Springer was fine Saturday evening. We took him to a family gathering in his pouch and we didn't let anyone interact with him. We had some family members that wanted to see him. When we got home, he looked fine. He ran on his wheel etc. Well, we left early Saturday morning and didn't return until 4pm. At that time, I noticed he was wide awake in a corner. Right away I knew something was wrong. I noticed his water bottle was empty... my husband swears it had water the night before. I gave him water, and he drank and drank and then threw up a tiny bit of water. He was weak but he ate. I gave him an apple. I took him to the vet the next day because he didn't sleep at all the rest of the day or that night. He did sleep a little the next day. Vet said he looked fine. He said he was a little thin but other than that he was bright eyed and a little wobbly. He recommended we change his diet. I had bought some food from amazon that had great reviews.Now I am thinking he wasn't eating enough. The past few days he has not touched his pellets. He will only eat apples, strawberries, egg and chicken. I have only had him 2 months so I am very new to this. We already ordered him Glider Chow, which is what he was eating before. He is eating well but is still not himself. Seems very confused at times, he doesn't seem to have coordination, and he can't grasp very well. His back legs just kind of end up where they end up although he can move them and walk. He just isn't himself. Please help me!

I forgot to mention that I had sprayed his bag with a pet odor control febreeze and dried it before placing him in it. I mentioned it to the vet and he dismissed it, but this has been worrying me as well.

It sounds like he may have a calcium deficiency. I'd pass on the glider chow and get him a better diet. My four get Critter Love Complete and their fruit/veggie salad at night. The few pellets they get are left in the cage in the day time if they may get hungry and they are the Happy Glider ones from Pet Pro. Also Gliders work well in pairs. They're social animals and they don't really like being by themselves. Also is there a wheel in the cage and what kind? Right now though I highly recommend changing the diet. Check out www.critterlove.com

Water bottles can leak, I suggest getting a water silo. Silo's don't leak, and don't malfunction because there is no ball n tube. I have 3 silo's on each cage at different levels, one up high one in the middle n one low to the floor. Low to the floor in case a glider is to weak to climb to a higher one.

[url]http://www.ebay.com/itm/US-4x-Bird-Pet-Drinker-Water-Food-Feeder-Clip-for-Aviary-Cage-Budgie-Parrot-Bird-/332356536081?var=&hash=item4d61fe4711:m:mXgK9VzbsSDev5z8miZFe4A[/url]

these are the ones I use, they are awesommmmmmme easy to clean, you get 4 of them for the price of One of the other ones and these hold more water.


No more spraying his pouches and fabric things, even IF they say pet friendly. Most pets are not in pouches like gliders are. Pet friendly sprays to spray a couch a dog may lay on is considerably different than spraying a pouch and putting a 80 gram glider in it.

Even some laundry detergents can have an affect on gliders tide being one of them.
Use mild soaps unscented is best, no fabric softeners.



Give him a clean pouch n remove anything sprayed with the febreeze. If the cage was sprayed it needs washed with dawn dish soap and rinsed well also. If he was fine before you sprayed his pouch and the symptoms started right after I would think there maybe a potential link to that.


How does his fur look and feel?

diet yes he needs on a better diet but we can't guess if he has calcium deficiency only vet tests can verify or dismiss that. He may have just been dehydrated and weak or fell and injured his spine etc there are to many possibilities and variables so we really can't and shouldn't speculate on a diagnosis.

Critter love is a good diet so is bml those are the only two i personally recommend. [url]http://www.critterlove.com/diet-info.html[/url]
[url]http://www.bmldiet.com/index.html[/url]

Critter love you will need to order online, bml you can find all the ingredients locally but do not make any substitutions for measurements or ingredients unless the recipe specifies a substitution.

Don't worry about a wheel right now it's a mute point if he is struggling to even walk. If a glider is that weak we prefer to limit activity until the glider is strong enough for it anyway.

make things in the cage accessible to him by lowering things closer to floor especially if it's a tall cage, lower his sleep pouch, water, food. It will do him no good to have in the cage if he can not climb to get to it.


I don't know if he is single or not, but even if he is don't worry about getting him a cage mate until he is healthy and doing better. There is no sense adding and exposing a 2nd potentially healthy glider until you know what is going on with the current one. It's far easier to treat one glider than is 2 or more.

I agree about Critter Love as I recently switched over. At first my gliders (3) wouldn't eat their pellets but now they love them. For me, it is an easy diet to do once you make their salad.

I do have some Exotic Nutition food that I am not using and more than willing to send it to you (just pay shipping costs)

Hope your fella gets better soon.

PS. I am also a newbie (July) and have learned a lot from this board.

I hope your glider is improving! Please follow Leela's advice and suggestions, all of them.

How is Springer?

An update on Springer!

We stopped giving him the food we had purchased from Amazon. We started noticing changes in him. He slowly started to regain strength. He literally went from almost not being able to eat to building his strength back up. We purchased the Glider Chow and when that came in he literally ate for 3 hours (remember he was weak so eating was a slow process). We incorporated chicken, eggs, and veggies more into his diet. Then he started gaining strength. Little things like, licking me, curling up in his bed (he couldn't even curl up at one point). Then before we knew it he was his old self again. So happy to have my baby back! Thank you all for the tips and the concerns. We will continue to research and learn what is best for our baby. The food we had purchased that seemed to make him ill or weak was vitasmart. I gave a big review for that on Amazon.

I'm so happy for you and Springer, great news!!!

I am so glad that he is doing better