how can you tell if a female is pregnant before the babies are big enough to show ? would it her them or her to look in the pouch?

You can tell the female is pregnant before the joey(s) is in the pouch. You can softly examine her belly by just rubbing it softly. You will be able to feel a small knot or lump in her belly region. And as time passes it will gradually get larger and then she will have the joey and it will crawl into her pouch. I wouldnt suggest opening her pouch. You could dislodge the joey from the mothers nipple, causing her to reject the joey and resulting in death.

I have never heard anyone say that they could feel the babies before they were in pouch. Personally, I don't know how you would ever know if you were feeling a baby or poop. I don't think you can tell before they are in pouch. They are about the size of a grain of rice when they crawl into the pouch (at about 16 days). They stay in the pouch for 8-9 weeks, but most of the growth of the joey is done after 6 weeks.

To feel for a joey, you rub your finger along the belly from cloaca to below the ribs - don't press, just feel. If you feel a bump (not the hip bone, but a bump - or two) then there is a joey IN POUCH. You never remove the joey. It will detach when it is sufficiently developed enough to live outside of the pouch.

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Originally posted by currie95

how can you tell if a female is pregnant before the babies are big enough to show ? would it her them or her to look in the pouch?

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Only a vet should try to see if a suggie is pregnant before they are showing in pouch. That happens here from time to time on routine (incoming rescue) health checks after the suggie is put under for close inspection. When pregnant suggies are found out during a health check, the vet does not anesthetize them again until after the joeys are OOP.

Yes, it can hurt them if you try to inspect inside the pouch or rub on the joeys outside of the pouch when they are this young. Because when they have only been in the pouch for a few days or a week, they do not have enough strength to re-attach to the teat if they fall off from too much poking around.

You will know soon enough if she has IP joeys because four weeks after pouch drop it will be pretty obvious. Look for a slight bulge on EITHER SIDE of the pouch slit. The pouch opening itself will begin to get floofy or slightly opened at this time.

Although you don't want to poke around in the pouch, etc. it is OK to handle and play with mom during this time. She will need extra protein and she will need out-of-cage play and fun to keep stress levels down. Treat her as you normally do.

or maybe someone can invent in-home pregnansey tests for gliders :-p
Humans just pee on them....why couldnt we invent one that a glider does the same thing on it lol!

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Originally posted by gray_Fox_forever

or maybe someone can invent in-home pregnansey tests for gliders :-p
Humans just pee on them....why couldnt we invent one that a glider does the same thing on it lol!

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lol that would have to be a tiny stick.

I'll bet that we could figure out what chemical it is that reacts with the pregnancy hormone (hcG or human chorionic gonadotropin), dip a cotton swab and get 'her' to pee on it :) Are glider pregnancy hormones the same hormone as the human pregnancy hormones detected by pregnancy tests?

im not really sure! Thats something to look into... Thats something i gota look up at home lol. Im sure my boss would question me googling information about peeing on things and female hormones .....LOL!!!!!!!! I can only image the comments from the other IT guys and gals LOLOL!!!!

Lol, that is hilarious! I can imagine that you would def. be the talk of the town after that. And no one is going to believe "no seriously I just wanted my glider's pee"!