After our recent loss, I was wondering about a topic that came up in discussion a couple of months ago. Can't remember if it was here or just general conversation with another breeder.

If you have another glider mother that's nursing another joey, even if joey the the surrogate mother is nursing is older; could the other glider mom act as a surrogate to nurse a rejected joey?

Has this technique ever been used, successfully?

How would you be able to do it without the surrogate mother and father seeing the rejected joey as a threat? How would you introduce a rejected joey to a surrogate mother? If it's even possible.

As stated, there was general conversation about this and I was wondering about this morning.

Thank you all for the support.

Chad

Those are some very good questions. I wish I could answer them, but someone will come around soon who can. I thought I read somewhere that this wasn't possible as the mommy might attack the unrelated joey. As a breeder I'd like to know the answers too, sure would be great if there was a way to introduce the rejected joey.

I posted this to you on Lgg - but

oakley- http://www.glidercentral.net/ubbthreads/...T_NOW#Post82736

suz had a successful surrogate in a different cage- http://www.glidercentral.net/ubbthreads/...tion#Post555676

Leyna has- http://www.glidercentral.net/ubbthreads/..._287#Post402706

suggiemom1980- wow - ya gotta read this one http://www.glidercentral.net/ubbthreads/...joey#Post625176

no update on krazykritters- http://www.glidercentral.net/ubbthreads/...surr#Post298800

Oh and I'm not recommending it - I was just answering the question on has it ever been done. I think it's a roll of the dice and a few were very lucky. I'm sure there have been many cases of people who have tried but had no luck and just won't post about it. I feel it is very rare that it's successful and you'll have better luck trying for yourself.

I understand Nancy. I agree, if it's still a roll of the dice and the chances are I could be running into the same problem with the surrogate parents. They may turn around and kill the joey themselves. And I'd feel even worse.

I was just thinking it would be a more natural alternative for the joey to gain proper nutrition from the mother. But if it's still risky, I'm not going to try it. If more research is done that can iron out a way to prove it can be done successfully, than maybe, but based on input provided, I'll try my best to save them myself if god forbid it happens again.

Thanks Nancy,

Chad

I want to point out that the ONLY reason I did this was because I had no other options. The natural mom had been killed by the family dog. There was no way to save the baby by hand raising it. It was way too tiny, about the size of a half inch long pencil.

It is NOT in a glider's nature, to "adopt" the baby of another glider UNLESS they are related. Even gliders raised together from joeys prob won't allow a surrogacy. I have a quint of mom, dad, big sis and twin little sisters. Big sis baby sits little sisters but, she is related to them and does not nurse them. I had a quad of 3 females and 1 male. One of the females became preggers and everything was fine UNTIL the joey came OOP. Within a couple of days, the other two females were eyeing the mom and new joey in a way that made me very fearful for the joey. Because of that look, the different noises that came from the cage and my gut feeling, I removed the two females and placed them in their own cage. (They eventually were intro'd to their mates and now have children of their own). The quad had been put together as just weaned joeys and had been together for a year before this. But, they were NOT related.

I would NOT recommend surrogacy unless absolutely no other option is available. I believe that I, and the others who experienced successful surrogacies, were extremely lucky and rare.