It's Been a Long Time, but We're Back

It's been seven months since I last posted something about the gliders. The hiatus was due to a number of things - personal matters to attend to, lots of other things taking up my time, and even a little lack of desire to write. Life around our household is settling back to normal (as normal as it ever is), and M has been poking me to write about the gliders. So, here I am with an update in which I'll try to catch up on the last seven months without going into a lot of detail.

When I last wrote Pascal was recovering from his tail amputation.  He made a complete recovery and has turned into a little sweetheart. We successfully introduced him to Foehn and Rossby just before Thanksgiving and the three have them have been living happily together ever since.That brought us from three cages down to two. For several months the three of them lived in the smaller "vacation" cage we had. Once we came to terms with the fact that we were going to have two trios instead of one colony of six (though we haven't given up hope on that), we purchased a larger cage for them. So, we have Rossby, Foehn, and Pascal in one cage, and CB, Sprite, and Flurry in the other.

The introduction of Pascal to Rossby and Foehn took all of three minutes - the shortest and easiest intro we have ever had. We did this intro like we did the others, introducing them one at a time in our bathroom bathtub (neutral space). M could not believe it when I walked out with the three of them in the pouch not long after I went in there with them. There was no crabbing, no chasing - just a few seconds of sniffing each other out and then into the pouch!

Rossby, Pascal, and Foehn (l-r) coming out of their pouch during a recent play time.

Pascal has calmed down a lot. He hardly crabs at all. He still does not like to be held or picked up, but when we do (as we have to sometimes) he squirms but never bites. He is slowly becoming more trusting and is getting better about being handled. He was a little timid with the other two for a while. For example, when they were getting mealworms or yogurt he would tend to hang back and let the other two get the goodies. He has become more confident and assertive and pushes to the front of the line to get his his share. He now weighs close to 100 grams. Interestingly, he still has a small bald spot on his head even though he was neutered nine months ago.

Foehn has calmed down - a lot. When she's in heat she still bugs the heck out of the boys, but that's what gliders do. She still likes to nip, something that drives me crazy. I'm sure it's just grooming or testing, but she always manages to find the one finger dangling down or the one small patch of bare skin somewhere.

Rossby is my buddy. He is probably the most social of all of our gliders. During playtime he likes to climb up to my shoulder and sit for a while, then use it as a launching point to somewhere else. When it's time to go back to the cage, I'll say "C'mon, it's time to go" hold the pouch, and they all head in. Once I'm on my feet and walking back to the cage Rossby likes to climb to my shoulder for the ride back. When back at the cage he'll go in because he knows dinner is not far behind. He is also the first one to poke his head out of the pouch when we talk to them or there is some other disturbance, and usually runs to the side of the cage when we come into the room

I'll have an update on the other trio in my next post.