Overweight gliders?

How would you go about putting gliders on a diet?

We have one glider that has gained 60 grams in 7 months. After talking to other breeders with relatives of hers, I'm told obesity runs in her family.

We feed the breeder version of regular HPW modified with Green Juice. They get a variety of fruits and veggies.

Any suggestions?

How are you modifing the HPW?

Does this glider live in a cage with only one cage mate? Several cage mates? Currently breeding?

Is this a WF glider? I just ask because the only overweight gliders in my home are WF gliders, and it is genetic for them. To be honest, I haven't tried to get the weight off of them. I have no other overweight gliders and all rescues that come in overweight loose their weight easily, so I'm not much help here.

Conventional wisdom says cut out treats, cut out corn, increase exercise, and decrease meal portions. That is difficult to do in a colony situation.

One thing that you can do is make sure that the food is always in different spots in the cage and make the gliders work for it. If their pouch is hung near the top of the cage, put most of the food at the bottom. Put food in a dish that hangs from the very center of the top of the cage so that they have to work to get it. Make her expend some energy just to get food.

Agreed. I have also heard that gliding and climbing and other "exercises" that stretch their patagium helps.

We substitute 1 cup of water for 1 cup of Naked green Juice.

They were breeding gliders but they've stopped recently. (Possibly Diet related? they were on the blended diet and were a pair that had severely thinning tails, since started to grow back).

She's not a WF. She's from Platinum lines, but another breeder says she has her brother that is quite overweight as well. She has also heard of other brothers and sisters getting chunky.

They don't get many treats-meal worms rarely. We can cut corn and move the dish around.

She's with one other glider- her mate who is not overweight.

Thanks for the help!

How old is she and what does she weigh?

Keep in mind that substituting the green juice for water in HPW is also increasing the amount of sugars in the mixture. You might try HPW without the green juice and see how her weight responds.

I'm finding if you cut back the honey in the HPW that will work too. The reason some gliders get overweight on the HPW diet is the amount of honey in it. Cut that back and that might help.
Also get your gliders stretching more. Make them reason for toys and treats the more they stretch the more fat deposits they break up. Once my chunky had to reach for toys and treats she started to lose some weight but she is just one of those chunky gliders. Like people there are different shapes and sizes. Your glider just might be a fluffy glider genetically

She'll be two this July and she weighs 140 grams.

Last September or so when I weighed her she was 82 grams. She is obviously quite chunky. No fat deposits in her patagium yet (that I can feel) but she has really distinct 'boobies' and she even has what looks like a second set of boobies in her pouch area (not pregnant).

We thought about cutting back on honey for everyone, would you substituted it with applesauce? Or just cut back on the amt in the mix? Is this going to have any negative effects on the gliders? Esp, if they are breeding gliders?

Thanks!

PS: Here is a picture of her on the scale. She doesn't look as plump in the picture as she does in real life. (Her tail looks better compared to what it did a month ago =/ it's growing back slowly- poor dear :( )

That is not a chunky glider. Kalhua is 5yrs and weighs 220g. Now that is a chunky glider. I think worry to much about the weight. If the glider is active then I wouldn't be too concerned with her being 140. To me that is an average weight for a glider.

Awe, she is a cutie. Look at those eyes.

It is rare for me to give advice pertaining to diet. I am not an expert in this field so this is nothing more than my opinion.

Australian Gliders

Take a look at the link above. These are gliders in their native habitat. Notice that none of them are the sleek creatures that we Americans seem to want our gliders to be. Could it be that the weights that we call healthy are actually too thin for them?

In my opinion we are dealing with thousands of years of heredity. In nature it is the largest most robust animals that survive. The larger female mates with the larger male to insure that her offspring will be large and healthy. The larger glider attacks the smaller one and eats most of the food. This is just natures way and those natural traits might be carried down into many of the gliders that we own today.

If you are still worried about her weight, you do it like you do any other animal, including humans. You have to increase exercise or you have to decrease calories/carbs or both. With gliders, because their world seems to revolve around food, I wouldn't recommend cutting the amount of food that you feed. Reducing quantity just makes a hungry glider and a glider can easily consume ½ of its body weight a night. So maybe more out of cage time to increase exercise? Maybe replacing the amount of carbs with lower carb foods like mushrooms, bell peppers, broccoli, greens and tomatoes? Maybe cutting that honey with a little more water. I've never given my glider honey. Maybe making the corn and peas a treat where you hand your gliders a few pieces each night.

I also feed my gliders nuts because nuts have some really good fats in them. We occasionally have pecan night as a form of enrichment. I crack a whole pecan and make them work to get at the meat inside.

Like I said, this is all my opinion.

BTW, my gliders won't touch frozen carrots. But I recenly tried them on fresh carrot stick and the nibbled on them. They didn't wolf them down but I was supprised that the ate some of them. Yep I'm still learning.

as i think you are going hear from all of us with obese and or overweight gliders, but i wouldnt worry about it. stitch is my largest glider, while i haven't weight him recently i would gestimate he is around 200-220g, and he is my most active glider. he uses the wheel more than my other two, he spends alot of time out of the pouch. aside from his weight he is completly healthy.

in the wild size matters. as long as the obesity does not affect the lifestyle i ouldnt worry to much.

but if you really want to bring the weight down , one thing i do is i make stitch work for even the mealworms i hand feed him. hold the mealworm in one spot and when stitch gets there i move it real quick to another spot, and keep that up.

Yes, I know she doesn't look chunky in the picture, but I can assure you- she is. She has more fat rolls than the pills bury dough boy.

I have a couple gliders in the 140-160 range that are by no means fat. They do not concern me in the least. She however does. Not to mention how MUCH weight she's gained in such a short amount of time. She's nearly doubled her weight in less than a year. =/

A 'normal' weight for her should be no more than 100 grams. She's not that big. Rather light framed. The picture wasn't to show you how overweight she is, more just what the scale reads. (and I think she's pretty =] )

She's the second fattest glider here. The other is a 160 gram female. that should also be in the 80-90 gram range for a healthy weight. This thread sorta applys to her to. lol

I'm going to try to get her/them more active. More toys and stuff like that. Make her work for her food. I'll keep you all updated on her progress. :)

Allie
What are you basing those numbers off of?