You lose some, and then there's Violet...

Since Violet has two joeys coming OOP very soon, I've been watching her like a hawk -- and Cas too. So every time I'm in the glider room, I grab the pouch out and check on her. So far everything has been going well. 

Last night, I was putting everyone's food dishes in their cage when I heard faint cries of a joey. With excitement overcoming me, I grabbed the pouch out to see who was detached! To my surprise, what I found was Violet cannibalizing one of the babies. I started to grab the baby from her, but it was too late -- she had already tore half of her face completely off. 

All this time I've been blaming Cas for the injuries that David sustained. All this time it was her... I should have known. After all, she did pull the first two sets of joeys that she had, I should have known. 

She's kept the other joey tucked in her pouch and has been singing to her non-stop. Not like that means anything, I might go in there one day and find the other joey cannibalized as well. This is the last straw for them, Cas is getting snipped and their babies will be no more. LaVaughn and I have considered re-homing the two of them, but I don't know that things will go that far, but you never know. 

The joey that she still has detached for a short period of time today. Long enough for me to hold her for a second and kiss her nose. I fear for her fate. If and when this little girl does detach, I'm not going to hold her, I'm not even going to look at her. I might get her out long enough to snap pictures, but then that's it for the next week.

And now kiddies, that concludes our lesson in breeding sugar gliders for the day. It's not all sunshine and rainbows...

Love & Peace

-Megan

My heart is broken...

Yesterday went from bad, to worse, to completely devastating. Not long after I got home from work last night (around 11), LaVaughn informed me that our little hen, Maggie, passed away. We've had her for years! She's survived two dog attacks and a raccoon attack, she was a trooper.

One of those bastard roosters have jumped her one too many times and probably smashed something inside of her. All the roosters we have here are too big, which is why all but one is going bye-bye very soon. I'll miss her so much, she was such a sweet, docile little girl. I'll miss her dearly.

Around 12:30 AM, I decided to go get Kira's little joeys out for a while and hold them. When I pulled the pouch out, Kira, Logan, and Seamus were all content and looking up at me, just as any other night. Then I noticed that the little mosaic girl was pushed off to the side, resting against her brother. I immediately pulled her out and looked her over. As soon as I sat her in my hand, I knew something wasn't right.

I quickly looked for the other little girl, whom I couldn't find at first. I then, very nervously, started looking under everyone and making sure there were no body parts lying around. That's when I noticed that Kira had that joey completely tucked in her pouch. I grabbed her and the joeys out and put them in a bonding pouch. She eventually got the other baby out, so I took her and put her in the pouch with her dad and brother.

That's when we started the tedious task of trying to get the little mosaic girl to nurse, which was unsuccessful. We tried for over 3 hours to get her to nurse, but she just wouldn't. Kira didn't push her away, and even continued cleaning her every little bit. After that, we decided to mix up some milk replacer and see if she would eat that, which she did.

After she got an entire feeding down, we decided to put the baby back in the pouch with her family. We figured the food would give her the boost she needed to starting nursing again. I've never been so wrong in my entire life!

After about 30 minutes -- mind you, we held the other joey the entire time -- I decided to put the other little girl back in the pouch with her family.

That's when I saw it... Kira and Logan at the bottom of the cage, cannibalizing their baby. She was still moving at the time, so I opened the door and starting blowing on them, but it was too late. They had already tore her tiny, innocent little stomach open. I starting shaking, stuttering, crying. So many thoughts and emotions were going through my head, all I could do was yell for LaVaughn.

I ran from the glider room shouting, "They're killing her, they're killing her!!" LaVaughn, bright eyed and shocked, met me in the bathroom and took the baby from me. After that, we just sat there, completely shocked and speechless. We didn't say two words to each other for the longest time. I was at a loss. I kept replaying what I had just witnessed over and over in my head, like I was in an endless nightmare.

I waited another hour before I decided to step foot back in the room. Even then, they were still fondling the carcass. I wanted so badly to just start shaking every one of them. I've never been so upset and outraged at the gliders before now. Even in all of my anger, I kept telling myself that they do this from time to time. There was apparently something not right with the joey, and they knew that.

Of course, me being the simple, animal loving human that I am, cannot comprehend why they would do this to their own child. I'm just so lost right now. I feel so sad, helpless, and just completely out of it. The thought of neutering every boy we have has gone through my mine more than a few times. When you witness something like this, you just want to protect yourself from ever seeing anything like it again.

It just doesn't seem real, I feel cursed.

Two days after they joeys were OOP, a fellow breeder (Lynsie) contacted us about her. She was extremely interested in her, but insisted she waited a week before she put a deposit down on her "in case she gets rejected". Um, okay... why would you say that? I feel like Lynise jinxed us. We've never, in 4 years of breeding, ever lost a joey that's was already detached.

I told Lynsie about her just a little bit ago, which said said she was sorry about. I mean, I know deep down it's not Lynsie's fault, I just feel jinxed, or cursed.

I'm terrified for the other joey. I've never been so worried and nervous about a joey before. I'm scared to look at her, hold her, get attached to her. I'm terrified to look in the pouch, I'm scared I'm going to find a mangled joey body. I'm just... I don't even know.

LaVaughn and I are getting ready to trim everyone's nails and feed them treats. I can't hold the murder of their joey against them, because -- as much as I hate to admit it -- they did it for a reason. I just have to look past this and not beat myself up over putting the joey back in the pouch with them.

After that, I believe we're going to make everyone new pouches. I know, completely random, but some of our gliders are too big for our normal sized pouches. Especially Kira, Logan, and Seamus. Chloe, Boone, and heir babies are taking up a lot of space in their pouch as well, so some nice, new jumbo pouches will be great for everyone.

I believe I'm going to go outside for a while and clear my head. Maybe spend some time with our army of cats and take some photos. I cannot continue to sit in the house and constantly think of everything that happened last night.

Until next time...

Love & Peace

-Megan

Updated to add pictures from today:

Behind blue eyes...

I made a very unfortunate discovery yesterday. Sadie - the glider that cannibalized her older joey - pulled her tiny little joey and ate him! I'm beyond frustrated with her and can barely look at her. I know that's very childish, but it's also very frustrating and just awful!

I don't know what's wrong with her. Noting, and I mean absolutely nothing, is different in her life. There's nothing new in the glider room - all the gliders, cages, lighting, smells, warmth, noises - they're all the same. I use the same laundry detergent, I haven't added any new animals to the house since December and she has more food than she knows what to do with. She's been pigging out on mealies and yoggies for two weeks now, so I know she's not hungry.

I'm stumped.

I've wracked my brain trying to find something, but I can't. I'm worried that it's something LaVaughn and I are doing, but I just don't think that's the case.

Sadie and Pip were mating on the 6th of this month - unfortunately, I witnessed this -, so she should have joeys IP on or around the 21st. If she has these joeys and ends up pulling them, Pip is getting neutered - hands down. If she pulls the next set, she obviously doesn't want to be a mom anymore.

In other, less depressing news, we finally started chopping up some of the fleece we ordered from Joann. Well, we did more than chop - we got that girls entire set cut, sewn and shipped yesterday. Go us! We also cut the fleece for ourselves. I believe we ended up getting 7 pieces for each cage!

I'm trying something new with the square hammocks. After I sew it up and evaluate it, I'll write about it. I would go into details, but I don't want to jinx myself.

I got another set cut out all by myself today. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it or not, but I'm terrible at cutting. By the time I'm done with something, it looks like I've added intentional waves to the fabric. It's actually really pathetic - I can't cut a straight line! LaVaughn has to come through and trim things for me. Usually only long things, like bridges and buckets.

But yeah, I cut out and entire 6 piece set, all by my lonesome. I'm a proud piper.

Believe it or not, Tracy actually has someone that's interested in Rigel! I'm a tad on the upset side, but I'm also happy for her. Who wouldn't prefer money over another glider? Well, I would probably prefer another glider, lol. But yeah, if this deal goes through, I guess we're not getting Rigel. She did say we would get a Platinum Mosaic from her, regardless. I guess it's a win win.

In other glider news, I've been talking with Annette for the past couple days and she had two new pairs set up that will have leus and 100% leu het mosaics. One of which we'll be getting. I made some virtual joeys last night and joeys from both pairs are compatible with Chloe. So excited! I'm not sure if I would prefer a mosaic 100% het, or a leu. I guess we'll have to wait and see what they have. :)

Love & Peace

-Megan

 Here's the 6 piece owl cage set. Not too bad, eh? :)

 Kira is such a chubby, cute sugar glider.

 "Mm, that was good. Another!"

Kira loves her mealworms.

And then feels guilty for eating so many.

Pretty little Chloe on her corner hammock.

 Platinum sugar gliders are the cutest!

Bart, stretching his legs. He's such a weirdo.

The good, the bad and the terrible...

The Good,

Our little chick is doing great! Force feeding her really gave her the boost she needed to get back on her feet. She walks around an eats constantly now. With us spending so much time with her, it's created this very lovely bond. More so with my sister, but that's okay with me. She runs to LaVaughn and jumps in her hand or on her leg. She'll sit on me from time to time, but never for very long.

We got her out of her box last night and let her walk around the floor. Our mealie cup was sitting off to the side, but close enough for her to see. As soon as she noticed the worms inside, she took off! she ran straight up to the cup and started trying to peck the worms -- she couldn't get them because they were covered, but the entire container is clear. We decided to let her try one and she loved it! We ended up giving her 3 or 4 before we had to stop, which I know isn't good for her, but come on, she's been sick!

And by the way, I'm not sure that Mabel is a fitting name for our chick. She's absolutely deserving of the name, but it just doesn't fit her. For now, that will be her nickname, but we'll find something more permanent down the road.

The Bad,

This is kind of good and bad, but mostly bad. We were FINALLY able to get the rattie girls moved into their much larger cage. Not the huge cage that we got from Stacie, but the slightly smaller one we had Evan and Jonah in. We ended up taking one layer out and just leaving the two. We added a long hammock in the place of the other layer and it looks SO much better! It just seemed too cramped with all three. 

After it was nicely decorated, we added the girls! They walked around the bottom for probably 30 minutes before they explored the other levels. On the very top layer, we have one of our short Glider Buckets hanging. After we showed them that they could sleep in it, they never wanted to leave! After two days they still don't want to leave! 

They're so terrified of their new cage, they never want to come out! I feel so bad for them, because I know how creepy new surroundings can be. Part of me wants to put them back in their old cage for a while, but I just don't know! They're very rarely out of their bucket anymore. It's only been a day and a half, so hopefully they'll start to come around more.

The Terrible,

As you know, Sadie has two joeys IP. One large joey that's just weeks away from being OOP and one very small joey that wont be OOP until next month. Well Monday night when I was int he glider room, I looked over at where Sadie was sleeping and noticed the pouch was moving a lot. Not thinking much of it, I turned the lights on and left.

I went back in the glider room later that night (around 1ish) and noticed that Sadie was out running around the cage. I automatically got a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach and very nervously walked towards the cage. I stuck my fingers through the bar and rubber her tummy. The gut wrenching feeling was confirmed when I didn't feel her larger joey. I pulled the pouch out of the cage, only to find a half eaten joey carcass. 

I was filled with so much anger and heartache, I didn't even want to look at Sadie. I pulled her on out of the pouch and felt around. To my surprise, she still had the smaller joey! I returned her to her cage and broke the news to LaVaughn. She kept telling me that it happened for a reason, which I figured, but it still didn't help.

I know gliders will cannibalize their joeys when they're sick, or possibly already dead. It's just so hard for us soft humans to understand. I'm better now, I've put it behind me. It's still very sad and upsetting, but that's just the way things are sometimes.

Love & Peace

-Megan

I'll leave you with some pictures of the baby chick: