Both parents are important when it comes to raising joeys and often this fact is overlooked when you see glider families split up and advertised for sale. Joeys have a lot to learn from their parents.

In fact, even extended family members share the responsibilities of joey care/raising in the wild. I am not sure it always works that well in smaller cages though - glider colonies are always dynamic with relationships often changing. I always note often the best colonies in smaller cages are the non breeding ones.

This photo I took late last year showing Chad babysitting the kids epitomises the role of the father in joey raising. This is one of my fav photos and if you look carefully you can see more than one joey cuddled up to him.

Yesh! What a sweet picture.

Oh how absolutely adorable. Thank you for sharing this.

What a great pic! I love it!

Love the picture! What a great daddy he is!

Oh how sweet, I just love the photo!

SO CUTE!! I just LOVE his little buck teeth too.

that is the cutest picture in the whole WORLD

Aww! What a cute pic! I'm glad someone put this information about family dynamics and the importance of having Dad there!

dads unite!

For interest, you can see the bedding is eucalyptus leaves. The leaves at the top with the marks on them shows remnants of lerps...one of the dietary items of wild gliders. Lerps don't last long with my gliders either.

That photo is amazing. Absolutely perfect!

Oh that is so so true!!! When we found out Carly (one of our rescues)was prego with Nemo, I got on here and asked if I should move her when it got closer to time, since Gremlin is not the father. Man am I glad I didn't. gremlin and Bells (before she died) each took many turns babysitting. Regan was the only one that didn't seem to want to babysit. That is a GREAT pic btw!!!

That is very poignat pic... wheew!

such a cute pic =]

I cannot even explain how much of a role Daddy played with his joeys. He was always grooming them, sleeping with them, watching them when mom wasn't around. Shiloh is a year and a half old and still sleeps on is chest quite often. Also, Ko, you're right about the colonies because Kiki and Skitzi absolutely took care of each other's joeys. I don't know how that dynamic would change if the girls weren't already very well bonded to each other though. Anyway, witnessing Daddy caring for them was amazing. He played a primary role without a doubt. I have pics in my "Daddy" photo album and I think in my "Group glider pics" as well.

kyro. I think that picture of Shiloh and Skitzi ranks right up there with this one. Two of the cutest glider pictures I have ever seen.