itching?

[lilyofthedamned]

I've been noticing that elvis has been scratching and itching specifically his ear a lot. when the girls arived they started to do this too. We have really dry heat down here so should we put a humidifier in their room?

[Marie]

It wouldn't do any harm to raise humidity in the room a little.  Itching could be normal grooming (it usually is).

[Rhianna]

Onion scratches her belly with her back feet then licks her feet! eww! lol

[Amalthea]

They all will It's part of the whole grooming process...  You've just not seen it with any of the others

[Marie]

I'm not normally concerned by itching ears, but as you said it's dry heat have you noticed anything odd about the ears, are they curling over or drying out at all?

[lilyofthedamned]

I still can't pick elvis up to be able to look at them closely but they look fine. That's actually another question i have. Would it be ok to just start picking elvis up? I've done it before when he jumped on my face and he bit but it didn't hurt at all. He seemed to be kind of ok with it. I really need to be able to pick him up because when i take him out to play he keeps on trying to jump onto his old cage to look at the girls and i don't want him to hurt them or something.

I'll put a humidifier in the room just to be sure.

[Rhianna]

sometimes minenip, but i they mostly do it when i have a nice smell on my hands, (my own fault). Maybe he is just testing you to see if you are food and not a REAL bite.

I got a real bite off my Onion once when i first tried to introduce her to Holly, and she lunged for Holly so i put my hand infront of Holly to protect her, so i got the full bite, and i tell you, it bloody hurt! lol

Have you swapped pouches with the girls and Elvis so they accostomed to the scent, and are the cages close together?

[roxyandboys]

when gliders bite they really really really hurt, like no other animal bite, because they sink in and stay sunk in!

What was the question again??  LOL - traumatised thinking about being bitten by a glider once!  Oh yeah, picking up elvis, yeah, should be fine, he'll wriggle and nip his way out of your hand.

On the subject of ears, Marie - do Gliders suffer with mites at all?

[Marie]

Yes they do Rox - and what makes it worse is that they're not visible to the naked eye!  They eat flesh and the vet would need to take a scraping from the ear to find whether there is any.  But if mites are present there would be some indication such as the ears drying out, or appearing to 'rot' away. 

[Rhianna]

eww!