My glider that I've had for about 6 months has started eating a little bit less and been sleeping more. It's only just started to get cold here in Australia and I've heard their diet and activity habits can change as winter approaches.

I usually feed her 1 teaspoon of veggies, 1 teaspoon of fruit, half a dozen meal worms and a teaspoon lorikeet mix. She use to only leave a little bit of veggies/fruit left over, but now she just eats all the meal worms every night and half of the rest. When she's awake I let her out as usual but spends less time exploring and more sleeping. Same thing if she's just in her cage.

Just thought I'd check with you guys to see if everything seems ok!

Cheers

Hi. I'm assuming the lorikeet food is bird seed? You may wanna consider changing that part of their diet to ohpw. Bml. Glider kids.my gliders also have odd eating habits as they pick there food out and only eat a small amount for about 2 days but they eat everything on the third day. I stopped giving them mealies before and during dinner and offer them in the early morning instead. From what I've seen I don't think bird food would be that good for em as its high in fats that a glider may not be able to digest properly. Some pine nuts or a couple almond slivers once in a while are the only nuts that are alright in moderation. Hope that helps a bit.
:-)

quote:

---

1 teaspoon of veggies, 1 teaspoon of fruit, half a dozen meal worms and a teaspoon lorikeet mix.

---

You may be underfeeding your glider. The recommended amount of food is usually 1 TBS of a nectarlike staple that provides protein, vitamins and calcium plus 1 TBS fruit and 1 TBS vegetables. Mealworms are more fat than protein. Here in the US we offer them as treats rather than as a major part of our glider's diet.

The Lorikeet nectar may not provide enough protein for your glider. You might consider getting Wombaroo High Protein Supplement and following this feeding plan.

http://www.thegliderinitiative.org/Australian%20Wombaroo%20Diet.pdf

Thanks for the replies. The mix I feed her is Wombaroo lorikeet and honey eater mix. I've tried to feed her another carnivore type a couple times but she never touched it. Thanks for the link Candy I will look into finding the new mix and trying it out.

Could she be lonely?

She is by herself as I had little luck end of the season trying to find her another glider to go with her. Currently on 2 waiting lists to get a joey as soon as possible as I have heard they can get lonely.

When could I see it becoming a health problem? I haven't noticed any self-mutilation. Last night she was very active, more so than usual and she finished all her nectar mix and meal worms but didn't eat much of veggies/fruit.

hello!

does she have lots of foraging toys in her cage? a wheel? do you take her out for bathroom bonding often? do you wear her in a bonding pouch everyday? she will probably be fine until you get her a cage mate if all the questions were answered yes;)

Thanks for the reply Kiwi.

She's got some toys it plays with inside the cage and a wheel. I work from home and generally up very late so a lot of the time I let it out in my room to explore and I play with her with cat toys she likes when she comes to me. I also often have her in a beanie on my lap during the day while she sleeps and I work/watch tv.

sounds like you are spending a lot of time with her and that's important at this time because of the loss of her glider companion.....keep doing what you are doing and make sure that she is busy playing with her toys in her cage every night. change up the arrangement every 3 days so she doesn't get bored.

You probably already know this, but make sure there is no catnip in those cat toys. It is toxic to gliders!