It's good to see you posting this question, Peggy! Love it! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />
It's something I've been bringing up time and time again for so long on these boards (from the first day I came here actually, and got into that debate with B), mostly with no good reception. Perhaps they will listen to you! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> lol I feel it's tied into their very biology and evolution to have seasonally changing
diets, and several folks including Pockets have said there has been evidence that doing so is beneficial.
It's really a matter of being able to monitor and control the ratios of substances though, and coming up with a standard so that no one can accidentally provide incorrect amounts of things.
Wouldn't that be something... a SPRING/SUMMER BML recipe and a FALL/WINTER BML recipe?! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yelclap.gif" alt="" />
Many might argue that we've produced through captive breedings an animal that no longer possesses the same sort of biological rhythms as wild gliders. But, have we really? See, we've indeed formed superficial variations of the ancestral prototype, but have we created a very different biological animal over such a small number of generations? Something in me compels me to say <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shakehead.gif" alt="" /> . I feel our gliders are quite receptive to seasonal changes, and I have a hunch that it's in seasonal changes that we may unlock some of the mysteries of captive glider husbandry, like self-mutilation and cannibalism, for instance (when you consider how hormones are directly influenced in seasonal animals by seasonal indicators, like temperature, photoperiod, food availability, etc). Infact, with many reptile, amphibian, and insect species that originate from temperate to semi-temperate regions, if you don't apply seasonal changes (e.g. a winter hibernation period) in captivity, they won't breed properly or won't even breed at all!
It may even be directly linked to other unsolved captive glider mysteries; perhaps a seasonal
diet is the key to the proper absoption of calcium (in light of all these current captive gliders with HLP) or the release of iron in the liver (in light of all these captive gliders currently dying from liver complications)...
Anyway, I strongly feel when you tamper with an animal's
diet whose wild ancestor has been, for millions and millions of years in its evolution, a seasonal feeder, you are also thus tampering with its very biological rhythms, which includes things like hormonal tides/fluctuations that, again, I feel may be responsible for many of the captive glider issues we presently can't quite put a finger on. If you look at it from an ecological hollistic standpoint, you may understand that gliders have a specific role in the ecosystem, and they're directly linked to other organisms as they extract nutrients from their environment, and provide nutrients to other organisms in various ways... I feel it would be rather abrasive to remove such a vital and active piece of the ecological tapestry in Oceana and expect it to conform to our conception of "suitable living conditions" here in our homes (and not expect problems in the areas of breeding and such, for instance), which in regards to this thread is a stationery, non-fluctuating
diet.
Like Peggy said, hasn't anyone wondered why their tastes change so frequently, and how they'll love one food for a long time and then suddenly go on a strike, only to like it again later? Perhaps it can be considered biological, as opposed to simply a change in palate and preference. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumb.gif" alt="" />
Mikey <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dance.gif" alt="" />