I've only ever had breeding pairs, but had intended on having a breeding quad in the future(was waiting to put the boy with the girls). However, due to certain circumstances I had to put a different boy with the girls and, well, he's a bit of a manly-man glider and already has all 3 girls preggers with twins IP. Sooo...now we've got 6 joeys on the way in just 1 cage!

Since I'm new to this I'm curious what I should be prepared for. Are there any specific things/signs I should be watching out for as far as the girls trying to steal/kill each other's joeys?

None of the girls are related. 2 are younger and about the same age. They get along perfectly and 9 times out of 10 when I come I go into the glider room I'll find the 2 of them play-wrestling in the ball bit, lol. The 3rd girl is older(2 1/2 years old) and used to be in a trio and never bred. She just babysat. So, I didn't think she'd ever have joeys, but she surprised us and gave birth to 2 joeys a couple days ago, lol.

All 3 girls are due in July. The 2 younger girls are 2 weeks along and the older girl is just a couple days along. At what point are the girls more likely to get aggressive(if ever): the beginning/end of the joeys being IP or after the joeys come OOP?

I'm excited but nervous at the same time, lol. All the girls are realy sweet and get along like they've been together from birth, so I think they'll do great, but I can't help but to be nervous. Any pointers you all can offer would be greatly appreciated.

I had a quad that had been together since they were about 8 weeks OOP. They got along great until one female had a joey. Immediately, you could sense the tension in the air. There were strange noises that made me very uncomfortable. when I checked, mom was on top of the cube they slept in, with baby holding tightly to mom. The other two females were staring up at them like they were plotting an attack, while dad sat by and did nothing. I immediately removed the two females and put them in their own cage. I just didn't think it was safe to leave them in with the joey.

I would watch them very, very closely for any signs of aggressiveness or strange noises. Be prepared to pull one or more moms and joeys if needed.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Did yours start acting weird before or after the joeys were OOP? Also, did you ever have more then one girl with a joey IP at a time?

I thought that it was pretty odd that all 3 girls got preggers at the same time. I thought for sure that at least ONE of the girls wouldn't drop joeys IP since there's usually a dominant female, but all 3 have twins and are doing great so far. No bickering or anything. The only noises I hear between the girls are when Delia and Rosa are tsk-ing while play-wrestling, lol.

I'll be sure to update every once in a while.

Any experiences and advice with breeding quads would be appreciated!

I was reading this to my hubby and he said "wow I feel sorry for that boy glider! He is gonna be busy baby sitting all 6 joeys while the mamas play." lol. Maybe they won't all go OOP at once

I said exactly that same thing to my husband last night! ROFL! I feel sorry for my poor boy because he's probably going to get suffocated by all the joeys, lol!

Then I imagined what it's going to be like when they're finally eating on their own...there are going to be 10 gliders in 1 cage! AHHHH!!!!! :o I'm going to be scared to open the door because all 10 of then will be trying to give me facehugs! I'd better keep up on the nails! Lol.

Can you imagine how fun playtime is going to be though?! I'm going to LOVE it!

It's kinda good that all 3 girls gave birth at once though. If they'd staggered it out then my boy would never get a break. :\ As it is, I'm going to be helping him alot with the babysitting.

Ten in one cage...holy moly! I have ten gliders total! I will demand pictures of that when the time comes.

All I can really say is good luck. I also imagine that if all works out well, daddy won't be too overwhelmed. The other girls will probably take shifts watching some of the kids. I think the hard part will be making sure you know which joey is which as they get passed around from baby sitter to baby sitter.

I look forward to updates on these guys and gals!

Well, daddy is a WF mosaic/100% leu het, so I'm hoping that the joeys come in a bit of a "variety", lol. The odds of the girls all have the same colored joeys is slim, so hopefully that will help telling everyone apart.

Also, I'm a bit of a camera-freak so lots of pics will help me to keep track as well and since all the girls have twins then then can't get away with joey stealing without me noticing.

All I know for sure is that these next few months are going to be VERY interesting! lol.

HOLY MOLY! Better you than me Nicole. Can't wait to start seeing those pics.
One thing I can tell you for sure.......you ain't gonna be bored! LOL

LOL! You've got that right!

thats really exciting! your going to need to make a thread to keep us updated all the time

I doubt that the other female will be plotting to get each others joeys with all of them having joeys in pouch.

You are going to have your hands full. Poor daddy.

I had a breeding quad, they came to me that way. I never had any issues with them. Daddy is wonderful, and knows his job very well! The moms got along great, and would babysit each others joeys, which would give Dad a break too!

Mine seemed to always cycle at the same time, so we would have a bundle of babies!

You already mentioned baby stealing. If your females have always been together, you may not have those issues. It is my understanding that an older female may become the dominant one and not "let" the other mom's keep their babies. I have not experienced this, but that possibility is why I didn't put Baleigh in with Beatrice and Bosley as planned as a trio. Beatrice was older, and would possibly pull joeys from Baleigh. I wouldn't chance the joeys being injured, so Baliegh is happy with Gadget! (With her first joey IP!)

Good luck, and keep us posted!

Thank you Shelly!

I had also heard that older females could become dominant, but my older girl, Violet, used to be in a trio and she never bred, he only babysat, so I'm thinking she's probably a submissive female rather then dominant. Hopefully she doesn't change roles now that she's with younger girls.

I hope it all works out as well as your quad. So far so good!

I think I'll start taking weekly pics of the girls and start up a thread called the "Quad Chronicles", lol.

Wow Nicole, congrats on all the babies! I'm also curious about when the baby-snatching most commonly occurs, since we just got our trio a few weeks ago. You are so on top of it, knowing when they all gave birth! With our one cage of 2 gliders, we never seem to be all that aware. It's like one day I'm asking my hubby "Hey, do those look like baby bumps to you?" & then we're just waiting around to see if the bumps get bigger or if she's just fat...lol. But yeah with our trio, I guess we're going to have to watch more closely because I'd really like to know if there's snatching going on or if one of the girls just never breeds or what the heck is happening with them.

Misty

Lol. I'm always home(I work from home) so I tend to be pretty in-touch with what goes on with my fuzzbutts. I've only ever had a few sneak joeys past me and that was because we had alot going on at the time. Whenever I catch my gliders mating I mark down the day and check 15 days later. If they don't give birth that day I check every few hours til they do. I rarely miss it.

I took pics of all 3 girls yesterday and you can kinda see the bumps. I'll post the pics later.

Ok Girl, either you are crazy or I am neglectful...lol. Being as how we're only on our 2nd set of joeys right now, I don't think we even fully recognize for sure when our gliders are mating. Do you check them every 2 hours even in the middle of the night?

So back to the original question. Can anyone tell us at what point joey-snatching & rejections are most common with quads/trios?

Misty

My gliders like to make a show of when they're mating. I only have one glider that will crab at me just for walking in the room(she is SO weird! lol. She hates me with a passion. :P) so when I go into the glider room and hear tsking/crabbing then 99% of the time it's because the gliders are mating.

Also, it's kinda hard to miss when I go to take them out to play or hand out mealies and they're doin the dirty. It's usually a 2-3 day ordeal so I'm bound to catch them mating at some point in time within that window.

UPDATE: so far so good! The 2 younger girls, Rosa and Delia, are both 4 weeks along and the older girl, Violet, is 2 weeks along. Their joeys are growing like weeds!

My camera isn't working, but I'll try and get some bump pics with my other camera if I can get some clear pics.

Well, Violet didn't want to take pics and show off her belly, but I got pics of everyone else.

Rosa(4 1/2 weeks along)






Rosa and Delia(4 weeks along)


Delia


And, of course, the big daddy, Gil!


I'm SOOO happy that all is going well so far and am uber-excited for their joeys to come OOP!

Congrats Nicole! I sure hope it continues to go well! Can't wait to see what Daddy has produced!

They all look so content. Are they all still getting along well with no fighting?

Lindsay

Yup! They're all getting along perfectly! The girls act like they've been together forever. It's like all of them being preggers at the same time actually makes them more strongly bonded.

Also, even more amazing: I can't remember the last time Gil got food-aggressive! I think it was a couple weeks ago, but honestly can't remember, lol. He's started getting aggressive after being with the girls a little while, but then he slowly cut back and stopped. It was really weird! I don't mind the weirdness though, lol, I'm just extremely happy that he's finally found other gliders that he feels comfortable with and doesn't feel the need to protect his food any more.

That is great. I can't wait to see what all the babies look like.

Lindsay

I'm sooo exited for you! You always have such hansome joeys!
Keep up updated I'd love to see OOP pictures.

Will do!

Congrats Nicole. Glad to hear your quad is doing so great & thanks for sharing the pictures. It actually helped confirm for me that our pair most definitely has joeys in pouch. I was just looking at her pretty closely last night & I'm quite certain the lumps are there.

Our trio is doing pretty well but no mating yet that I'm aware of (they're still pretty young, so that's more than ok). They still bicker a little bit here & there, but I think they're doing fine. It's good to hear your quad is working out.

Misty

Congrats Misty. Glad you were able to figure out if she did have joeys in pouch.

Yeah your one girl can really crab.

Definately update often with pics Nicole. I can't wait to see these joeys. All of yours that I have seen are just beautiful and look so sweet.

Lindsay

Congratulations on the joeys Misty!

I hope your trio works out! Keep us posted.

Man, I still can't believe that Rosa and Delia are already over 4 weeks along! I've been keeping myself busy so I guess that helps, lol.

Gil is a handsome stud! Best of luck and def. keep us all posted!

Hubby came running into the room a couple hours ago to tell me that 2 of the girls were fighting. So, I rushed into the glider room and all I saw was Rosa, but she looked like she'd wet herself. I took out everyone one at a time and made sure they were all okay and checked the babies too. Everyone was fine.

I told hubby to keep his ears open(since he was sitting outside the glider room playing his video games) and let me know if he heard them fight again.

About an hour later he hollered to let me know they were fighting again so, once more, I ran into the glider room to check everyone...

I saw Delia chasing Rosa and then they rolled into a ball and were fighting. I managed to separate them both and grabbed my e-cage and put Delia and Violet in there(they are practically mom/daughter because Violet was the "babysitter" in a trio with Delia's parents so she raised Delia) and have Gil and Rosa in the regular cage(I don't think Gil would handle being in a small cage very well...he's got too much energy).

I'm extremely upset because everything was going SOOO well. Rosa and Delia acted like siblings and would play-wrestle in the ball pit and groom each other all the time and Sheba acted like the loving mom to them. I just don't understand what went wrong. My poor babies. I hope they and their little ones IP all make it through the sudden transition.

On a different note, I'm extremely glad I had a quad instead of a trio because if I'd had a trio then I would have had to put a girl all by herself. Because there were 4 I was able to split them evenly.

I think I'm going to stick with pairs from now on...