I had to go out of town a couple of days, and since I was sick and couldn't carry Kylie on me and there would be nowhere for her to play where we were staying, I decided to leave her at home, instead of putting her in the reptarium (which is smaller than her cage) and let my sister (who really LOVES animals) take care of her. I made everything SUPER easy. Made up paper plates with the food already on them, covered with foil and labeled with the date they were to be served. All that had to be done was to take the plate out of the freezer, uncover, put in the cage, and clean and fill the water bowl every night. I was assured that my sister would do this for Sunday and Monday night. Sunday night everything was fine, I called and checked to make sure that Kylie wasn't forgotten. When I got home today, the Monday night plates were still in the freezer... <img border="0" alt="" title="" src="graemlins/upset.gif" /> Apparently, my sister went to a friend's house and stayed the night, and either didn't tell my uncle to feed Kylie, or he forgot. So if she ate anything last night, it was over a day old...But I don't know whether she ate or not.... <img border="0" alt="" title="" src="graemlins/crying.gif" />

She is fine now...I gave her a bunch of mealies and she is really happy to see me...but I was so upset...my family will NOT be babysitting anymore.

Just wanted to share this story and tell everyone to be super careful when securing a babysitter for their gliders...even if everything seems hunky dory...it might not be...and if you can...call every night you're away to make sure everything is being done right. I wish I had but I had faith in my sister and didn't <img border="0" alt="" title="" src="graemlins/shakehead.gif" />

I think this is a great opening to suggestions for baby sitters! What do you think is necessary to do, prepare, etc. for your sitter, or your sitter for when you are out of town?

My thoughts: A written list of what goes in the cage on what night,
Their normal schedule
Basic info about them, pregnant, not pregnant, friendly, not friendly, etc.
Prepare their food ahead of time, it puts your scent on it, so they won't miss you quite so much, it's a familiar scent and they will eat better than a strangers scent on their food.
Emergency contact numbers for both you and the vet.

The sitter: If Possible, have them over a couple of times when you feed them, then let them feed them a couple of times, to get used to it and see if they have any questions about what to do!

What can you add or correct to this?
Chey

There was one time a couple years ago when I had to go out of town for 5 days. I had my roommate feed my gliders for me. He had no idea what he was doing and was kinda scared of gliders. He would jump if a glider walked on him. I was afraid at first, but it was my only option. What I did was prepare all the food and placed each night's serving in tubberware bowls in the freezer. So if there was one glider in the cage one serving went in the bowl, two gliders in the cage I put two servings in the bowl, and so on. I numbered the cages and the bowls so he knew which bowl went with which cage. And dated the bowls to know what night they went in there. So all he had to do was take the bowl out, look for the right date on the tubberware, and match the number on the bowl to the number on the cage. Since they usually woke up at 8PM I told him to leave the lights on for an hour before they woke so when he went to get the dishes they would still be asleep and not think it was play time and come running out! It worked out really well. Unfortunately I was so paranoid about the gliders that I didn't get as specific about the fish and he overfed them! I came home to a cloudy aquarium with acid levels through the roof! They were ok after I cleaned the tank. I hope Kylie is ok and didn't eat any of the old food. I have noticed that if I leave for a night my gliders don't eat as much as usual. So I have to put lots of their favorites in there so they can't resist. So maybe she was worried that you weren't there and didn't eat the old food. Just keep a close eye on her. I hope she's ok.