GliderCENTRAL

It's a sad day today...

Posted By: EJ257

It's a sad day today... - 10/14/14 09:51 PM

Just got home from my first day at work to a very quiet cage. I checked out momma and pappa and the joeys, to find one joey dead and the other... well there wasn't much left of her... should I separate the parents, neuter the male and try to let them live their lives? I'm scared this might happen again, or maybe they will become mad at eachother and fight eachother, leading to injury or worse... please help. This is the first time they've done this and I'm scared for them.

RIP little joeys... I'm sorry I couldn't have helped out sooner. Maybe you could have had a chance of a good, long life... frown
Posted By: Terry

Re: It's a sad day today... - 10/14/14 10:00 PM

I am so sorry for your loss. I don't know how to answer your questions, but I would consider neutering the male rather than separating them if your afraid of another occurrence. I don't have joey or breeding experience, but I wouldn't separate the bonded pair. Maybe someone with experience on this matter will be able to give you the advice you need.
Posted By: EJ257

Re: It's a sad day today... - 10/14/14 10:20 PM

i wasn't planning on separating them at all... just not sure if because one of them or both of them ate one of them, if they have a taste for it and will do it again. i've got 2 healthy batches of 2 gliders each from this pair and they make beautiful joeys who are healthy and happy... I'm not looking at this as a breeder perspective... like i'm going to miss out on possible income because of neutering him... I'm more worried morally if i should let them continue to breed.

thanks for your response
Posted By: Feather

Re: It's a sad day today... - 10/14/14 10:57 PM

There are many different things that could have caused this. Is this their first set of joeys?

If it is their first set of joeys they may not have been ready to be parent and may raise the next set just fine.

The joeys could have died and they were cleaning up. In the wild it is dangerous to leave the dead joeys in the nest so they eat them to clean up.

I do not have any experience with breeders cannibalizing their joeys. I just had a set of rescues cannibalize their joeys from the stress of moving to a new home and the male is now neutered and they will be placed in an adoptive home together.

Hopefully and experience breeder will chime in here.
Posted By: GliderNursery

Re: It's a sad day today... - 10/15/14 01:09 PM

I agree with Feather. I never hold the first time against them. Unfortunately we usually never know the reason they do this.

I'd leave them alone right now and wait and see what happens. If they do it a second time, then if it were me, I'd neuter the male and leave them together as a pet pair. Because yes, I believe it can be habitual for them.
Posted By: KarenE

Re: It's a sad day today... - 10/15/14 06:45 PM

Originally Posted By: EJ257
i wasn't planning on separating them at all... just not sure if because one of them or both of them ate one of them, if they have a taste for it and will do it again. i've got 2 healthy batches of 2 gliders each from this pair and they make beautiful joeys who are healthy and happy... I'm not looking at this as a breeder perspective... like i'm going to miss out on possible income because of neutering him... I'm more worried morally if i should let them continue to breed.

thanks for your response


First, I want to say you mentioned in that post wondering if "they have a taste for it". There is nothing I have ever run across to indicate gliders will just cannibalize their joey/s for no reason. Hope that gives you some peace of mind.

They have had two sets of joeys successfully prior to these, so it is hard to know exactly what happened this time. Could be there was something wrong with this set you could not see, but they could.

In looking through your post history, I didn't see anywhere what diet you are feeding. That might or might not give us a clue.

If you don't care if they have more joeys, then I agree with having dad neutered as soon as possible to avoid this possibly happening again. It might, it might not. There is simply no way to know for sure if they have more joeys.
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