I have a couple of questions on playtime ..

Is it safe to have playtime with different gliders that live in different cages if you do careful introductions to make sure they are going to get along?

My husband is building me a 6ft x 6ft x 6ft glider playroom inside the main glider room that I can go inside with the gliders and let them have total freedom to play with me or around me as they please. So far I've only played with my babies in the play tent and only babies that are in the same cages together. I'd love to be able to give them longer playtimes by letting them all play together obviously supervised so am asking how others go about that, if it's safe to do and if so the best way to start.

I have a breeding pair that will be in seperate cages until they are a little older to prevent mating too young, I'm thinking supervised playtime to get to know each other would also be a good thing?

You'll get varying answers on this one.

I say be very careful should you decide to do this. You will likely find dominance issues to be a problem with this many gliders that are from different cages. It's not generally recommended, there are just so many variables and things that can go wrong.

To add to what Aimee said, I am going to ask you to clarify... how many cages? How many gliders per cage? I am a little confused by your post. At first I thought you had one glider in one cage, one glider in another, and were going to let them have mutual playtime until they eventually matured and moved in together. *That* particular scenario would be something that is commonly done, and would be fine.

But now I'm wondering just how many gliders are involved?

I can tell you, being able to have mutual playtime with a bunch of cages at once would save a lot of people a lot of time, but it just can't be done. I think my breeding pairs would seriously hurt each other if they encountered one another. I do playtime one cage at a time.

I agree with Hannah. I'm not fully understanding how many gliders/cages you are referring to either.

If you have multiple cages of gliders (not just the two that are going to be paired together), then you do not want to allow them to interact together.

As mentioned, there are various issues that can occur. There is a very real possibility of injuries.

Additionally, you do not want them to start bonding together and continually separate them back into their own cages. That could be very stressful on them.

Ok to clarify, my question was kind of two fold.

I have some babies right now in seperate cages that will eventually be bonded pairs but I'm not comfortable putting them together in a cage until the little girl is old enough to have babies and that won't be until 8-9 months. However I thought it nice for them both to spend supervised playtime together to get to know each other. I thought it a nice way to begin introductions in a relaxed fun way at a pace they'd feel comfortable with and when they were in their cages, the cages would be an inch apart so they'd be able to see each other and not get lonely.

I was also asking if you could let any pairings play together, I understand any with unneutered males would likely be a bad idea because of dominance, but I have a pair of pet only girls, I wasn't sure if they could be in playtime with another pair. This was in NO way to negate any of my responsibility or to save time, it was so that I could spend MORE time interacting with them, not less. I see from the responses that this would not be a good idea.

It was more I was going to have this huge playroom space for the babies to play in now and wanted them to enjoy it as much and as often as possible.

Now I understand, and I think you've gotten the responses for both scenarios.

I also have a large playroom. I take each cage out individually to avoid problems. Even with girls, I wouldn't recommend them playing together.

I also wanted to mention that I personally think you have your cages too close together, even for intros. They should be close enough to bond but not close enough to touch each other.

Ok thanks Shelly, I'll move them apart a little more .. right now 3 aren't home yet and the 3 that are home haven't moved up to the newly built glider room but will be this week once we're done constructing the playroom .. I'm just making sure I've got all my duckies in a row and do it all correctly rather than make a mistake first

Good for you for asking first!

Oh - and

If I can't find it in a thread I ask! Trying to make everything as perfect as possible! LOL

Thanks Big 40!