 | Posted by: | Lu (Winky's mom) | | Subject: | Mary, pls. read... | | When: | 12:45 AM, 18 Oct 2000 | | IP: | 63.208.93.208 |
I don't think she's THAT old because she has grown a bit during the month that we've had her. Also, her brothers that were in the pet shop w/ her didn't have their bald spot yet. What do you think? I got a bit sad when I read your post. Do breeders really sell them to pet shops because nobody else would buy them? What would be a reason for them not being able to sell them? Thx. for answering.
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| Posted by: | Bourbon | | Subject: | none | | When: | 5:34 AM, 18 Oct 2000 | | IP: | 216.248.35.133 |
loads of reasons, sometimes they are not bought before those nast 3-5 months age, and they are in the nippy stage, they don't take the time to work them through it. Sometimes breeders can't find homes for them, there is not that big of a market t be honest with you. There are more being sold, than is being bought. People don't want them any more and sell them to pet shops.. there is a regulation required by the usda that the petshop keep records of each glider that comes in, where they got it, the age etc.. they have at least the name of the person they got their glider from, you should be able, in fact you are allowed the information regarding your purchase. providing the petshop that sold them is usda licensed, and by law they must be.
| Posted by: | Mary, intr01dc@frank.mtsu.edu | | Subject: | Lu | | When: | 8:01 PM, 18 Oct 2000 | | IP: | 12.77.121.122 |
Hi Ly, I did not mean to upset you. If you and your glider love each other then her age is not something to get upset over. Its true that in most cases a glider will bond at a young age..but they can deffinitly bond at an older age too.
What I said was refering to petstores in general. Not all petstores are the same.
I have talked to the petstores in my area though and in those cases they get gliders from the breeders when the breeders can not sell them. Most breeders do not want to sell to petstores unless they have to.
Most people want to get a little baby. 8 weeks oop. Everyday that the baby gets older it can become harder to sell. Why doesn't that glider get sold? Well that can be a lot of reasons. It could be that the glider is really crabby comapred to its siblings so people chose other gliders. That glider may calm down and not be so crabby anymore, but people wnat little babies and that glider is now 3 or 4 months old. It could also be that the glider is bitey. It could be soemthign as simple as sex. Often times people here that boys are smelly so they may only want a female. Or they may already have a female and only wnat a male. It could just be that the breeder is having a hard time selling them because no one responds to their ads.
For whatever reason these breeders will only keep the baby so long before they decide to sell it to a petstore. Some breeders will sell to a petstore early on maybe if the baby doesn't sell in a month. However they tend to make a bigger profit if they sell the glider themselves so most hold on longer. It becomes unsafe to keep a glider with its parents around the age of 6 months oop. This is when a lot of breeders decide to take the glider to the petstore. Its generally between 4-6 months oop.
There are other things that do happen. In some cases a breeder will sell a glider to a new owner. A few months latter the person brings the glider back either wanting a refund or a different glider. Why? Well it can happen for a lot of reasons but msotly because the person says "this glider won't bond to me". They can return them for other things like they smell too much or soemthing but in most cases its related to behavior. What does this breeder do? They will ahve a hard time selling a glider that is older AND is having behavior problems. This is another time the breeder will sell to the petstore.
In some cases a person will decide they don't like the glider and try and sell to a petstore. Some petstores will not buy glider from the general piblic, but a lot will if they already sell gliders.
Now there are some breeders that sell directly to petstores. As soon as the babies are weaned they take them to the petstore. So it is possible that yours was taken there at an early age. From talking to petstores and to owners of gliders they got at petstores I have found that this is normally not the case.
If you see mulyiple gliders in a cage that deffinitly does not mean that they are related. Did the petstore tell you they were her brothers? It is so rare for a glider to have tripplets and even rarer for all three to survive. They could have been her brothers from a different litter or they could have been from a tottally different mother. I would not try to figure out her age from them. Are you even sure they were males? Petstores are horrible about selling gliders and telling the incorrect sex or age. If they were indeed males well baldspot is an indication but some gliders do not get their baldspot till they are around a year old ot so. Most don't get it ebfore they are 6 months oop. There are somegliders that get it as early as 4 months oop...but most people say between 6-9 months oop is the common age for baldspots.
As for her still growing when you got her well glider do keep growing until they are about a year oop. They do grow the most in those first few months, but they keep growing. In the case of a petstore well most petstores feed horrible diets. The gliders a lot of times are underweight and malnurished. If you brough the glider home and put her on a better diet then indeed she should gain some weight. Bad diet can deffinitly stunt growth too. So changing her from a bad diet to a good diet could account for her growing.
As bourbon said the petstore is supposed to keep records. They should know what breeder she came from...when she was brought in..what age she was..if she had same litter sibblings sold to them. You should ask them about her. If they say they don;t know about the gliders then you should see if they have a USDA liscence. If not then they are violating the law and you should report them.
| Posted by: | Lu | | Subject: | Thanks | | When: | 8:25 AM, 19 Oct 2000 | | IP: | 12.77.150.47 |
Thank you, Mary. No, I'm not upset. It's just a little sad to think that no one wanted my Winky; but I did- so it doesn't matter. Yeah, I'll probably ask the pet shop about the breeder. They were nice and attentive, so I'm sure they'll be ok w/ it. You're right, they weren't very clear about their sexes. I was the one who figured out that Winky was a female. There were two males and two females. Even though I knew NOTHING about sugar gliders, I looked at their tummies and saw the differences. I knew after I read about them that they weren't all siblings, but I suppose they were from the same breeder. Well, it'd just be nice if I knew how old she is; and I'll try to find out. Thx for writing back! Lu.
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