I can't believe it's been 3 weeks tomorrow I have Kizzi and Tika. They do great with us and they are little sweeties. Tika is VERY timid. She'll let you pet her, feed her and she's never crabbed or bitten. If I let her out of the cage, she'll sit on me indefinitely.

Kizzi is a little wild one. She will also let you pet her and feed her with no bites or crabbing but sheesh, let her out of the cage and she's a furry pinball! If gliders had ADD, she would definitely have it. Nothing keeps her attention and she's always moving. She's the smaller of the two also.

I'm actually pretty worried about introducing them to the others...especially to Skitzi. She is, without a doubt, the dominant female. I've never had to introduce her to another female before either. I'm not sure if I should try to introduce Skitzi to them first or last. No matter what, I'm thinking this may be a long process since I'll probably introduce one on one or two on two at a time. I'm just REALLY hoping they are able to be combined.

For anyone that doesn't know, I currently have 3 males (Daddy, Zoomerang and Maddox) and 3 females (Skitzi, Kiki and Shiloh) that all live together. All the males are neutered. All 6 are very sweet and we play for a few hours every night. There's no doubt they trust me and they all love each other. I'd be trying to introduce 2 more females to them all. I must admit, I'm actually a little nervous! We never really talk much about introducing into a larger, established colony.

Good luck, sounds like you know which way to go with this. Slow and easy, I really hope things go well. Be sure to keep us posted on the progress.

I can't wait to see how it goes. Keep us posted... and some new pics woudn't hurt...

PICSPICSPICSPICSPICSPICSPICS

quote:

---

Originally posted by suggielover74

Good luck, sounds like you know which way to go with this. Slow and easy, I really hope things go well. Be sure to keep us posted on the progress.

---

It'll be good to have some guidelines to the large-colony intro process. Wow --- eight gliders! I have my hands full with three!!!

Good luck kyro. I know I have my hands full with four. When I'm not at home my wife tried to make sure she can feed them while they are still sleeping. If they are up and she opens the door, out they come all four. Then she has hard time putting them back in and keeping them in while trying to get the others in. I told her what to do but she still hasn't gotten it.

I would like to hear tips on combining two groups also. I have the Fab Five in one cage - 2 neutered males and 3 females. I had no problem introducing the first Male/female duo to two females and a couple months later introducing one more male to the quad. Now I have my Animaniacs - a trio of a 2 yr old male and probably his kids a male and female about 4-5 months old. I would like to eventually introduce them to the Fab Five (who are 8-10 months old). I am fully prepared to keep two cages but would like these guys to be able to interact at least during play time if not live together eventually.

Come on folks - if you have a large colony share with us your experiences in getting them all together.

Oh Boy Kyro! Sounds like you have a fun few weeks ahead of ya!

In my past... I have done the Dom female first... I think this is from working with horses... It always seemed the others would follow the lead of the dom mare or stallion!

sounds like an interesting couple of weeks charlie is my timid one and she let you pet her and feed her no biting and clover is the smaller one who is like kyros furry pinball but still lets you pet her feed her with no biting but it sounds like kyro will have her hands full with her intros keep us updated kyro and oh yeah pics too.

Whoa Kylah! I hope it all goes well for you but I know you are prepared for the bumps in the road that you may hit. I am nervous about trying to eventually get my two females in with my two males (just because of my previous problems with my males....i think they are gay) but I couldn't imagine trying to get 2 into an established colony of 6!!! I know you'll keep us updated...and you know we're here for you!!

It's amazing how little info I can find about this but I know people have to have done it before. Kazko maybe? I'll be sure to document "my findings" LOL

It'll be interesting to see how this turns out. At least with you, we'll get a nice consistent account of how things progress. We'll be able to use that for advice for folks facing this hurdle in the future. Good Luck!

Hi Kylah, I got your email so I am posting on this subject. Congrats on the new suggies. I bet you are very happy!

This subject of joining colonies together is very near and dear to us here at Lucky Glider Rescue & Sanctuary. This is true because we are constantly on the look-out to pair-up singles, re-united broken colonies, and helping to facilitate introductions for adoptive families and others.

OK so I will start with the bad news. The bad news is if you do not know what you are doing, a joining of singled individuals and a joining of colonies can result in death or maiming of one or more animals.

We have peculiar experience in this area since the LGRS rescue is now at over 70 animals. The bottom line is it is very dicey and sometimes outright dangerous to combine individuals from separate colonies. These animals are very territorial and the alpha individual from each side will proclaim it as his or her duty to kill outsiders. Now before anyone says that's not true because they were able to combine gliders together - of course we know it is possible. Successful introductions are possible. We've facilitated dozens. But unless you are prepared it can go bad very quickly.

A few points:

1. Introductions are easier if the animals in question are under 6 months. Sexual maturity seems to be coincident with territorialism.

2. The dynamic between two lone gliders that are being introduced is different than the dynamic between one lone glider and a colony or two colonies. Although we do have singles here who fight with every glider they are introduced to, generally speaking loners are easier to unite together than other situations.

3. A colony is two or more. When there is a cage mate or to protect, the alpha is much more likely to feel a need to defend.

4. It is not a good idea to mix weight classes. If you put a tiny glider in with a bunch of bigger ones, the little one can easily be killed within seconds - especially if it has no meat on its bones.

5. When you introduce gliders do NOT do it by putting the strange gliders together in a cage. You may not be able to separate them easily if they go to fight.

6. When you introduce gliders do it in a glider safe room - optimally a room like a bathroom with few hiding places - a room where you can easily lay your hands on them if they fight.

7. When you are trying to introduce just two gliders, hold one in one hand and the other in the other hand and calm them first. Slowly move them closer to one another and if they sniff each other and make nice, try to cradle them in your hands. If they don't fight, you can place them down on the counter or other surface and see how they do on their own. You can try a similar process if there are a pair you are introducing an outsider to, but it is a little trickier.

8. When introducing colonies together, which I don't generally recommend, you can put them all in the same room that you have maneuvering room in and stay very close to them. You may need a second person in case they pair off and fight separately.

9. Wear gloves. If they fight you need to IMMEDIATELY pull them apart. When you pull them apart they will blindly bite you and deeply. So if you don;t wear gloves and are afraid of being bitten, that will be a detriment to the gliders because it is not likely that they will break up on their own but rather continue to fight and therefore hurt or kill each other.

10. Don't introduce them while food is out. They have a tendency to fight more when food is about.

11. Do NOT leave them alone if it looks like the initial introduction is OK. Just because they seem to be getting along in the first few minutes does not mean it is a match. Do NOT leave them alone in a room or leave them alone in a cage and walk away. You must stand vigil. If they are getting along and it is time for you to go to bed, put their cage next to your bed so if they start fighting you can wake up and pull them apart.

12 Do NOT go out and get a new glider to add to a cage of existing gliders thinking it will all be OK. You must have a second cage in case it does not work out. You must deal with the idea of it not working out ahead of time. If you do not have the stomach for having two cages of animals, then don't try it.

13. If you can get help from a rescue or other entity that does this kind of stuff all the time, that is a good idea.

14. Do not go and buy a cute little joey and plop him in a cage with sub-adults or adults. He may be "gone" or half-eaten in the morning. Sorry so gross but people in this town have done this and they cried for days.

Lastly, yes there is the idea of doing a "slow motion" introduction where you incrementally and over a month or so swap bedding, swap cages, move cages closer together, etc. And yes, that can work, but in the end it either works or it does not work.

You need to decide if you want to try to find out right away if an introduction is possible or if you want to do it over a longer period of time. That is up to you. At LGRS, because we have so many gliders, we don't wait a month. We just keep trying different introductions. And that works for us in most cases. We have the "luxury" of doing that where a person who is just trying to introduce a strange glider into a colony will not have that choice. So of course the slow motion method is a good thing to try. But don't set yourself up for disappointment. And be prepared to have separate cages if it fails.

We have found that many gliders will "fall in love" with each other immediately and do not require a slow introduction. So long as you are able to separate them quickly if they fight, you can save yourself a lot of time and wasted build-up. You must pull them apart immediately if they go to fight. Immediately. Gliders can hurt each other very easily if left to fight.

I know it's hard to imagine for most of you, but when these cuddly cute little suggies get to fighting they turn into little monsters you will simply not recognize. Don't let their normal outward demeanor lull you into thinking "my sweet little glider would never do that." Because if you think that, that thinking could mean the death of an animal because you don't want to believe they fight to the death. Because they often do.

Sorry to sound so dark. We just want to make sure a sufficient warning is out there because it may save the lives of some gliders.

Ed @ LGRS
www.luckyglider.org
LOCAL MEETUP: www.meetup.com/luckygliderrescue/
RESCUE BLOG: blog.myspace.com/luckyglider

Thank you so much, Ed!

Wow looks like you do have your work cut out for you!

Ed, that's an amazing post!!!

Kylah - thank you for bringing this up. I dont think we have ever really discussed this here before.

Wow, hope all goes well.
And yes pictures!!

So Ed, do you think starting off with two on two would be worth a try? More dominant or less dominant of the bunch. What do you think about neutralizing their scent?

Thank you Ed, some great info was shared in your post.