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Posted by: prdycoolI was supposed to be babysitting a glider over Thanksgiving break for a friend of a friend. Turns out things weren't working out as planned for her and she was looking to give him away. He was so sweet so I said I'd take him! Poor guy has been rehomed at least twice and I don't think he's ever been with other gliders. I'm hoping after his neuter he can live with Dezi and Al. They've all been marking all over the place because they can smell each other, so hopefully they will get used to each others scents that way. I'll post pictures of him soon! :)

Posted by: kazkoI was finally able to merge JP with the other three boys. I am so happy about that. I tried two new things this time which may have lead to success but I think there could have been even more variables involved.

• I took all four animals into the shower with me and I took a long shower. They stayed up high and dry on the roosts and places I have for the sugars to play, but, the noise and the moisture and such managed to shake them all up a bit and even modify their smells. So they end up being more fixated on me and their situation than they do each other.


• I sprayed the butt of each animal with this tiny spritz bottle of mouthwash in order to alter their own smell and mask the smells of others. The mouthwash is not harmful if they eat it and it is extremely powerful and nulls their sense of smell for a bit.


• I put them together into a tiny cage with a single tiny pouch where they stayed for two nights. In a small cage, they cannot get very far from each other so they are forced to get familiar. In a large cage, the newbie can run away and hide and the others will go into hunt mode and start chasing the newbie to get rid of him. The small pouch forced them to cuddle and normalize scents while sleeping.
  


• After two nights I upgraded them to a medium sized cage with one more nesting spot. And they are all cuddling in the nestbox like I want. It is important that the new cages are neutral as possible, so clean them very well with soap and do what you can to remove the smells of the previous owners. I let mine soak overnight in suds after scrubbing very hard.


• After a week or so in the medium cage I will move them back into the large cage and all should be great!

I think the mouthwash spray and the tiny cage helped to get past their instinct to attack the new male. But it has also been more time since JP's neuter so his scent glands have shrunk more. Also, it has been pretty quiet this week in the cages so I dont think anyone is in heat or such. I think all of these things have aligned to where the boys were able to accept JP.

I kept the mouthwash handy for an additional spray on everyone if it was needed, but it never was. Again, I think the small cage helped keep everyone close so that they were forced to familiarize with each other to the point of no contest.

I can already see a difference in JP after these few days with the group. He has learned to come to the side of the cage for treats and he has no problem competing with the others.

Me so happy!

Here is a phuzzy photo of all four cuddling:


If you want to see what they are up to, here is the misfit webcam .

Posted by: JettKo and I had the fortune to go up into the high country for a weekend away with The Marsupial Society of Victoria of which we are both Members. We stayed at The Latrobe Uni Lodge just the other side of the town ship of Tolmie. The fires ravaged through this area in January this year destroying homes througout the area and also killing thousands of animals. To see the area only 10 months later with the regeneration of growth was just amazing. I can remember seeing the devistation that the fires caused on the news and particulary the rescued animals held up at a rescue facility in a tin shed. We were fortunate enough to visit this rehab facility and see some of these roos being cared for. The government does not fund these people and it costs them thousands of dollars a year to feed and care for these sick and injured wildlife. Gabby had many roos that she releases off her property but can have them for up to a couple of years. She also had a pair of Wedgetail Eagles in a very primitive enclosure, a Koala that Ko was thrilled to see and several other aniamsl. We spent some time holding and playing with several of her juvenile Wombats with one small female crawling onto my lap and falling asleep.

We were really keen to see her Squirel Gliders and Sugar Gliders but she wasn't sure where they were as they are free to roam the house and would be in a cupboard somewhere. The Sugar Gliders were found scared from the fires and had knotted themselves together with there tails. They were found like that and even though the carers unknotted them only one tail could be saved because of this they will not have the ballance they need to be released into the wild so will have to remain in care, although a free range life doesn't sound so bad.

Spending the weekend with a diverse range of views was really stimulating and much was discussed and ideas exchanged. We had a professor form Melbourne University with his son and a his friend. One guy who had many pet Wallabies and Betongs, a women who works for a company that does flora and fauna surveys. A couple who have developed there backyard in suburbia to hold wallabies, ringtail possums and several species of gliders of which we will visit early next year. Then Ko and myself.

Diets were exchanged although all seemed very similar with the gliders. Even though our opnions on care and keeping did vary slightly the discussions were never heated and all opinions were accepted into the conversations and interesting. We acually thought of you guys and thought how great it would be to share in such a weekend as this talking face to face and experiencing some amazing sights.

I have to say that the weekend may have changed my life as I am now thinking of getting a Redneck Wallaby to add to my clan. I thought you needed a large property but our new home on 2/3 of an acre apparantly will be planty big enough. They are great animals to keep and have a simple pellet diet with few medical needs. So some deep thought will go into this before embarking on such a life changing decision but the seed has been planted. Looks like the womabt run might end up the sleeping quarters for the wallaby.

The highlight of the weekend has to be the spotlighting we did on the Friday and Saturday nights. We first just headed up into the backyard of the property and a Sugar Glider was spotted in the sillouette. Ko could make it out but unfortunatly my sight could not see it but was still exciting to think we were in Glider territory

We then headed out in a couple of four wheel drives just up into parts of the bush that hadn't been touched by the bush fires. We slowly made our way along the back blocks of Tolmie with the spotlights out the carwindows looking for eyeshine. I bought a great torch from a local hardwahare store back home and it was fantastic in picking up the yellowy green eyeshine that Greater Gliders give out. Within a very short amount of time we got to see our first of what ended up being 8 Greater Gliders over the weekend. These are quite large gliders probably the size of the Amercian opossum in size with the longest fluffiest tails being longer than the body of the animals.

I tell you i could have died and done to heaven happy with seeing my first wildgliders. people think they are seen all the time but out of the 9 of us away that weekend only one had seen any wild gliders before. We were all excited to spot so many over the weekend from juvenile Greater Gliders to adults. The gliders were about 25 o 30 feet up the trees nd not many close to the road. On the Saturday night the 6 we saw were all seen in very quick succession in a small area. It showed that this species that lives off purely eating leaves mainly from certain gums, was able to escape the grips of the bush fires. The Greater Glider is vunerable due to clearing of forest areas for developemnet and could easily become threatened as a species.

Ko and I were fascinated in the regeneration of the trees througout the area.I thnk the others thought we were nuts. In fact half my photos were of trees, trunks and sap markings made by what we think would be gliders. We even spotted scratchings and markings that were probably made by gliders climbing the trees.There were Gums and eucalypts sprout all up the trunk of the tree so for us two legged creatures we could explore the lower follage and pick and smell the peppermint gum that is favoured by the Greater Glider. the Australian bush actually needs bush fires for many seeds to grow so it is natures way of matianing the bush. I remeber the wildlife carers being snowed under with rescues yet saying that really not many animals were actually found alive because the fires devistated so many heactares of land. Its so scarey to think that again this summer they say will proabably be the worsts bushfires season in history because of the 11 years of drought leading up to it.

Ko and I are already planning our next spotlight weekend, you can never get to much of it. The only thing is I need to exercise my neck muscles so that it doesn't get so soar.

Posted by: kazko I cleaned out the mealworms today. The beetle drawer had become overrun by large young, so it was time to move them out. What I do is strain out all of the worms from the worm drawer substrate. This is the old breeding substrate and is the oldest and dirtiest. Then using this empty drawer I prepare a fresh beetle/breeding drawer. I then move all of the beetles one by one out of the old beetle drawer and into the new. This leaves behind all of the young worms and current eggs. Then I dump the strained older worms into the old beetle drawer so it is all worms only in there. The beetles now have a fresh and clean and worm-free place to mate.

Posted by: kazko We have been working on upgrading the systems that support this website as well as building a platform that can grow to support more. So far we have the racks installed, new servers installed, one UPS without batteries that is powering stuff. I've already relocated our current web servers, a new firewall and mail server back there.

Tonight we ran a thick 10ga 4 wire power cable to the room along with a data line so I can reroute the Internet feed directly there. Tomorrow I will be hooking up the power to 240v and installing a sub breaker panel in the room.

YAY for progress! YAY for DIY geeks!

Here are the two 4 post racks that I got for this project.



Here is the stack of new hardware that we are upgrading to.



And here is the old rats nest which has been located in the office. I will not miss the old noisy stuff.

Posted by: LuckyGliderWe took a stool sample in for GummyBoo today and we have our fingers crossed he checks out OK. Just routine for new rescues.

Butch and Doodle go in tomorrow for their neuters. We drop them off in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon. Wish them good luck!

Posted by: AhsaehrLast night at like 3 am whenever I went to bed, dead tired I saw Trinity, she was hanging on the side of her cage closest to my bed and I just watched her for at least half an hour eat little bits of hamburger meat, I suppose she senses what kinds of vitamins she needs being preggo.

I saw her lumps moved and watched them for a while, it looks like two little babies wriggling around, her belly waved as if it were a sea, I finally moved the blanket around her cage down when I noticed she was grooming her babies and fell asleep.

Good times.

Posted by: LLWhen I took out my gliders I knew right away the difference well I was holding laye.......well laye got curious so he climbed out then he jumped on my shoulder. I started freaking out not know what to do so I run upstairs and start telling my mom to take him off of me!

Well while all of this is happening my dad is thinking "Great I bought 1000$ gliders and shes scared of them!"

My mom got laye off and laye jumped to the door and we were surprised that he stuck onto it! So then we get him off I grab the pouch with his brother in it and laye goes back in!

Well since that I've gotten alot better at holding them its alot more fun now lol!!!

So thats my storey!!

Posted by: LuckyGliderOK so for a veteran suggie lover I should be embarassed about this...

GummyBoo is a boy. Yes, when we rescued (him) her former owner told us GummyBoo was a 2-yr-old female. And what with the absence of a PomPom, we figured she was. And since we are slow to do a lot of prodding with a new rescue, we took what was told as gospel.

But earlier this week I was rubbing GummyBoo's tummy and the "pouch slit" on her looked a little low and more like a neuter scar. Upon further inspection, and after gently pulling apart the fur in the "pouch area" and upon finding no pouch, we laughingly have re-sexed her as a him.

Regardless of sex, this little creature is doing fine. He's not much of a jumper and still does not respond to normal "play" activities such as chasing and teasing, but he is friendly and curious.

Stay tuned. I don't think his sex will change again :-)

Posted by: RitaToday is a very sad day,and Im feeling devastated as I lost another one of my beloved dogs, Barbie. Barbie was 11 1/2 years old and has been battling diabetes and cushings for almost 2 years. She has been very brave thru it all, enduring 2 shots of insulin and other medications on a daily basis.

I also have Barbie's mother, Brandy and on the day Barbie and her sister, Bonnie were born - May 3, 1996 - I was there with her as she took her first breath of life. Brandy had to have an emergency c-section on a Sunday afternoon and it was just me and the vet. I was right there in the operating room while the c-section was performed. He handed Barbie to me and I rubbed her down until I heard that first little puppy sound - and shook her down to clear her nose - and held her to keep her warm while her sister was getting the same treatment with the vet.

She is an American Kennel Club, National and International Champion, of which Im very proud of. Ch. RRR's Baguette Diamont. Barbie and I traveled all over the US to dog shows and grooming competitions. She had a beautiful coat and a gorgeous little face and a very charming personality - so it wasnt difficult to win both the dog shows and the grooming competitions with her. People were drawn to her everywhere we went.

I am also just as proud that she was such a little trooper during her last couple of years. She would actually let me know when it was time for her insulin shots. She eventually lost her eye sight and was totally blind - but she adjusted. I never knew how terribly smart she was until then. She knew what "step-up", "turn left or right", "stop" and numerous other commands meant so she could pretty much walk along with us with out any problems. And she learned to use the other dogs as her eyes and they understood and helped her . She was truly incredible

At the end, it was again Barbie, the vet and me. Im so thankful I was able to hold her as she took her last breath.

Barbie is survived by her mother - Brandy, sister - Bonnie, son - Buddy, and her niece and nephew - Bailey & Babette.

And of course, Alan & I - who love her and will miss her dearly.



Rest In Peace, My Little Barbie Doll

Posted by: LuckyGlider5 nights so far and the rescue GummyBoo (2+yr.-old female) is coming along just fine. She is eating well and enjoying time out of the cage. She doesn't quite know how to "play" yet but we are teaching her with cat teasers, feathers and such. (her interim owner seems to have done a good job of taking care of her by the way).

GummyBoo does know how to jump and glide. After she runs around for an hour or so, she comes back to check up on us and climb on us. She lets you hold her, but has a tendency to push her head hard against your hand to get loose - only to come back for more.

GummyBoo is a big barker. When you put her back in her cage and leave the room - you hear about it. Instead of a single bark she has kind of a triple rev-down "barkey-bark-bark" kind of retort. Really cute. After her quarentine, we are hoping to pair her with another female or neutered male because she is alone in her own cage.

Stay tuned.

Posted by: LuckyGliderGummyBoo is her name. She's about two years old. Very pretty, about 155 grams and very trusting.

We were suprised that this little girl did not crab, fuss or bite when we picked her up because rescues are often frightened.

When we got home, we introduced her to her new cage and put her old pouches in there along with the new stuff.

She hid behind the side-mounted stealth wheel for a while and came out to be petted and to eat a little. I let her run around the B's room a little after caging them and she didn't climb up on anything but stuck close to the floor. She did climb up my leg and into her pouch after a few mintues and I took her back to her cage. She barked for a while and then sneggled inside one of the pouches.

She took a few licks so far tonight from the HPW mix and ran off to one end of the cage with a corn cob slice in her mouth So far so good. No crabbing. no biting. Allowing some in-pouch petting.

 

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