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You are here: Experts > Animals/Pets > Exotic Pets > Sugar Gliders > a sexual gliders??
Expert: Betty - 11/4/2009
Question
ok i've been house sitting for my mother while she's been out of town and i know next to nothing when it comes to gliders. just basically how to feed them and clean the cage. she has two females that have both had plenty of their own litters but were retired to us cause they were not producing any more liters.
i want to say that there was a male in their cage back in july maybe august producing on joey. and that was it. here's where my question. my gliders have had a litter!!!! my mother has been out of town for 11 weeks now and just a few days ago did one just pop it's head out of its hanging poutch i investigated and there were 3 in there. and good sized aswell. 2 were about the size of my thumb and one seemed to be half the size of that. now lastnight i went to check on them and there were only 2 so i realize that one to the females ate it. i know thats relitivly common when there is a smaller joey. how is this possible?? and is there a way to know how old they are? and what do i do with them???
Answer
Daphne,
Well, that's quite a curious situation! Joeys take about two months to develop in the pouch, so the timing could be right. It would be extremely rare for one female to have three joeys, so the third was probably from the other female. In that case, it's possible that the dominant female didn't want the other baby around.
It sounds like the joeys are several weeks old. Are their tails flat or fluffy? If they are fluffy, then they are a bit older. Are they eating solid food?
There's nothing for you to do. The mother will take care of everything, and hopefully the other female will help babysit. What are you feeding them? Make sure they are getting plenty of protein and calcium.
You might want to go to sugar-gliders.com to see their photos of week-by-week joey development.
Good luck. Let me know if you have any specific questions.
Betty
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