My son and I were just talking about this last night! He was disturbed that they just wake up to eat. He asked about foraging ... not just for their treats, but for their entire meal! In his words "You could at least cover the food dish with eucalyptus leaves so they had to dig even a little bit!"

It made me think. And then, this post made me think more.

Don't have a solution... but ... I'm thinking!

I think in addition to the necropsy reports and any labwork done at that time it would be necessary to have additional information on each of the gliders with respect to the diet(s) that were fed and for how long - if diet changes were made during their lives. Also some history of any illnesses they were treated for and the medications used during their lives.

That would give more complete study data. It would allow correlation of diet to those who developed fatty livers. Just the fact that many gliders show this at the time of necropsy without the other info does not give any real information other than - gliders get liver disease.

A long term study would show if one diet or another is more often related to the liver disease - the the components of the diet could be looked at more closely to see what changes would be needed.

If ALL the major diets are associated with liver disease - then we would need to learn how to modify them and continue to study the the changes that result.

It would also help to know the diets fet do gliders that live long lives and do not have liver disease a the time of death. The two groups could be better compared.

Good post Candy!

Bump

In case folks need it again as I havent received any faxes as of yet...

Fax number is 361-643-6495