I just noticed this evening that Chloe has a teeny tiny foot sticking out of her pouch!! I've had her for close to a year and have no idea what to do differntly while she is pregnant/pouching. Should I change her diet? How? Should I refrain from touching her? Etc

Also, how long til the joey is out of the pouch and should I get hom/her fixed to ensure no inbreeding?

Basically, any tips will do!!

I do know that a previous owner of hers and Jacks did have a baby but someone accidently killed it :( this was years ago and to know she pregnant now makes me very happy, makes me feel that she is happy!

Any tips appreciated :)

She needs more protein than usual. The high-protein diet we feed is called LGRS suggie soup. You can see this post if you are interested:

http://www.sugarglider.com/glidergossip/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=25960

Here are a few tips:

1. Don't separate her from dad or other colony members. She needs their support
2. Make sure you give her plenty of attention. Let her come out to play, run on wheel, explore. That relives stress. Stress is bad for babies because it can cause moms to reject or destroy babies
3. handle her like you always should.
4. Put their nesting area close to the bottom of the age in case babies fall out.
5. Put no-pil fleece at the bottom of the cage in case babies fall out.

I'm sure everyone else will weigh in with more advice

I don't know a lot about having joeys just what I have read on here. Changing her diet would depend upon what it is you are feeding her know. I do believe pregnant and nursing moms need extra protein. I believe baby usually comes oop about 7 to 10 days after you first start seeing feet and tails sticking out of pouch. Vets also don't spay females because their insides are so tiny so you would need to get males neutered to prevent inbreeding. Also you will want to check out this site it has a ton of good info on joeys and what you need to do. You will want to check in to the joey rejection kit it is pretty much a must have when you are expecting joeys incase mom rejects them. http://www.suzsugargliders.com/

acspears, if you take a photo of her belly we can tell you how far along she is. If the lump from the joey is peanut-sized and a foot is sticking out, the baby could be ready to come out in as little as a week as our2girlz says above.

However, if she is not far along, a foot sticking out could just be from the mom fluffing her pouch and it just happens to be sticking out. This is not always a good sign, by the way. First-time Moms with immature joeys who are teeny-weeny will often pull them out of the pouch and destroy them way before they are ready to come out - so a foot sticking out is NOT always a good sign. So hold her gently in your hand, roll her on her back, and take a few photos and post them here so we can take a look.

Regarding the spaying of females....

Females can in fact be spayed. I know two vets from separate facilities in this town who do it:

Dominic Cacioppo, DVM of Park Animal Hospital, and Christine Kolmstetter, DVM of Cheyenne West Animal Hospital. Dr. Kolmstetter is our USDA vet program doctor and our favorite in town.

Female spaying is sometimes necessary if the males (even after neutering) are aggressive in trying to mate with the females - especially if they are causing mating wounds. Mating wounds can be deadly and we deal with them here at the rescue year-round despite the fact that we neuter all incoming males.

Spaying is not a popular procedure as it is internal and invasive. Our practice at the rescue has been to separate females who are receiving mating wounds (two strikes and you're out) and pairing them with other single females. Now, that is a "luxury" we have owing to the fact that there are a lot of animals here.

But for glider owners who only have a male and a female, spaying the female is an option versus having them separated for life. Ostensibly, if the female is not going into estrous every 28 days, the male is less likely to be as aggressive in the mating ritual. So like I said, it is not a common procedure, but there are instances where it is actually advisable. Of course finding a vet who actually has experience doing it on sugar gliders and who knows what they are doing is essential.