Death and introducing new gliders

[CrinkleTheSuggie]

Hi guys,
We recently lost one of our gliders, we unfortunately did not get a autopsy done as we didn't think about it til too late
We have got the other female an appointment at the vets however for a check up and are keeping a close eye on her.

The female that died showed no signs of illness and suddenly died in the night, we had her out  earlier that day, she ate fine and was in her pouch when we found her, they did squabble over food but other than that have always got on fine.
Her poos had gone runny a day or two before she passed away. Could anyone give a guess as to what might of happened? If you need more info let me know

Anyway we're looking for a new friend for the remaining female and wanted to know whether it would be best to get a male or female and also whether we should get a pair to introduce as it seems that a trio may be benificial?
And what is the best way to go about introducing the new gliders.
Our female is around 9months old by the way.

Thanks :sg:

[Marie]

Hi, I'm sorry to hear that!  It's a shame your first post is a sad one  .

It's hard to say why she might have died, dehydration, too much citrus, something in the diet that didn't agree with her can all cause runny poos, there are loads of reasons.  Does the other have runny poo or are her's normal?

She could have gone in to a state of torpor which in the wild in a large colony isn't a problem as they have others to keep them warm,  if it's not caught soon enough in our captive gliders it can end in death.  They literally just go to sleep and the blood sugars drop too low.  This usually happens if it's too cold in the room especially if she hadn't eaten that night or are under the weather.

For information on intros have a look here - http://www.sugar-glider.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=69.0

I personally think 3 is the way forward, as social animals they don't like to be alone, if the worst happens and one of the trio dies you are still left with two.  So yeah, go for it, get two more.  You can introduce females or neutered males if you don't want to breed .

What are you feeding them BTW?

[CrinkleTheSuggie]

Thanks    we're feeding some of the diets we found on this site actually, at the moment its the apple.papaya.pear and cat biscuit recipe, we've never fed any citrus, we occasionally feed yogurt drops as treats or blueberries and strawberries.

[jungleflockmom]

The gliders do well w/veggies, too - green beans, collard greens - you can buy them frozen in the market or serve fresh and crunchy. I grow collards in a pot for mine. They love the leaves.

I think 3 is certainly better than 2 as they seem to do very well in trios. Don't be desperate to get another glider, tho. Your glider will be ok for a short time alone while you find two more.