In Reply to: Letting them out to play is HARD! Diet okay? posted by Wardy on June 02, 2000 at 11:22:15:

: Hi all. My two male youngsters are getting big now - 6 months old - and they seem no longer
: content to hang around me at play time. They are investigating all sorts of curiousities.
: I've read stuff on glider-proofing and have checked for dangers, but I am just scared to
: death to just let them glide away to play. How do you get over the fear and turn them
: loose to play? I have visions of them scooting up the fireplace chimney or getting inside
: a piece of furniture.....yikes! Also, we seem to have evolved a diet regimine that they
: are enjoying - but is it safe? They have been raised on a solid insectivore diet that I
: buy from the breeder. In addition to that, they get some fresh fruit one night, frozen
: veggies the next night, and 2-3 mealworms the next. Then we repeat the whole menu, keeping
: the dry stuff in there at all times. They eat up their fresh stuff, go crazy for the worms,
: and finish off the dry by morning. They then have fresh dry stuff for daytime snacks.
: Does this sound balanced enough for them?

what is the dry stuff, some don't agree on that, saying that it's not good for them (cos of preservatives and all) and the insectivore diet alone might be too high in fat. I give mine canned chicken,fat free,(alternate it with eggs scrambled fat free in microwave) fruits and veggies, a bowl of nectur and a bowl of glider aide and a bowl of baby fruit with yogurt or bannanas and yogurt with dry baby cereal mixed in for extra vitamins. then in the morning i take out their night food and put some baby cereal on a clean plate (the kind from jars, either mixed cereal with applesause or rice ceareal with applesause) and they snack on that during the day. actually, your diet sounds good to me.
now for letting them out. the fireplace is a problem!!! up that and they are history!!! anything they can crawl in will be bad. I have a bathroom i used before my add on got build that i covered up the furnace with a plastic bag taped over it and i place a towel under the door cos they could get out there. they ran up the towels over the shower rod around the toilet (lid closed and no access to it under thetoilet seat or around the plumbing that connects it to the wall!!!) just be sure you have baby plugs in electrical outlets and excape routes out of the room covered. I have a wire mesh over the vents to my air conditioner taped with duck tape (very attractive!!!)
: Thanx.

: N.

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