Long time lurker, first time poster. I'm mainly posting this because it was helpful and it kept my spirits up to the read the success stories of others who had a glider go missing, so I figured I would add mine.

I was staying the night at my boyfriend's house, as it had snowed pretty badly and my parents preferred that I not drive in the conditions at hand. The next morning, I was awoken to my boyfriend's mother waking me up around 9 am telling me it was my mother on the phone, and when she handed it to me, my mother sound frantic. She told me that she fed the gliders last night, as she knows how to do, but in the morning checked up on them and discovered she had left the cage door wide open, and one of my two gliders (Nala and Leo) was missing (Leo). My boyfriend and I rushed home as fast as safely possible when roads are bad, arriving there at 9:30 am. Now, knowing my gliders, they're usually going to sleep around 7 am, so I know he would be snuggled up somewhere sleeping already. My mother had already closed all the toilet lids and collected all mouse traps when she discovered, which I was thankful for. I checked everywhere, making noise as he tends to crab at noise, but nothing.
I decided that there wasn't a whole lot we could do with it being so early in the morning, so I simply closed doors to bathrooms after checking them thoroughly and putting towels under the doors.

Next step was cutting up an apple and placing pieces around the house on little bits of paper, with 3 mealworms next to each (as I knew he would go for those first and it would be easy to tell if he had been there). I also put out some other pouches with apple bits in them. Waiting was the worst thing, since my gliders tend to get up around 10 pm, it was a 12 hour wait with looking every hour or so, just in case we'd missed him. Fast forward to night time, I'm getting more frantic at this point and have cried a couple times, starting to feel the pain of possibly losing my baby. I made all the rooms I thought he could be in dark, going on a little search every 15 minutes or so. My parents and I both thought that he was most likely in the upstairs, as it was warming and usually darker than the downstairs, and even more so than the basement (which we really hoped he wasn't). However, during one of my searches, I heard a little noise in one of the rooms. I shined my flashlight over and saw the chubby little body of my Leo! I just stood there, not sure what to do, as he's not that well bonded to me and there was no way I could catch him bare handed. I quickly ran over to the next room over that had a little blanket and chased the little bugger around the room, as he was surely confused and quite scared. Luckily the room we were in doesn't have many hiding places and I was able to snatch him up, which he didn't much like as he proceeded to inform me by crabbing his little head off. I carried him upstairs and started shaking, knocking on my parents door (they had gone to bed) to tell them that little Leo was alive.

I put him back in the cage and he kind of sat there for a moment, then went and took a very long and well deserved drink of water, while Nala grabbed him and sniffed him, as if to say "where the heck have you been and why do you smell so weird?" Eventually they were circling each other in a little sniff fest, then went and had breakfast together. Now they're in their pouch, happily cuddling I'm sure. He was found within 24 hours of his escape

I am so relieved that he's alright, as I've had these gliders for a couple weeks short of a year (they're about 2 years old, was baby sitting them for a friend who then asked me if I wanted them, ended up doing research and finding out they were on Pocket Pet's diet, so I switched them to the Priscilla Price diet and they're doing much better now). I am so happy this isn't an RIP topic. /phew

[I apologize for any grammatical errors or anything, 5 hours of sleep and 14 hours of worry and stress do not make for a well functioning brain ]

HI and welcome.
So glad you found your little baby safe and sound.
And so glad you did your research and got them on a better diet.
Good luck with your babies. :)

I'm so glad you found your baby. You're poor mom probably felt horrible. Thanks goodness it all turned out okay.

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Originally posted by bellalucysmom

HI and welcome.
So glad you found your little baby safe and sound.
And so glad you did your research and got them on a better diet.
Good luck with your babies. :)

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Thanks so much, and we're pretty darn glad too. We think he might have been sleeping in a drawer full of napkins, which we didn't check for some reason. Guess we'll never know though. :P

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Originally posted by shannonlcorum

I'm so glad you found your baby. You're poor mom probably felt horrible. Thanks goodness it all turned out okay.

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She did, she kept apologizing and felt absolutely terrible. I instantly forgave her though, it was a simple mistake and nothing all that bad came out of it (thankfully). The next morning she even thanked me for waking her up to tell her once I had found him, as it allowed her to sleep so much better and without guilt and worry weighing down on her.

The gliders are now happily safe and sound in their pouch, getting carried around by me and also getting slightly spoiled with honey treats. c:

I'm glad you found him! Sometimes it doesn't even take leaving the door open. When I first got Marcie, she came with a cage that I wasn't informed of did not have the correct bar spacing. The previous owner never said anything about her getting out so I figured she was fine until I got a new one. This cage was literally 1/16th of an inch larger bar spaced than the recommended maximum half inch. I remember cuddling with her that night and putting her up in her cage, closing and locking the door, and watching her play before I went to sleep. Then later on that night I woke up to my other glider, Brody, in his cage barking, while simultaneously I felt something scurry across my feet and jump towards the curtains...I got up and turned the light on, retrieved Marcie, and when I went to put her back in her cage I specifically looked for which door was open and none of them were. Needless to say she has a new cage now! I think it's just really important to have the rooms around the cage as glider proof as you can just in case an accident happens!

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Originally posted by cathylee14

I'm glad you found him! Sometimes it doesn't even take leaving the door open. When I first got Marcie, she came with a cage that I wasn't informed of did not have the correct bar spacing. The previous owner never said anything about her getting out so I figured she was fine until I got a new one. This cage was literally 1/16th of an inch larger bar spaced than the recommended maximum half inch. I remember cuddling with her that night and putting her up in her cage, closing and locking the door, and watching her play before I went to sleep. Then later on that night I woke up to my other glider, Brody, in his cage barking, while simultaneously I felt something scurry across my feet and jump towards the curtains...I got up and turned the light on, retrieved Marcie, and when I went to put her back in her cage I specifically looked for which door was open and none of them were. Needless to say she has a new cage now! I think it's just really important to have the rooms around the cage as glider proof as you can just in case an accident happens!

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Oh gosh, I'm glad you got woken up by the both of them and were able to put them back, it's crazy how small a difference can make! I had to upgrade mine from the little cage Pocket Pets sells (the one my friend gave to me with them) to an 18"x36"x55" cage and I had to do a bit of my own modification on it, mostly with making sure the doors were more secure and making a new floor, as they were able to grab whatever pad I put down and chew it to shreds (which scared me since I had no idea if they were eating it at all, but luckily they didn't seem to). I wish my room could be a bit more glider proof, but I also have hermit crabs to take care of meaning their supplies is in my room as well and I need to keep the tank open a bit to keep their habitat within a good range. Luckily it's a bit difficult to get to. :P

I am soo happy Hollyv that you found Leo and especially that you shared how. However, I am not happy with the d-con advetisement just under your story...lol.

Our Leo escaped too! We found him trapped in the giant bag of dog food... lol. Scariest thing ever because we were staying with family who hates animals. Our female escaped with him. While he was in the bag of dog food, she was curled up sleeping in my worn jacket- it was adorable. Then the next week their kid, 3months old, escaped.. he's the only one who made it out of my bedroom. We found him downstairs, at the very top of the drapes in the dining room. He climbed all the way up there! Now all our cages are hooked up with clips...