Back to Square One

While things went well during the afternoon, once they were up and out later Saturday night the reintroduction didn't go very well. There was a lot of chasing around the cage and a couple of ball-ups with lots of noise. The chasing wasn't so bad, except that the chaser and the chasee threw themselves around the cage and we were concerned that someone was going to get hurt. Since Foehn, Rossby, and Sprite were in one half of the cage, it didn't leave a lot of room for the chases. After careful observation it was clear that often Sprite was the one doing the chasing after oFoehn came up to check her out.  We ended up staying up most of the night to referee things. At 3:30 a.m. or so we headed to bed. After sunrise when I came out to check on them Sprite was still up while Foehn and Rossby were in one of the pouches.

On Sunday I removed the divider in the cage. The introduction of CB and Cirrus went OK, but Sprite hesitated a long time before going in to the pouch with the others. We had removed all other options for her.  We hoped Sunday night would be better, but it was not. They were quiet for awhile, but Sprite was not amenable to letting any of the other gliders except for Rossby near her. She would jump from the wheel after anyone, except for Rossby, who came near her. There would be a chase and once in a while a lot of noise. We were really hoping they would work it out, but it wasn't going that way. The only break was when the trio and Rossby went back to their pouch for a nap. At one point M noticed something on the white plastic of the wheel and on investigation it turned out to be blood. M checked Cirrus and I checked Sprite. At that point Cirrus was stalking Sprite and that resulted in a couple of chases and ball-ups. Sprite had an abrasion on her tail and while we were concerned, it did not seem to bother her and it had stopped bleeding. We suspect it occurred during one of her leaps from the wheel, but it's hard to say.What we were concerned about was further injuries to any of them. I finally went to bed about 5:00 a.m., and M made it in about 7:00 a.m. In the two hours she was watching them Cirrus had been ganged up on once, so M removed Cirrus from the cage after some morning yogurt and Cirrus spent the morning in her robe sleeve.

After two nights it was clear this was stressing out Sprite, and it was also stressing Cirrus. Cirrus has lost 10 grams in the past month and we are worried about her. The stress of having Sprite in the same cage is not what she needs. We decided to separate Sprite and Rossby from the trio again and they are now in two separate cages. The problem is definitely with  Sprite. She is scared of the other gliders. They come up to sniff her and she crabs at them, and then tries to stay away. I noticed that she also likes to test things with her teeth and occasionally lightly nipped one of the others. Of course, they do not like that and let her know.  It was definitely time to take a big step back with the introduction process. However, we're not sure what to do at this point.