Hi, I've had a male glider for a few years now. A few months ago i bought a female thats only a few months old. They instantly became best of friends and there wasn't any issues for a couple weeks. For some reason this whole week my males been chasing the female out of the cage when i fill there food bowl up. I've been distracting the male with mealies so the female can sneak in and eat. Has anyone else had this problem or know of a good solution? Any suggestions are worth a try. Please let me know. Thank you.

have you tried sitting out 2 dishes with food??? just a thought

I keep the cage door open and the gliders come and go as they please. They return to the pouch in the cage every morning at 8:30 to sleep for the day. I may try setting up a second bowl somewhere else for the female to eat. She just woke up a few seconds ago and is eating atm. My males still asleep.

You said she was just a few months when you got her. It's possible she's come into heat and he's more interested in mating than eating and wants her to feel the same way.

Some gliders eat more or less seasonally. Before they started fighting, did you notice less food left over in their bowls in the morning? Usually when this behavior starts suddenly, it is because one of them is hoarding food. Understand, me saying this does not mean that I think there was any risk of them going hungry - you and I both know they have plenty of food, but some gliders are very sensitive to the amount that is left. Once they start hoarding, they actually do feel hungry because they were so busy guarding the food, they likely didn't get their fill.

Anyway, if this is the case, there are several things you can do to help alleviate the problem.

-Make sure that their food bowls are in the cage before they wake up, every night. This will help them learn that no matter when they are hungry, food will always be available.

-Start giving them extra food - a lot of extra food for a little while, so they learn that there is such an abundance they will never go hungry.

-Use multiple feeding stations (at different heights if possible). If there are multiple and hoarder cannot see all of the food dishes, they cannot possibly guard them all.

-Use glider kitchens for every feeding station. Again, if the hoarder cannot see when another glider is eating from one of the other stations, they cannot guard them.

-Realize that this problem is not going to resolve itself overnight. The longer the chasing or aggressive behavior has gone on, the longer it will take to for them to settle down. It can take several days to several weeks.

I've used glider kitchens to help with this problem. I made 2 holes in my kitchen so that there was an escape route if needed. Also put in 2 kitchens one on top of the other. As Gretchen stated he can't guard both at once.

Those are great suggestions thank you very much. I will put them into action tonight and let you know how it goes.