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Food aggression

Posted By: Anonymous

Food aggression - 03/06/10 04:10 PM

Have your gliders ever become food aggressive?

My trio gets along just fine - that is, until the food dish comes out at night, and then they do a 180 with each other. They've only become like this recently. =/

I've tried putting more food in to see if it makes a difference, but it's usually just whoever gets to the food first that wants to hoard all of it until they're done eating their fill.

Any suggestions for what I can do about this? I'm getting the boy neutered ASAP, but are there any other suggestions? Should I place several smaller feeding stations in the cage as opposed to just one?
Posted By: Anonymous

Re: Food aggression - 03/06/10 05:12 PM

I had this problem with Brando.....I tried everything including multiple feeding stations, feeding at different times and it even got so bad that I would have to remove Brando to let the girls eat.....then I read on here to try having the food in the cage prior to them waking up.....so I did....the key is to make sure that you do it consistently every day and it will take about 2 weeks, but this solved my problems....in fact Brando will wake up around 6:30 just to check if there is food and then go back to sleep....so now I am religious about "having dinner on the table" by 6:30....if I don't, then he reverts back to his old behavior.....but if I am late one day, it doesn't take another 2 weeks to get him to stop.....hope that helps
Posted By: Dancing

Re: Food aggression - 03/06/10 05:17 PM

Quote:
Should I place several smaller feeding stations in the cage as opposed to just one?


I have gliders that from time to time will get food agressive. I use multiple dishes located in opposite areas of the cage when this happens.

One thing is to try to figure out why this is happening. Are they getting enough food? Is there a female in the cage and is she in heat? (even if the male is neutered) Are there other "stressors" going on in their environment?

One of my males (he's neutered) would get food agressive if there were any females in heat in the room. It's like he wants to build up his strength incase he gets the chance to "be with" that female.
Posted By: Anonymous

Re: Food aggression - 03/06/10 05:18 PM

Thanks for the response - I will try this!

So I should just put the food out super early? Awesome. That seems simple enough. I've just been concerned about it, since I don't want to have to remove him from the cage permanently, since they DO love snuggling each other/playing otherwise provided food is not involved.
Posted By: Anonymous

Re: Food aggression - 03/06/10 05:21 PM

I'm pretty sure the girls aren't in heat, and the room I've got them in is pretty quiet, so I don't -think- it's that, but I'll keep all of that in mind.

I'll try putting food in different places in the cage. Thanks for the thoughts and advice!
Posted By: sugarlope

Re: Food aggression - 03/06/10 08:43 PM

Something to remember any time you see sudden food aggression. It is often because they started eating more (which is not at all uncommon on a seasonal basis - consider what time of year it is now wink ). When they start eating more and cleaning their plate or nearly cleaning their plate when they do not normally, it is almost as if they start worrying that they are going to run out of food. Now, you and I both know that we would never let our gliders go hungry, but they don't always know that. Once something like that starts, one or more gliders starts to hoard the food and then they actually do go hungry, because the one hoarding doesn't eat enough, since he/she is trying so hard to keep the others from eating. This only fuels their hoarding (vicious cycle).

You need for them to understand that they will always have plenty of food - to help with this, there are several things you can do together, once the behavior has started;
-Start feeding them a larger amount of food.
-Make sure their food is in their cage before they wake up, so they never worry about being hungry.
-Feed in separate dishes, at least as many as you have gliders - different stations at different heights work best.
-Use glider kitchens for each station, this helps shelter them from being seen or being able to see the other gliders in the cage while they are eating.
-Realize that this will take time, their hoarding behavior did not happen overnight, and it can take 2 weeks or more for the behavior to return to normal and the hoarding to stop. (The longer the hoarding and aggression has gone on, the longer it typically takes to resolve).
-Watch their appetite levels on a regular basis. I find that if they are eating more than normal for two days in a row, I will add a little more food. If I wait too much longer to add food (once I notice their appetite has increased) they often become food aggressive and then it takes me a week or more to resolve again.

I hope this all helps, good luck!
Posted By: Anonymous

Re: Food aggression - 03/07/10 04:18 AM

I've had the same problem with one of my trios. I have one intact male and two females. He is the one that runs the girls off. I always have the food in before they wake up, and have started using two dishes with more than enough food. He will run them off from both dishes. The girls obviously are eating at some point because they aren't losing weight and their coats are beautiful. I will try adding a few more dishes in other locations in their cage and see how that works out.
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