Picky Eater!

About a month ago I took in a group of 4 gliders who were surrendered to Animal Control. One of them had a neglected tail injury which required amputation and passed away on the second day I had her.

Two of the remaining three have taken to their new diet (orig HPW) and are doing very well. The third, Bailey, weighed 142 grams when she arrived and consistently lost weight over the next few weeks down to a low of 90 grams. I thought if she got hungry enough she would eat what was offered, but it has only resulted in continued weight loss. The only thing I could get her to eat was yogurt and glider nectar. All three passed their vet check and fecals last week.

I have started placing Bailey in a small cage next to her cagemates (only at night) a few days ago so that I can monitor what she is eating. I've discovered through trial and error and by accident that she will eat yogurt, apples, cheerios, and glider nectar, but she refuses to eat HPW orig & complete, any vegetables I've offered, insectivore fare, mealies, Leadbeaters mix, glider crack, or assorted baby foods. I have started putting a very small amount of orig HPW on pieces of apple, but she will only eat the pieces that don't have any HPW on them. I've tried mixing small amounts of HPW into yogurt and she refuses it. I've tried putting glider nectar on vegetables and she won't touch them.

Wondering how those of you who have taken in lots of gliders have dealt with picky eaters?
I can hear my fathers' voice in the back of my head saying, "if they get hungry enough they'll eat," but that strategy has only resulted in continued weight loss and I fear she will end up getting weak and sick.

She continues to be active and friendly, passing stool and urine, although in small/concentrated amounts.

I am going to try LGRS and see if she'll eat that, but I don't have much hope.

Any advice/suggestions are welcome! Thanks!

Maybe you can try Val's Green Variety Diet
Val's Diet tastes like fruit juice so she might like it and you can get everything needed at a local health food store.

You can also try some boiled chicken or scrambled eggs too. If she like either of those then you can add try Priscilla's Diet. You can make a 1/4 or 1/2 batch to see if she likes it then buy the Vitamins ASAP if she likes it.
Both are listed here in the Diet section.
Keep us psted on how she does please.

I'm afraid I am no help. I don't believe that gliders can be picky eaters unless we let them be. I tell people all the time to stop fretting and just feed them. They will eat what their bodies tell them they need.

In the hundreds of gliders that have passed through here, I have never had a glider act "picky" for more than a few days. Maybe they all DO love my diet? I suppose that could be. But, I just feed everyone their food every day. They eat what they eat and I don't fret about it. They all get well/healthy here, so there must be something working in this procedure. :)

Thanks Brenda and Val. I wouldn't be concerned if the weight loss hadn't been so rapid, 142 grams to 90 grams at a rate of 3-4 grams per day. Since I started feeding her apples and yogurt the past few days her weight is holding around 94 grams. I have a feeling that's all she was ever fed: cheerios, yogurt, apples and glider nectar. I was told she is 4 years old. Maybe her weight loss is just her getting down to her natural healthy weight and she'll start eating when she gets to that weight... Her two cagemates are 165 and 178 grams and they haven't lost any weight since I started them on HPW when I took them in a month ago. She's also the only glider in the house that turns down mealies. Just seems so strange to me....

I'll keep you posted on how she does. Thanks!

Have you tried taking fruits and veggies and chopping them very small, you can use a food grinder then add some apple sauce to it. Then as she eats that slowly diminish the apple sauce and see if she eats that.
You can do that with the HPW also.

I would also try Val's Green diet and see if she likes that instead. It is easy to make and tastes like fruit.

Is she still alone?

Last night our local glider group spent the night making the VGV staple for all the gliders coming to the RRRoundup. We have some scardey cats in the group that would never try it. They would just say "I trust you Val. The gliders love it. That's good enough for me!". (For those that don't know, for our local glider owners, I make their VGV staple for them when I am making my glider's food so that they get a wide variety of flavors for their few gliders). So, last night I finally convinced them to just try it and all of them said "It tastes just like a fruit smoothie! It IS good!" LOL

Thanks Brenda, I like the idea of trying the food processor and adding some applesauce/hpw.

I never thought I would be one of "those" people with a "picky" glider! lol

I have always been of the belief that they are by nature foragers and opportunists until Bailey came along. For the first 10 days she had no other options than the hpw and fruit/vege mix. It wasn't until she had lost 40 grams of weight that I really started worrying and offering glider crack, yogurt, etc. to try to entice her to eat. I was concerned there may be an underlying illness until the night I discovered she'd eat apples and went from 94 grams to 105 overnight. She also will not take any treats I've offered except for cheerios...

And no, she is not alone. When her weight hit 90 grams I took her out of her cage when she woke in the evening so I could feed her apples with a small bit of HPW in the bottom of the dish and yogurt (with a tiny amount of hpw powder mixed in) without having to worry about her cagemates eating it and I could tell what she was actually eating. I put her back with her cagemates first thing in the morning. I did this for 3 nights to stabilize her weight and monitor her intake. She has been holding at about 94 grams, she was 92 grams last night. I left her in her cage last night and just placed a small amount of apples in hpw in a dish in addition to the hpw and fruit/vege mix. The apple dish was completely empty this morning, but I don't know how much she ate compared to her cagemates. I'll weigh her this evening when she wakes.

I'm going to mix up a batch of VGV today and start feeding that exclusively this week and see how she does without any apples or yogurt.

Appreciate your comments! I'll let you know how things go.

Bailey continues to lose weight. This week she has weighed in at 72-78 grams - almost half her body weight lost in about 6-weeks. Her energy level seems lower as well. She has passed the physical exams and fecal at the vet. She does have hair loss on her tail which hasn't really improved since she arrived.

I am able to sneak in very small amounts of VGV, Wombaroo, or insectivore into yogurt, apple, or applesauce. If I don't feed yogurt or apple/applesauce she simply doesn't eat. I tried just feeding VGV (with plain yogurt and applesauce mixed in) with veg/fruit for 5 days and she lost about 15-grams. She gained some weight back when I broke down and fed her yogurt and apples.

Here is little Bailey taken this week.

If she is loosing weight consistently, then it is time to repeat tests. What fecal exams did she have before? And did she have a urinalysis?

No she hasn't had a UA and her records say "intestinal parasite screen - direct." I'll take her back to the vet again for more tests and hopefully figure out what's going on with her. Thanks!

Make sure you get a fecal float, smear AND SNAP test. All 3. You will have to collect some poop at home to make sure you have enough for the three tests.

There are times when the only symptom of giardia infection is weight loss. Worth looking into.

Just wanted to give an update on Bailey. She had a complete workup done and diagnosed with a probable kidney infection. She has been on antibiotics for almost two weeks and has gained some weight back, coat looks better, and her energy level is improved.

She is still not eating staple or most fruits/veges, but her labs, fecals (I had him send to an outside lab for a complete parasite screen) and xray are ok and her weight is stable so I'm not gong to worry about it. She loves Cheerios so I've been mixing in a small amount of HPW with them.

Glad to hear she's doing better and getting treatment as needed. :)

I have a rescue that just came in that won't touch HPW, I have gotten her to eat it by mixing it with green juice.

She loves yogurt and avocado, so I let her have that every night. I mix it up with cooked chicken and scrambled eggs for protein.

Thankfully she will eat her veggies. She is about 7 to 9 years old.

I would provide her with yogurt every night so her weight doesn't get to low.

Bailey is doing much better. She hasn't gained back her weight, but is doing really well and has a new cage mate. She now weighs in at about 70 grams on average. She was 142 grams when she arrived. She is still very picky about what she eats and refuses yogies or mealies, but her energy level is good and the vet has given her a clean bill of health.



Thanks for all the advice and support!