My first gliders came from Mike McGrath. He was in Cleveland at a Home & Garden Show. He gave me a lot of information - and most of it was right, but there was just enough that I later found out was wrong. He did point me in the right direction, he said if I got a male and a female that they would breed! And guess what, they did! Problem is, I didn't know if they were related or not - they could have been brother and sister! Needless to say, the male was neutered. Yep, like a lot of other people, I got into gliders from a
mill breeder.
The
diet he had me feeding was an oatmeal and cat food mix, 3-5 raisins per night, sprinkled on calcium (gee, I wonder if they got enough or too much?) and apple slices or grapes each night. No veggies.
Well, now I feed a very strict BML
diet.
He held out this beautiful (says with extreme sarcasm) glider that he called a mosaic - it was solid orange!
Well, I got on GC, became a lot more educated and went back to the show the following year. He was there again, and surprisingly he remembered me. So we started to chit chat, told him about my gliders, then came right out and asked him why he's so hated on GC.
I proceeded to tell him how wrong he was, and that it would do just as good for him to give proper
diet, etc. info out and still make a glider sale.
My words did nothing to change his ways, but I feel better having said them. And on a good note, he hasn't been back since. I'd like to take the credit for that, but I'm sure there were other factors, but as long as he's not here selling - I don't care the reason!