There is a bit of a back story I have to tell before getting to the huge progress so here it goes: Catwoman's meal worm thievery has gone from bad to worse. We try and be fair and leave an equal number of meal worms for each glider both in foraging and in hand delivery but no matter what, Catwoman will steal them right from under Batman's nose! It was really sad and irritating that she could be so greedy. Usually, we could get her to leave him alone with the meal worms that HE forages for: the ones in the tooth fairy treasure chests...but NO. She practically pulls them out of his mouth. It is just awful! Not only that, but in end result, she has gained BACK all the weight she just lost! (Because, remember, she is eating twice the amount of meal worms intended for her. She has no temperance. I believe if we left the whole tub of meal worms in the cage, they would be all gone. Batman, meanwhile, will eat until he is full and then yes, snub a meal worm! As we discover later.)
ANYWAY, so we debated whether or not we should even GIVE meal worms at all in the future. The thievery started a bunch of crabbing and lunges in the cage and I didn't want their relationship to suffer. We finally decided to take Batman out of the cage to feed him his meal worms. This would be tricky because as of yet, we have never been able to successfully pull a glider out without crabbing. So we had to be patient.
One night, Catwoman came out and was playing on her wheel. We acted swiftly and grabbed the pouch that Batman was still in. And we were able to feed him meal worms AND my husband was able to lift him out of the pouch without any problems. YAY! Not only that, but Batman sat on his hand the entire time. He ate maybe five meal worms and then he was done. We gave Catwoman meal worms, too but she gobbled them up so fast, she had plenty of time to distress herself by watching all the meal worms she could NOT steal. She foraged in all the usual places trying to find more meal worms but they were not there. I felt sort of bad for her but there was a part of me that thought, "Well, this is what you do to Batman all the time. How do you think HE feels when you are eating HIS treats?" Maybe a little adversity will do her character some good. She also noticed how he got doted on because he was sitting in my husband's hand.
Sure enough, Catwoman's behavior changed a bit. When given a meal worm, she used to snatch and run to the back of the cage to eat it "in safety", and we could not pet her. After this instance, she didn't run. She let us pet her while she ate.
Now, that was the night before last. LAST NIGHT we had yet another five star day! We heard someone was in the wheel and naturally thought it was Catwoman since she is the more active of the two. (Which is surprising, due to her weight issues but I am ever so grateful for her activity because now that she can no longer steal meal worms, I am counting on her exercise to help bring her weight down to a healthy and reasonable level.) Anyway, it wasn't Catwoman at all but Batman in the wheel!
What to do? Well, I handed my husband one of the many clean fleece blankets the kids have and said, "Maybe you can grab him and take him out of the cage." What do you know but that wasn't even necessary! The moment my husband showed him the blanket, Batman hopped right into his hand! And I used to say that my gliders didn't like being held! If this keeps up, I can say that this is no longer true!!! What a pleasant surprise!
And yes, again, the entire time we gave him meal worms, he sat in my husband's hand. We got to pet him to our heart's content and Batman was chirping away happily. Nothing stolen two nights in a row. He started to get a little scared at the end for being without a pouch but we successfully put him back in the cage without one.
What a wonderful last two nights!!
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