Hand-Raised Joey Development

[:"green"]This subject recently came up in the post Is He A Lion?. Rather than fill up that thread with an off-topic issue, I thought I'd start a new thread here about this...

Hand-Raised joeys do not develop at the same rate as mother-fed joeys. I have hand-raised 5 joeys & supplement fed 2 during the past few years. The hand-raised joeys always went through a very awkward looking stage where "only a mother could love them" <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/heartpump.gif" alt="" />... All, except one, are now healthy adults. [The one that did not survive only recently died due to toxic poisoning (totally unrelated to his start in life).]
Mareki came oop on 2-14-03. She is a very healthy adult glider. She is slightly obese (170 grams) but other than that has no other health issues.
Cricky & Scruffy came oop on 1-10&12-04. Cricky is the one that passed away recently. His necropsy showed him to be in excellent health other than the toxic poisoning. Scruffy is a very healthy adult glider with no health issues.
Sugar came oop on 3-25-04. I've attached a picture of her that was taken on 5-11-04. She was very tiny, had lost most of her fur and was undeniably ugly (but cute). She is now a healthy adult.
Allira came oop on 7-15-04. She is also now a healthy adult.
Although they all went through slow development, by the time they were six months oop, they had completely caught up in development to the mother-fed joeys I have bred. Now, I realize that I am no expert in this field, but I believe that my experiences are not abnormal either. I will attach more pictures below...

[:"green"]Here is a picture of Sugar taken on 4-22-04...

[:"green"]This picture was taken on 9-12-04 (6 months old)... Notice how her development is totally caught up by this age...

[:"green"]Now, here is a picture of Allira on 9-7-04...

[:"green"]And a picture of Allira (on top of Gizmo) on 8-17-05...

Now that is so amazing to me! Personally, I think they look simply precious...I just wasn't aware of it. I had seen the pictures, but I never really noticed how old the joeys were at the time.

At what point do they seem to start 'catching up'?

Why is it that happens? They are being fed all the time until they are full...is it just that the mother has certain nutrients that can't be replaced? It's weird because they aren't just skinny, they look completely different.

[:"green"]I'm really not sure why it happens this way, but my theory is the same as yours...
</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />
is it just that the mother has certain nutrients that can't be replaced?

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">
[:"green"]Another factor is the hair loss that occurs... this is due to the lack of humidity that the joey would normally be exposed to when with the mother in the nest/pouch. Now that we've found an easier way to replicate the humidity level, the hair loss is no longer as dramatic. Without the right humidity level, the joey's skin gets very dry & flaky. When the skin flakes off, the fur goes with it...

I handraised my very first joeys. When the next two came oop and were raised by the parents they were monster big. 70g at 8 weeks oop and my poor handraised baby hadnt made it over 60g yet at 2 months older.

She is around 4 months now and starting to look as if she's catching up. Her sister however, has had some issues and is only around 45g at 4 months oop the last I got an update on her.

It was sweet having Cry and she stayed a baby so long but I hope I never have to handraise again, it's a very hard thing to do.

Thank you for helping me clarify.

The joey in my IS HE A LION? post is a BIT bigger now at 8 weeks oop BUT he is still smaller.

This does not mean he is underfed. He has never gone without a full tummy (will eat 3-5 cc's every four hours now) but as i said in my post, this is just no supplement to mama's milk