Weighing in on the Weigh-In

We weigh each of the gliders every week to monitor their overall health. Drastic changes in weight can mean onset of a health problem, just like in humans. Cirrus was a wisp of a glider when she came to us, just 59 grams. Her small size, for a 7-year old glider, was a bit of concern. This past October she reached 70 grams, a milestone for her. This weekend, Cirrus was 85 grams for the second week in a row! Despite her weight, she still feels small when you pick her up.

All of the gliders have been slowly gaining weight. Virga actually was dropping weight early this winter, and was down to about 82 grams in January. She weighed in at 105 grams this week. CB is 97 grams, up from around 89 grams in January. Foehn is the only one who's weight has remained fairly steady, 82 grams at this week's weighing. In looking at their weight data, it appears the weight gain began about the time we started using four "glider kitchens" in the cage rather than two. That gives each glider an opportunity to claim their own feeding spot and lessens the chance that any of them get shut out of eating. Prior to that we had just put in two kitchens, but with enough food for four. We're not quite sure why Foehn isn't gaining much, but on the other hand she isn't losing weight, either.

This a graph of the 4-week moving average of Cirrus' weight. The 4-week average smooths out the week to week weight fluctuations and makes it easier to see a trend in the data.