I'm really seeking advice and help this is not Britney's first litter she has been a wonderful mother before, but I'm a new owner to her, she has had twins one boy and one girl, and another set of my sugar glider's also had twins.. the other sugar gliders pouch looks normal but Britney's looks red and inflamed and like something stuck in it we just noticed it last night because Britney has been extremely aggressive since she delivered the babies and they came out of pouch.. when we first got her you could get her out and hold her and do things with her, but as her pregnancy progressed she started getting extremely aggressive.. I'm hoping that once the babies are weaned off and separated from her I'll be able to bond with her again.. I'm going to see if I can insert a picture in here and I need advice on whether I should take her to my vet in the morning? I did make sure and find a vet that specializes in sugar gliders before I got my babies.. I have rescued sugar gliders on and off for several years and I'm actually a wildlife rehabber so having sugar gliders is nothing new but this is my first Venture into breeding them. I have three breeding pair and at the moment we have four babies, our other set the mother cannibalized her only baby she had actually thrown it out of the cage or it fell out of the cage and when I gave it back to her they were cleaning it and I thought it would be fine since it was a pinky and now it's gone.... it was also not her first letter so all I can figure is there may have been something wrong with the baby.. but if anyone has any suggestions please let me know I would take her to the emergency vet but they don't know about sugar gliders so I'm having to wait till in the morning, also should I get online and order a Joey kit for hand-feeding in case something happens and she is no longer able to nurse her babies because they are only 7 weeks old? Thank you ahead of time for all your help I truly appreciate it I don't want anything to happen to my little fur babies...

It's hard to tell by those pics they are a bit blurry but.......

the teet showing looks red and little swollen, I would have the vet check to see if its mastitis and do a swab to see if there is any bacterial or fungal infection going on in the pouch.

The last two pics are better.

You are correct, an er vet wouldn't do much for her, it is wise to wait and go to your normal vet.

At 7 weeks the joey should be just about weened if it isn't already, a rejection kit shouldn't be needed. What staple are you feeding??

If you are going to continue to breed I would suggest getting a rejection kit just to have. There are a few people that sell rejection kits or you can gather the items individually online and make your own.

I would also suggest you join the breeding 101 group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/breeding101/



It's an amazing no drama educational group. Breeders from all ranges of experience are in there and can answer any questions you may have about anything breeding related. It is strictly breeding topics, there are no posts about toy making or normal husbandry. There are no sales in the group at all. The responses are almost always nice, understanding and non judgmental.

I would post the last two pics you put here in the breeding group and ask them what they think and would suggest the vet do and check for, I personally think mastitis is a potential but I'm not as experienced with breeding as the members in there are so I would seek their opinions as well.

Another resource is http://www.suzsugargliders.com/helpforrejectedjoeys.htm lots of good information here. They also sell rejection kits.

Thank you so much and I think I am on the breeding 101 but I'm under my normal name which is Michelle Walker. I did send several of the pictures to another breeder that I know, and she is concerned that maybe there is either a dead baby in there or maybe a new baby in there and the older babies are trying to get in and out of the pouch and have possibly stretched it. Luckily she (the female) is still eating really good and exercising and running around, but at this point I have yet to see any of the babies eating their regular food they're strictly nursing Mommy right now.. and I've got them on a homemade diet and as funny as it sounds it's something I actually feed my dogs as well I take 10 pounds of chicken and bake it and then mix in about 3 lb of brown rice along with 2 lb of fresh green beans three large baked sweet potatoes and 6 boiled eggs and I mix it all together and put small packages in the Deep Freeze for my small dogs and then put the rest in ice cube trays for the sugar gliders and then once they're frozen I pull them out and put them in Ziploc bags they also get a mixture of spring greens lettuce some cabbage mixture sugar snap peas applesauce and then the homemade dog food or that's what what I call it every night... and I admit my sugar gliders are a little chunky not really bad they're not unhealthy overweight but they're definitely not underweight.. this week I put a second bowl in every night that's got baby food in it and baby cereal in it trying to tempt the baby's a little bit.. also my adults like eating grapes and strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and anything of that sort, my husband jokes all the time that they eat better than he does!!! As crazy as it sounds, we have got all of our Critter Nation cages that all of the sugar gliders are in in our dining room because we never use it, and my husband has set up a webcam in there so we can keep an eye on them, we have to put a puppy gate against the door at night to keep the dogs from standing there watching them and possibly making them nervous, I don't think they would hurt them, but I'm definitely not going to take the chance.. don't get me wrong I love my dogs but sugar gliders are very delicate and I just don't want to take the chance... now granted my chihuahua and my Miniature Pinschers do enjoy playing with our two Dumbo rats that are pets, but they've known them since we got the baby rats when they were only a few weeks old they are so tame they'll do tricks for you!!! Our two female Dumbo rats are about 7 months old and they pretty much think they run the house!!! It is hilarious watching my 74 year old mother freak out when she thinks one of them's going to touch her, talk about spoiled I have a custom made 130 gallon 6 foot long fish tank on a stand that has four doors under it which it also has a lockdown lid and a large piece of Driftwood in there and that is the home for our two Dumbo rats, they are the centerpiece in the living room, drives my mom nuts, she would not let us have animals in the house when I was growing up at all.. she swears is Revenge and I'm getting back at her for not being able to have animals when I was a kid we did have them for a short. Of time because my father was a wildlife rehabber so at one point we had a pet mountain lion and an alligator... mom only put up with that for about 2 years then that was it they had to go... but I'm getting off topic here.. I just wanted to say thank you very very much, I truly appreciate your honesty and your help and anyone else that wants to pitch in any advice, I am more than happy to take it.. I'm not one of those people that think they know everything, I will admit happily that I need to learn and I want to learn... I want to give my little suggies the best life that they can possibly have, unfortunately I'm disabled so I'm on a limited budget, so I can't always get the things for them then I want, but I'm doing the best I can.. they definitely couldn't be loved any more than I love them even when they bite me and draw blood I still love them.. okay I'm going to do some research and find out if I can find a joey kit. I believe the large breeder place out of Houston Texas might carry them. I'm going to check there first but again thank you so much for your help!!! You have no idea how much I appreciate it I am truly grateful.. Michelle.

Please please pleaseeeeeee don't take this the wrong way. But that diet is lacking for gliders in general even more so for a nursing mom and joeys.

It is probably why the joeys are still nursing at their age instead of weening off to the regular adult food.

That diet would be very hard on the digestive system of gliders, joeys especially.


They should have a well known glider diet that is more liquid, like Bml or Critter love Hpw.

Joeys don't typically start eating fruits and veg right after nursing they grow into them and generally eat the liquid staple first. Your diet is a very solid sounding rather than liquid it may be to solid for the babies to eat. Which is cause the babies to nurse longer than they usually do which is hard on mom.

The diet also might be affecting moms milk production.

It definately isn't providing much needed vitamins and minerals and by the looks of it is providing to much protein, grains ( brown rice ) aren't typically fed to gliders.

Insufficient diet can cause parents to pull / reject joeys which would be my first guess with the joey tossed from the cage.

http://www.bmldiet.com/index.html bml, can be feed to your joey rather than rejection kit formula. Typically joeys start eating this at 5 weeks oop. Same with critter love.

https://www.critterlove.com/

When breeders use these diets for breeding pairs they increase the portion by one portion while mom is nursing, once mom starts to wean the babies that portion becomes the babies portion as mom goes back to eating her regular portion.

I would still take mom to the vet to rule out mastitis and any infection.

But I would also change their diet as soon as you can.

Bml is the fastest option because you can find all the ingredients at your local grocery and pet store.

Bml can also be used for rejected joeys instead of milk replacer IF you make a batch without the wheat germ for the joeys under 5 weeks oop. Which is a great option to have if you continue to breed.

I think on a better diet you won't see as many rejections or pouch issues though. And the diet change might be all the mom needs for her pouch to not be so irritated and the babies will not need to nurse so hard on her.

critter love you have to order online.

Personally, I wouldn't wait for critter love I would get the ingredients for bml today and get it made and onlyyy feed the bml with the bml fruits and veg they are listed below the recipe. I think it will take a lot of pressure off the mom to not have to nurse so much and all the gliders will get the nutrients they need.it's especially important for joeys who are still developing and growing.

If the babies only eat the bml part that is fine and normal, they will eventually eat the fruit n veg.




Soon the joeys head isn't going to fit in her pouch and your going to have a tough time hand feeding it if it won't eat your diet. Bml you can feed using a needless syringe.

I'm not trying to be mean and I'm certainly not judging, but nutrition is a very important part of breeding I think this change will help you most, but again I would still have her pouch checked by the vet as well.