Whilst clipping nails the other day I noticed that the matriarch of the Hammie clan "Lilly" had all the fur scraped off on a dime-sized part of her back. This, my friends, is the tell-tale sign of a mating wound-to-be.

We immediately culled her out of the colony and we took her two joeys Lucy and Ethel with her.

Hammie and his sons Lucky and Pepe are now a trio.

We caught this one just in time.

In our experience, once this mating wound or "mock" mating wound thing starts, it does not stop. It often leads to picking of open sores, abscesses, and sometimes death.

If you see this, you must immediately cull out the hurt animal.

It is 50/50 whether or not, after ALL the fur grows back if you can return the hurt animal. Many times, it just happens again if it happens once so you may end up with two cages...

Wish the Hammies and Lilly colony luck! We are sure they will miss each other but we are doing this for their own safety.

Good luck to those sweet gliders. It may be easier for her than for the male, it definitely is beneficial to her.

Sorry they had to be seperated, but so glad you caught it in time.

See, now I am worried about my 2 girls. Since one of the girls has a small mating wound and now they have been separated until the wound heals, I am now worried about putting them back together for this same reason. I truly hope when it is time to put them back together that this does not happen again.

Good luck with the 2 colonies. I sure do hope everything works out.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by fazioli</i>
<br />See, now I am worried about my 2 girls. Since one of the girls has a small mating wound and now they have been separated until the wound heals, I am now worried about putting them back together for this same reason. I truly hope when it is time to put them back together that this does not happen again.

Good luck with the 2 colonies. I sure do hope everything works out.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

This mating wound stuff has got me all tripped up too. Just last week I saw my original pair trying to mate, I have seen dominance mounting before but they were going at it differently. I really don't want them to get over zealous and hurt each other, what would I do then?

I wish luck to the new trios!

Im sorry they had to be split up.
Good luck.:)

~Erica~

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by viciousencounters</i>
<br /><blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by fazioli</i>
<br />See, now I am worried about my 2 girls. Since one of the girls has a small mating wound and now they have been separated until the wound heals, I am now worried about putting them back together for this same reason. I truly hope when it is time to put them back together that this does not happen again.

Good luck with the 2 colonies. I sure do hope everything works out.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

This mating wound stuff has got me all tripped up too. Just last week I saw my original pair trying to mate, I have seen dominance mounting before but they were going at it differently. I really don't want them to get over zealous and hurt each other, what would I do then?

I wish luck to the new trios!
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

It is a sad fact that once it starts, it is hard to curb the behavior. The very best thing to do is separate them until ALL of the fur grows back. Then you can re-united them.

Please, please, please always check your gliders in the morning and at night for any leisons, bumps, etc. Abscesses are VERY common with gliders so it is important to always check them. If you let it go and don't check them it could be heartbreaking. Because an open wound is something other gliders are going to want to "groom" and that can easily lead to death.