Hey all,

I'm new to this forum but I wanted to share my story so it didn't happen to someone else.

I haven't had gliders all that long, but have always been fascinated by them and was recently able to rescue two young gliders (both coming from different homes)

I took in a male of about 10months early this summer, and a girl of about 8months a few months later.

Both were very healthy. The boy (Icarus) began to get a little chubby from our bonding process, he wasn't well taken care of previously and bonding was difficult in the beginning so I gave him lots of treats to get him to trust me.

Well soon enough he was getting a little chubby, he loved eating fruits and veggies as well as the food mix I had gotten for him.

And the girl (Maya) was the same way, both never had any trouble eating.


Well one Saturday I wake up to find that Icarus is still awake and active, and this is strange because its almost 10am. When I go over to check on him he is jumping around blindly and getting stuck place and falling off of things.

He seems to have gone completely blind over night.

Naturally my first instinct was to call the Vet, however I did not have a vet in line for them already.

So after a long search just to find a place that even took in gliders (I live in RI and they are fairly new here)
I learned that no where in RI would have a specialist on during the weekend and I'd have to wait til Monday until I could get him the care he needed unless I wanted to have him in the emergency room, but the woman recommended that I just care for him til the weekend was over because the stress of a new environment like that can be enough to kill them.

After I finally got him to calm down from his blindness, he finally curled up and went to sleep in a pouch.

I decided to remove him from the cage with the girl incase whatever he had was infectious, I also read online that sometimes when a glider gets sick the others will try to kick it out of the swarm or hurt it or something, so I didn't wan't that to happen.

After he went to sleep though, he really didn't do anything else but sleep for the next few days.

Finally on Monday I was able to take him to the vet. They thought the blindness was due to dehydration, but weren't sure what caused the dehydration in the first place.

So they took him in and gave him food, liquid calcium and stuff, but he didn't bounce back like they expected him to, so they sent me home with him and some medicine. They weren't really sure what was wrong with him.

So I nursed him with a small syringe giving him liquids and mashed up fruits.

The first day after the vets he seemed to be doing a little better, had more of a grip than he did the last few days.

But the next day he took a turn for the worse he started throwing up the food, water and medicine I was giving him.

Shortly after this started he passed away.

This is was particularly devastating because we had just got past that difficult stage of bonding to the point where he was excited to see me when I came over to the cage and that he wouldn't crab or swipe at me.

The vet was nice enough to do a free autopsy on the body, as well as send in tissue samples to a lab at no cost to me.

The lab results showed no pathogens of any type.

The autopsy showed that his kidneys and liver were almost completely white (filled with lipids and fats) and that he died of liver/kidney failure.

The vet explained to me that when gliders don't eat, they quickly begin to mobilize the fat in their body. Once this fat is in their blood stream, the liver and kidneys can't do their job properly and it all accumulates and they die.

So one thing, never feed your gliders anything that is high in fat content, such as many different kinds of nuts, also be careful of how many, and the nutritional content of treats.

Next, be sure the food you are using has very little fat in it, and that it doesn't have alot of "empty calories" They shouldn't have to eat alot of it to get all the nutrients they need.

My vet recommended the site ExoticNutrition for food instead of the regular store bought stuff.

Sadly the vet does not know what caused Icarus to stop eating in the first place, he may have gotten a small cold or infection that caused this issue to snow ball.

After losing one of these guys I'm very careful as to what I feed my glider(s) and I don't want to see it happen to anyone else.

Another little tip, gliders will hide their ailments for as long as possible to avoid worrying their mates and to avoid being kicked out of the swarm, this means that when YOU start to notice that something is wrong with your glider, the problem has probably already been there for a few days in the very least.

Immediate medical attention is recommended when dealing with a sick glider.

So if you notice your gliders getting chubby, you may want to cut back on the amount of food available to them. Being chubby alone is not a problem, but if something else should happen, such as an injury or illness, and the glider for whatever reason doesn't eat or drink enough, it can cause the same problem.



Anyway, I hope this helps someone out there, it's a horrible reason to lose a glider when it can be completely preventable.

I'd just like to add, Maya, the girl, is very happy and healthy. She was this skinny little mean thing when I first got her. And now she is healthy weight, and quickly becoming very friendly toward me.

However I am still looking to get her a friend.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I wish everyone the best of luck with their gliders.

-SirNovak

SirNovak, thank you for sharing your story, I know it must have been hard. And I as well hope that others will read it and learn from it.

In any case, I am glad to hear your girl is doing fine now, she must have also mourn for her partner, I hope you'll be able to get her a new friend soon.