Balls of Furry

I mentioned in my August 2 post that I would write about some of the challenges in dealing with four gliders at one time. One continuing challenge is getting a good photo of all four of them at the same time - still working on that one!

With only two gliders, it's pretty easy to tell if there are two in a pouch. With four, it's not quite as easy to see how many are there, especially if they are all tucked in sleeping. On the third night of tent time with the four of them, I had everything set up and crawled into the tent. M handed me the pouch and I began coaxing them out. "Uh, M...there are only three in here."  She quickly ran and checked the cage.  Sure enough, CB had at some point decided to settle into one of the smaller pouches. So, now when we take them out we count heads - literally. It is impossible to count bodies or tails or anything when the are all curled up asleep on the bottom of the pouch, frequently on top of each other. The only way to be sure is to count heads.

"Supervising" the gliders the first few nights of tent time was also something that was different.  They were getting along, but occasionally there were conflicts in which I decided to intervene. They have worked out their differences and the last couple of times they have had a great time together. It's harder to tell who is who in the tent since the lights are dimmed, but I have been pretty successful in telling them apart by their behavior and personalities. For example, Foehn and CB will only rarely climb on to my hand or arm. Virga, on the other hand, readily will climb on to my arm if I offer it to her.

When it's time for them to leave the tent, all four will head for the pouch once I set it down.  However, I now have to be a little quicker in getting them back to their cage. Almost every time now there is some hissing and crabbing in the pouch, probably because someone put a foot in someone's face as they try to get comfortable.

Food has not been as much of a challenge as we had thought it would be. When they were in separate cages, Foehn and CB always cleaned their plates, so to speak. There was rarely any food left in their dishes in the morning. Virga and Cirrus, on the other hand often left food uneaten, although they were getting better about it before the merge. Food plates are almost always empty now, and no one seems to be going without. Virga has gone from 80 grams when she came to us to 93 grams at the last weight check. The others are slowly gaining or holding steady We'll have to keep an eye on their weights to make sure each glider is getting the food they need.