My glider girl is preg with two joeys, they are big enough now that I can see them move in her pouch when she waddles around the cage. I even caught a glimpse of my first foot sticking out of her pouch the other day! My vet says she should have the joeys OOP in a week or two now.

She is in a large cage (PVC, 6" tall) and currently has two sleeping areas (a pouch and a plastic nesting box with familiar fleece blankies in it).

She is housed with a male (not the father, long story) and they have had some minor scuffles resulting in small injury (scratches) for which I temporarily separated them for. Once she healed I tried intros again, which went well, and now she is back together with him. It appears that she is the instigator now, he clicks at her and she crabs at him when she gets annoyed. They have been sleeping separately on occasion, with her in the nest box and him in the pouch. She will join him in the pouch still, though.

Now, I want to have the cage ready for babies OOP so I won't have to disturb the new family too much. My research suggests the nest box might be safer for the joeys? I want to reduce to one sleeping spot for the joeys. I've also heard to put the sleeping spot to the floor of the cage. My cage floor is PVC mesh, should I put down a fleece hammock in front of the sleep spot? Nest or pouch? Is a joey climbing out of the nest a real possibility or am I overthinking this?

Can anyone with joey experience give me a run down of what I should have my cage set up like for newly OOP joeys? And once they are OOP, how often do I switch the pouch for a clean one? I am stockpiling dirty fleece blankets so I can add one or two to the clean sleep area as I swap.

Right now I have food (bml with extra portion) in a glider kitchen on the cage floor. Raptor wheel on cage floor. Water bottle halfway up the cage, fleece vines/baby links/chain to climb at the top of the cage, some reset toys hanging from the roof, 6 fleece hammocks (majority in bottom half of the cage), the nest box on a fleece hammock about 1" from cage floor and the pouch on the bottom of the cage.

Any advice would be lovely! These are my first joeys and I am a paranoid mom!

Hello!

You may have already been told but all gliders have their own personality so what the Joeys do is random. I have gone through two liters with my gliders and knock on wood I have had no issues with joeys trying to climb out. Normally the joeys will stay in the nesting area for a couple weeks and only come or on mom or dad. These babies have an amazing grip like their parents do even at such a young age. I would not be to concerned about the babies falling out our climbing out of the area. It seems that even if they do on done rarity that you seem to already have something soft food then to land on with all the hammocks. As from limiting where the babies can be, mom will normally keep them together and not move them around but you might want to give mom options on where get babies do sleep. Youdon't really need to change anything on your cage . Just make sure that your able to get to the baby top check on him in case of an emergency. You can switch pouches when you need to what you can do it when you want to stick put the clean one in the cage and if mom and dad are out playing just switch the babies to the new one with a scented piece of fleece. I was able to do this with my babies and I had no problems. Mom will find her babies
Just keep an eye on the since they are not his but he should take care of them like his own. How everything works out well!!