Hi guys. We have a mom and dad pair plus two joeys in a cage. Mom's fur started looking brown and cracked awhile ago when the joeys were a couple weeks oop, so we immediately switched to original HPW. It looks better, but it is still off color and cracking. We never had this problem before, until the joeys. She has always been bigger, but she has literally been pregnant or carrying joeys almost at all times since we've had her, so we don't know her normal size... The dad is on the slim side with nice gray fur and almost no cracks. We have two gliders in a separate cage and their fur are both perfect and soft as well, on the same diet. Could nursing be playing this big of a role in her fur quality, or could something be wrong with her? Also, is she supposed to be fat if she's nursing? She is really big in comparison to all of the others. She was almost normal size again once the joeys came out of the pouch (we had been worried because she was so huge). Now she's big again. The males were all neutered in early June. It is unlikely that she is pregnant again unless some freak accident, a failed neuter, a paused pregnancy, whatever weird things could have happened. The babies are 5 weeks old now. Their fur looks great, they are growing just fine. Mom's underside is yellowish, while all the others have white bellies.

We give them 1 TBSP original HPW each per night, plus 3-4 different fruits and 3-4 different veggies approx 1 TBSP each (that is, approx 1 TBSP fruit total and 1 TBSP veggie total), but we have been giving about 25-50% more now that the joeys are eating from the food bowls too, since they're about half the size of a full grown glider now. I am guessing mom is eating far more than her fair share. Every morning, almost everything is gone. I've cut down on mealworms because she's way bigger than she should be, she's only getting a few per week tops now. I don't know what's going on with her. She is 5 years old and the dad is 1.5 years old. Here is my best attempt at pictures. The adults at the food bowl are mom and dad, mom on the right obviously. I've also included a picture of each baby =)

It's really hard to tell from the photos (I can't get decent ones of my girls either). She doesn't seem to look obese in these. Getting an actual weight on them would help. I was just thinking about the weights on ours the other day, but decided not to stress it because some are just petite while others have a bigger body structure (as long as they aren't showing other signs of issues). I'm sure that having had so many joeys back to back that it took its toll but, now that your males are neutered she should be able to get back to a good weight, due to being able to exercise more as well as overall good health as her body isn't being taxed trying to produce milk for the joeys. It is possible she's hogging some of the food...but, you are probably already providing separate feeding stations. Will you be separating out the joeys at some point or will they remain together as a family colony?

We haven't ever gotten them weighed, and right now we're saving up for the neuters. Ideally I would like to get them neutered at about 3 months and keep them all together. We have a big cage that can fit 4, and I would assume they'll all be happier in a bigger group as opposed to in twos. I can ask to get them all weighed next time we go get their nails trimmed, which will probably be when we do the neuter. The issue with keeping them together is that they're both boys, so it'll be three males and one female. Last time she had a male joey, the dad tried to attack it when it was only weeks old, and we tried to introduce them when it was a couple months old but he tried to attack him then too. Now, even seeing him through the bars may trigger an attempted attack. I'm not very comfortable with having three males and one female when I know that the dad can be aggressive. However, that all happened before his neuter, he has been a fantastic father, and he has calmed down a lot. If it's safe to keep them with the parents I want to, I just worry about it once they mature. Our 5 month old male was neutered right at 3 months (only days after his bald spot appeared) and he still scent marks compulsively and seems to have no idea he's neutered, so I could imagine dad and a child fighting over the female maybe...? Also, mom only had two pregnancies (as far as I know, she could have lost one). Before that she hadn't had any babies for at least a year. And she was NEVER brown before!! We do have two food bowls but they aren't very far apart. They've been in a smaller cage because of the joeys and we'll be putting all 4 in our big cage probably today, where the bowls are on opposite ends.
We are considering switching around the gliders and putting the babies with their older brother once they're big enough, and the other female we have with the adults. Right now we have the 5 month old son and a 5 month old female we got for him together, but it seems like she doesn't like him. It seems to us that she runs away from him, and we hear crabbing and chasing every single night. When we play in the closet, she gets as far away from him as she can. I don't know how gliders are supposed to act and I'm scared to take them apart in case they DO like each other, but we're worried the little girl is unhappy in there. So we could put her with the adults and put the little guy with the babies maybe...