Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i just adopted a mom and daughter from a rescue group here in ohio. i get the girls home, i'm carrying them around all day long, we're all doing great. the daughter, who i was told was only 4-5 months old was napping on my hand the other day, and i was checking her tummy, because it looked a little puffy. so i kiiiiiiinda was able to open her pouch up a little, i'm peeking around, and she sorta wakes up, looks at me , and does this 'oh, do you need help with that?' and grabs skin on either side of the pouch and pulls it open for me!!!! it was just for a couple of seconds, but there was a tiny squirmy, baked-bean-sized baby in there!!!! she's carrying at least one joey, i suspect there might be a second one, and i'm busy freaking out.
what do i feed her? i read she needs extra protein, what else do i do for her? i want her to be extra healthy for the little bean, and what if she rejects him? i'm so attached to these little girls already that i want to do everything i possibly can to ensure her health and comfort, especially now!
what do i do? anything?
help!

Congrats. So nice to hear she is so friendly. You aree very lucky to find that kind of adult glider. Most people dont keep the bond proccess up thorugh adulthood and so it is rare to find friendly adults. I guess to start on your diet question,,, what are you feeding them right now? That is where to start.
And you dont need to worry about her rejecting the baby. She already has the bond with it in her pouch. And you dont need to separate the sister either. They are family animals and will all work together in raising hte baby and keeping it safe.
What are you feeding your girls right now?

well for starters, there are TWO in there. the little girl, the daghter was supposedly only 3-4 months old. from what i've been reading, the youngest age they can get 'with joey' is five months, but i've seen more like 8 months plus is the norm.

they're not TOTALLY tame, i've considered buying some rubber tubing to make tourniquets out of on a couple of occasions, but they are getting better. we've spent some quality time in our foyer, just hanging out letting them use us as trees. we're all getting used to each other. they're the most 'crabby' at the end of the day as soon as we get home and they get to go back in their sleepy pouch, and then first thing in the morning when they're back in their bonding pouch and we're off to school. kinda like sleepy little kids, is how it seems to me.

they have zupreem parakeet pellets and some other brand of sugar glider pellets mixed together available to them 24/7. at night, we're working on a rotating supply of pineapple, kiwi, grapes, green apple, oranges [is there some reason why i think i read they shouldn't have too much citrus fruit? i can't remember....]. i also give them different kinds of baby food. they LOVE those baby hotdogs! the chicken , turkey, or meat sticks by beechnut? mmmmmmmm. they love the sweet potatoes too. we tried the chicken with apples last night, and that didn't go over as well. i also give them pieces of shredded cheddar, which they adore, and anything else that might tempt them, as long as it's healthy. i pretty much feed them, the same as i do the two birds , which makes it reeeeeal easy to grocery shop for the zoo.
so i don't have to worry? and i'll have to get rid of, or neuter any little boys that she has right? or do i go the money hungry route and try to get a usda license? i really just want them to all be healthy and happy, but the lure of 200 - 300 bucks a shot for the little ones is pretty tempting..... but i'd probably cry my eyeballs out. i got kinda choked up when i saw the little pink beans the first time!

Everything sounds great.. except the bird feed... I hear too many peopole feeding thier gliders bird food.. And alot of pet stores will tell you to feed it to them. YOu have to be careful not to let your gliders get fat. Fat leads to paralisis. which leads to death. Bird seed is high in fat, with all the nuts.. alot of protien. Your diet would be perfect without it. The baby food meat sticks and fruits and other baby foods, sweet potato...its all good. Just make sure you are geting in vegi's. If you enjoy doing the baby food route you can get the vegitable medly and vegitable stew and otehr vegi things to feed them that way. They do love it. Another thing you can ad... you may be doing this already.. is the baby food rice cereal. It is good for them while pregnant, nursing, weanlings and even if you want to continue afterwards. Jsut mix it with some water into a yogurt tpye texture. They love that stuff and its great for them. You are doing great. Good luck.

fantastic... couple of things, though --- how come the rice baby food, and not oatmeal? i give the birds the oatmeal every once in a while, and the glider girls have tried it, and also like it. oh, and my birds don't get bird 'seed' food- it's not good enough for them - they eat roudybush small, with every imaginable type of fruit and veggies - they've even tried brussell sprouts! that's what i was kinda happy about as far as feeding all the 'kids' in the house... there's a ton of overlap between all of their diets! they all have their high quality base food, and then i add on to that. you should see olive the killer caique trying to steal soft dog food while i'm mixing the hound's dinner!!! and is cheese okay for the girls? i give them about five shreds each at night...
huh, that was interesting. i just typed all of the above one-handed. i had both girls curled up in my left hand inside their pouch....cutest damn thing.....

Great to hear your feeding your birds all that EXPENSIVE!!! high quality food! I give mine the same. Soooo much better for them than those seed diets!
I'd steer away from the cheese, jsut cause of the lactos.....I don't know if they make a lactos free cheese? lol It's worth a shot if you wnat to continue it.
I dont know why not the oatmeal instead of rice quite honestly!! I found this a long time ago... I cant remember the name of th diet. Butit was a sugar glider diet that was well nutritioned, and is called for the rice cereal.. Try looking on the back of the boxes and see what the nutritional difference is. See if there is any major difference.
As far as your decision to get that liscence or keep them...that is yours to make! It is a tough one. Thy are the cutest things...and if you get them bonded to you...it will be even HARDER to let them go!

no kidding, the EXPENSIVE STUFF!!! the only one i found that was 'worse' was harrison's. yipe. and then there's the dogs [four] and their crazy and varied diets....sheesh. i spend more money on food for the animals than i do on me.
okay, so we're not sure about the baby cereal, i've seen that diet you mentioned too. i sorta breezed thru it, cuz i figured i was covering all the bases with what i feed them.
you know there's no way i'm gonna be able to give up the little people. no way. and then YOU have to keep attaching that picture of all of the babies!!!! how old are the ones in it? they're so teeny!
who would have thought marsupials were this interesting???

I actually spend more money on my fishes food than any of my animals now. lol. Crazy I know. I don't do gliders anymore. After having 2 kids I couldnt give them the time I used to and it wasnt fair to them in my opinion. I miss the cuties. And try to help anyone that needs it. I had so many years with them. The ones in that picture were 3 months oop. I love teasing people with that pic. Makes giving your boogers up even harder I know. lol *evil grin*
I've always loved marsupials.
Actually I was pretty bummed out last week. I saw a dead opossum on the side of the road, and I knew it had been hit that previous night since it wasnt there before. But I didnt stop to check it for babies because it was already late in the day and it had been 90 all day so I fgured if she had any, they were toast. literaly. But the next day I drove by and I felt just awful....a bunch of dead babies all over that had crawled out of her pouch...sure enough they were stil alive the day before...I shoulda stopped. I'm still hitting myself. =(

OH NO!!! i never even thought of that! that's awful, oh man. i'd be pretty grossed out though, pokin around a dead possum...but the little ones are so dang cute... can you just pull open the pouch and scoop em out? and then what? bottle feed? or take them to a wildlife place? [i'd probably wanna bottle feed em anyway...]
and where do you LIVE that it's NINETY already? shoot, we're just coming into the mid.60's here in ohio, and it's balmy. i've been wearing flip flops for a month and a half already...wishful thinking...
oh, is it a really really bad idea to peek at the babies? i know she cleans them off when i've looked, but is it bad for them?
i cannot WAIT for the little monkeys to come out. gliders babies with those big ole heads, and ears....sighhh.... and then , when they do, i'll be busy wigging out about how to take care of the littles. be prepared. =]

Oh yeh, that is the other reason I didnt stop to look... A; I figured they be cooked already, and B: it must be really nasty stinky in that heat. lol I don't mind if it saves little abies lives though. Well, yeh I'd have to take them to a wildlife rehaber ...but I have found ways around that to legally raise the babies yourself in some states/counties by use of a hunting liscence. Sounds silly I know. But you know the laws dont always make sense. But depending on the size of the little ones I might take them anyways. If they are too tiny there is no way I could care for them. They are the size of jelly beans when they are first in the pouch. Not many features to them. So I wouldnt even try unless they were to the age they actually had hair on them. Most opossum babies are so small and fragile they have to be tube fed and still have a low chance of survival the smaller they are. the babies I saw had hair..theywere about the size of baby rabbits. Too bad.
I live in Texas...Texoma area. It got to 94 today. Feels like 100. lol But I love the heat. =) Don't think I culd handle Ohio. It's way too cold there for me. But you do have some pretty cool exotic animal breeders there.
I wouldnt think it would be bad to peek at the babies as long as the mother isnt stressed over it and isnt struggling around and your hands are freshly cleaned each time. Jsut make sure she isnt stressed and your not restraining her risking her struggling and accidentaly dislodging a baby from the nipple. Once dislodged, they usually cant get back on and die. So it's very important to never take a marsupial off the nipple. And be very careful when dealing with moms carrying babies. So long as there is no objection on her end and everything is clean no problem.
A good thing to do once your babies do start coming out nad actually tke thier first venture away from mom to check out hte food, is to supply them with some of that rice cereal baby food. Again, maybe the oatmeal will work too. I just always use rice...again, not sure why rice over oatmeal...I would think there is a reason though. While they seem the same substance..these are two different grains. Anyhow, this helps get them learning to eat easier. They especaly like it if you mix some apple juice in.
I think in an earlier message you asked about citrus fruits. And yes, you are supposed to lay low on high citrus fruits. I dont really know what all the good ons are. I know apples are a plus. But not to go so muc hon fruits like oranges, pineaple, grapefruit, etc. Mine loved apples and bananas. =) Another thing they loved, that is supposed to be a no no because they dont know if there is any problems caused or not by preservitives, is mixed canned fruit. I got the tropical blend and the normal fruit cocktail. It was cheaper, had more variety, and they loved it. I never had any problems with it at all. But again, people have thier doubts and will discurage it.

You bring them to SCHOOL?!?!? WHOAH!

i own a dog daycare, and we crazy dog people refer to it as school. or hundegarten... we're goofy. but, since the little ones are sleeping all day, they're fine in the pouches i made them. they're all drawstring, with a cord stopper attached, so there's no escaping. not like they'd want to anyway. the dogs that come here are used to the never-ending parade of new animal smells on 'auntie lizz', so they don't even pay attention to them. it's pretty cool.