Wednesday, December 28, 2011

A Christmas Feast

Occasionally we give the gliders something special for dinner, like a boiled chicken drumette. They usually clean the whole bone and then some during the course of the night. For their Christmas dinner this year they each had their own large turkey leg bone. Included in the dinner guest list was Molly, our son's glider. Since he was going to be here for two days he brought Molly along, and she stayed in an extra cage,  M made a large quantity of turkey broth using turkey drumsticks. Once she removed most of the meat she set the bones aside for their dinner.

Molly went right to work on her bone. In addition to cleaning her turkey bone during the night, she also finished all of her other food (the standard diet we feed our gliders).  Our gliders didn't touch much of their other food, which was somewhat surprising since there was not much meat on the turkey bones. I guess between gnawing on the bones, playing, and the occasional nap they didn't have the inclination or time to eat their regular food.

Molly enjoying her Christmas turkey leg bone.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Deck the Halls

M puts a lot of time and effort into decorating the house for Christmas, and since we've had the gliders their cage is decorated too. M made all of the accessories with the exception of the sugar comb, which we purchased.

"The stockings were hung on the cage with care..."
We still need to get stockings up for Virga and Cirrus.


This is the Christmas Tree sleeping pouch, their favorite to sleep in.
The entrance to the pouch is between the two red hang tabs

This is their "Santa Pants" sleeping pouch. Each leg is somewhat of a
separate space by itself. When they use this pouch all four gliders
will usually be in one side or the other.
This is a Christmas tree "sugar comb"  A sugar comb is a
multi-level hammock for the gliders to climb on and in.
In the foreground is one of the braided fleece ropes
we have in the cage for them to climb on.
This is a candy cane climbing post.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Manic Mornings

With approach of the winter solstice and sunrise a little later each day, mornings are dark until around 7:00 a.m. or so, especially the cloudy mornings,  Lately the gliders have been far more active in the morning than at night. Our night sessions have consisted of us giving them their mealworms, then usually Foehn, CB, and sometimes Cirrus climbing into M's sweatshirt until she goes to get ready for bed. Virga is usually the only one who stays out and spends most of her time in the wheel, occasionally taking a break to come visit M or I before getting back to her exercise. So, nights for me have been, well, boring. The mornings usually begin with M bringing them into the office for yogurt between 6:30 and 7:00 a.m.  Virga and Cirrus are typically waiting for her, although Cirrus sometimes stays in the cage to snack in the kitchens for a bit. CB and Foehn are in the sleeping pouch, so they are an easy transport into the office. Once they are in the office, all of them will usually come out for their lick of yogurt, and then are off to the races. CB and Foehn run circuits around the room, climbing the tree, jumping to M's shoulder or lap, jumping to the floor. taking a few spins on the wheel, and doing it all over again. This can go on for 20 or 30 minutes or more. We've talked about possibly switching "official" play time from evenings to mornings, but in general the night sessions work better for us.