see if you like it" etc etc etc... one glider is ok for someone who can spend LOTS and LOTS of time with it, but they are very demanding and social, I personally consider it unfair to just purchase one glider and expect it to have a happy life ( just my feeling because I know I personally couldn't give it enough attention so relax anyone who has just one glider and does have the ability to take it with you everywhere etc ) but for most people two is defiately a better idea, and then saying that two must breed... last I checked it was more then possible to get two females, or two males... or get your male neutured! 4) gliders do make wonderful pets for those who not only research them enough before buying them, but also continue the commitment EVERY day and night to ensure they are healthy and happy... but they still most defiately deserve and I believe NEED the distinctio of exotics... my biggest fear would be having so many of these large scale breeders that gliders became as common as a hamster, can you just see them all piled into a tank at the local pet store... "affordable" to everyone, "hey mommy get me one" oppsy it got away, got squished, got eaten, etc etc etc... gliders must stay fairly expensive and be considered exotics because their care DEMANDS certain very time consuming activities... most people I talk to still dont know what a glider is, and once I get over gushing about my babies ( have to I'm a proud mama )I'm also VERY quick to point out that gliders are DEFINATELY not for everyone for (all the reasons)... Lastly) haven't met anyone "jumping to give away rescue or not" well where have you been? I have my original older trio because the family didn't want the responsibility anymore... and being all under 2 yrs of age I am their 4th home... so up until now they weren't very wanted, the family who sold them to me kept a female joey they had while she owned them, do you know where that little girl is now... right next to me in her new huge cage because they realized that they didn't want her either and how hard it was having one glider who demanded so much attention... so suddenly they wanted a home for her also ( I stepped in and here came glider #4 ) in less then a wk I was contacted by another woman who had a young male glider she didn't want and didn't have time for, so I purchased him also and here is glider #5, now mix in the fact that my original trio is w/joey right now... thats both of my females w/ 2 joeys each... so suddenly an investment of less then $1000 has given me 9 gliders in under 5 months... this scares even me who has the time, room, love, and willingless to keep learning and working with them... I can only imagine what would happen in another circumstance if someone had all of them and didn't truely love or want the best for them, because let me tell you they are quite a handful, and I was considering selling some of mine, but after seeing so much mistreatment and myself hearing of so many gliders that need rescuing I've decided to just get bigger cages, give up any free space in my house to them and get the males fixed LOL

: I guess my final point here is... gliders can be wonderful pets, but you NEED to take the time...both before and (PLEASE) also after to keep they as great pets, we as those who have and love them have a responsibility to stress the cons to anyone thinking " oh isn't that cute " and we have to ALWAYS keep the safety and life of the animal far above any potential $ signs in our minds... just my 2cents take it or leave it, I'm not looking for a fight... just that it scares me to death to hear some of these things about gliders... I might be fairly new to them, and I will be the first to tell you I'm learning day by day w/ the help of this board and others... but its mothers day, these are my only "kids" right now and since my first baby just came OOP fully yesterday I'm also a new grandma... so I'm definately speaking up!

: Sincerely,
: Candi... and the critter crew of Sassy w/joeys, Bumble w/joeys, Max proud papa, "G~WIZZ": Geo my "rescue", and Wizzer Bumble and Max's first daughter!

Follow Ups:

• Ditto!!!!!!!! Tiffani 15:30:28 5/09/99 (0)