Do joeys start crabbing? I've raised a lot of joeys, and I know they don't crab at birth. I've never really noted when they do start to crab, but seems like it's around 3 weeks, or so. We have a pair that we thought couldn't reproduce. They aren't friendly, either. Although they don't get out of their cage, this is their forever home. Last night, while feeding, I heard baby crabbing (not crying) coming from their pouch. This pair has been together for about 3 years! Anyway, they have a joey, and now I'm trying to figure out approximately how old it is. Can anyone help?

There are some that come oop with such an attitude. Eyes are closed and they are crabbing and crying at the same time. However that isn't all that common. It really depends on the joey. Like I said some crab right after coming oop, some crab after opening their eyes and seeing you for the first time, and some never crab. So it isn't a good way to tell the age of the joey.

Do you have a camera that you can take pictures? if not are the eyes open? Does he have alot of hair on the body? How big is he?

We won't be taking photos or handling that joey for awhile yet. This pair is very skiddish, and we have never been able to handle the female. Once we can look at the joey, we will be able to tell ourselves. We've been into gliders since 1999. I just thought that there was an average age where crabbing started. All of our joeys have crabbed, from time to time. We have 22 adults, and 6 of those don't get out-of-cage time. This is the only pair that doesn't come out. Then, we have 4 males that live as a colony and don't come out. Thanks.

We've heard joey's crabbing when their eyes are still closed. So piccies would help, or a little info on the stage of development the joey is at <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I have never noticed an average crab time either. Like Sil said it is at all different ages.

We will be able to tell, once we can get a good look at it. We have 22 adults, and all but 8 we raised ourselves. This particular pair came to us as rescues--they were 2 years old when we got them, and altho we tried pretty hard (we had 8 other cages, tho), we were not able to get them to warm up to us. We've had them for 3 years, and this is their first joey. All of our other joeys, we handle fairly early, but we don't want to jinx this joey, but upsetting the parents. We will just wait and see, when mom and dad let us. We currently have our 4th generations from two separate lines (and they are paired with mates, so may have the 5th generation, soon). We used to be USDA licensed, but I could never bring myself to sell my joeys, so we didn't renew the last time. In addition to our 22 adults, we have 5 joeys, so we can determine the age pretty closely, once we see the baby. Neither of us wants to upset this pair tho, and they won't come to us. They let us feed them, but that's about it. Thanks for the info. I've never really paid that much attention to when they start crabbing...so thought it might be an indicator of age. None of my brand new joeys ever crab, but they do cry sometimes. Anyway, we aren't going to take photos of this joey, not for awhile. We don't plan on disturbing this pair because they are so skiddish. Believe me, since 1999, we've had more than our share of rejections and canibalizations. We want to avoid that at all costs.