I have two male gliders. Gabe (white face male, neutered, 8 months old) and Axel (black beauty male, un-neutered, and 7 months old). I have had both gliders since they were 8 weeks old and all has
been going extremely well. No obvious signs of sickness,
bonded well, get along with one another great,
eating good, friendly, very active during our daily playtime, no crabbing, larger than average cage with
plenty of fun
toys......the list goes on. Our usual playtime occurs between 9:30 PM-1030PM every day.
By this time, the boys have usually eaten dinner and are ready to play. I know this because they are
typically hanging on the door waiting for me to open their cage so they can jump to me. Playtime
occurs in our glider proofed bathroom and always has.
On Saturday evening, I went to get boys for playtime as usual. They happily greeted me, and we
made our way to the bathroom. After we were in the bathroom for a couple of minutes, everything
changed. Axel suddenly freaked out. He appeared to be completely disoriented. He was frantically
running up and down my body, jumping directly on my face, and gliding directly into the wall. For a
moment, I thought he was just spooked….but his behavior didn’t change. Once off my body, he hid in
the darkest corner of the room and started barking…..barking like I had never heard him do before. He
wouldn’t come to me like he usually does—he would just run away. His movements were very twitchy.
He could still hang on to things, but it was like he had never seen me before. It was like he went from
bonded to un-
bonded within a matter of seconds!!!! As a result of Axel barking, Gabe did too. After
about 7 minutes, the barking stopped and I was able to get them both back in their cage. Once in the
cage, they hid in their pouch. I left them alone for the rest of the evening to calm down.
I took Axel to the
vet on Tuesday (earliest I could get him in), and everything checked out okay.
The
vet gave him some calcium and suggested I rework their
diet. Axel is also scheduled to be neutered
on 2/25/15. I was feeding them the Pet Glider Fresh
diet (as this is what the
breeder recommended),
but am in the process of switching them over to a new
diet (as a result of this episode, but otherwise, they have been on this
diet their entire lives).
His behavior seems to be getting better since the episode, but he just not the same. He’s not as
friendly and cuddly as he used to be. His appears to be more nervous than usual, and his movements
aren’t as fluid as they used to be. I’ve also noticed that during playtime, out of nowhere him or Gabe
will start barking at each other and both hide as if something scared them, but nothing that I can see or hear to cause them to do so is apparent.
Has anyone ever had this happen? If so, any idea why or what I can do to fix it? Should I start the
bonding process all over again? I’m really at a loss as of what to do because earlier that day, they were just fine. As his health appears to be fine, I’m left to assume this is a behavior thing. I’m just not sure where we went wrong. Any ideas and/or insight would be greatly appreciated!
Best,
Derek, Gabe & Axel’s dad