My Glider Escaped!  What Can I Do?

By Arnold

Hey Arnold,
I have a problem and was hoping that you could give me some advice.  I went to go feed my gliders tonight and realized that one of them is missing.  I believe my male escaped last night and is in the house somewhere.  Do you have any suggestions on how I can get him to come back to the cage?  Do they usually come back or do they keep running?  Please let me know as soon as possible.
Mindy.

Dear Mindy,
I didn’t hear back from you to find out if your little guy has come home yet.  We get letters like this almost weekly and what me can tell ya is that gliders usually return to the scene of the crime.  I’ve pulled off several jail breaks meself, but I always just go crawl in bed with Lisa.  Not that I can say the same thing for me gal pal Naomi. She’s been discovered in all parts of the house, and last time (EEEKS!) she was in the bathroom.  Glad to report she was safe from that close call, but that leads me to me first bit of advice.  When ya find one of us missin’, close all toilet lids immediately.  It’s not the way ya wanna find us, nor the way we wanna be found!
Now me and my pals have made our escapes the old fashioned way. Lisa forgot to close the door, so we took that as permission to roam the home.  Lots of peeples make this mistake from time to time, but if we got out and the doors were closed, ya best find out how we did it.  Cuz, if we did it once, we’re gonna keep on doin’ it.  Ya might have a problem with cage security.  Make sure the bars are only ½ inch apart and that pull out grills are not slightly pulled out.  If you have flaps covering the grills, make sure they are secure (magnets can help with this issue).
If ya make this discovery at night, you have a good chance of tracking us down at a reasonable time and getting a good night’s sleep.  If ya make this discovery in the morning, I will admit you will have a long day ahead, cuz ya see, we’re gonna find a little cozy space to hunker down and sleep during the day.  So yer best chances of finding us again will be later, when the sun goes down.
Now please allow me to give ya a list of things to do in the meantime, but first let me assure you that most of these situations turn out well and we hope that holds true for you too.
OK, number one … like already said, close all toilet lids.
Next, take out a nest box or sleeping pouch (a smelly one) from the habitat and put it outside the cage with a big piece of juicy apple in it. Most of us will return to our home, cuz we are terry-torial, which means we like to come home.
Do not do any laundry, unless yer sure we haven’t found a place in the laundry basket to snooze.
Check closets and clothes and other stuff.  Fer example, check pockets in coats, empty pocketbooks and inside shoes.  We can get pretty creative about a place to sleep and ‘cuz yer closet smells like you, it may be where many of me pals choose to hunker down.
OK, so now let’s say you’ve gone through a whole day without success.  With night coming, you know what happens next?  We wake up which means we’ll be hunting around fer something to eat or drink.  BUT, if you have too much light on in the house, we’re gonna stay hiding.  So keep the lights very low, or better yet, keep the lights off.  Sit quietly in each room for 10-15 minutes.  Start in the room where we’re supposed to live.  If ya hear a sound, use a flashlight to look around for the escapee.
Yer best chances of finding us are in the first 24 hours.  But even if you have no luck that first night, keep the pouch outside of the cage for several days.  We’ve heard many reports of miracle returns when all hope was lost, so don’t give up too fast.  In 9 out of 10 cases we hear about, a happy ending is often reported.
Now, what do you do if ya glider escapes outside of the house?  Again, most of us will return to the scene of the crime.  But if outside, ya have a much larger area to deal with, so put out several sleeping pouches or nest boxes with apple.  Put them on tables or chairs or whatever ya have that you can use to put the stuff off the ground (otherwise ya might get a pouchful of bugs).  Some people have even put the cage outside with the companion glider to help woo the wayward one back home.
Again, don’t give up too soon.  Reports we get are at least 5 out of 10 will return home from the great outdoors.
Mindy, I hope yer baby has come home by now, but if not, thanks fer giving me the chance to talk about some really important stuff.  It’s not like we’re running away.  We just get curious sometimes and want to see what’s happenin’ around us.
Love, Arnold

How to Deal with Eye Infections

By Lisa

We often discuss health issues in this publication and the bottom line to most questions is “take your glider to a vet”.  We are strong advocates of seeking appropriate medical attention when signs of illness or other medical conditions present.  Today, we’re going to break this tradition a little bit and offer a home remedy suggestion for eye irritations.

It is not unusual, particularly with our babies to see mild eye irritations.  If you know what colonies look like when they are sleeping, its hard to say where one animal starts and another leaves off.  Colonies of sleeping gliders look like a bundle of fur, feet, tails and heads.  They get quite cozy to say the least.

Because of this, gliders can get little scratches on their eyes (probably from another’s foot brushing the eye) which can create a situation where the eye does not open fully, and you may even see a bit of white discharge.

You have a good chance of clearing this up within the first 24 hours.  If the condition persists, there is excessive discharge, or an obvious wound on or near the eye, please see a vet immediately (there I go again).  This remedy should only be used in mild cases.

The remedy is simple. Go to the drugstore and buy some liquid tears. There are many brands and that doesn’t really matter.  The brands may be called liquid tears, natural tears or something along that line. Do not use products like Visine.  I tend to use sterile and preservative free products as that is what I use for myself.  Put a couple of drops of the solution into the gliders eye 2-3 times that day.  Follow-up with a warm compress for several minutes.  In most cases, the eye will be fully open and clear the next day.  If that is the case, then you’ve successfully treated with the first home remedy ever suggested in this publication.  

If the eye is still irritated, well you already know what I’m going to say.  And make that call to the vet sooner than later.  Gliders can lose vision in their eyes if appropriate treatment is not started quickly. Veterinarians have access to a variety of ophthalmic ointments and will prescribe based upon the diagnosis.

If you choose to try the home remedy the first day, please be sure to wash your hands very well both before and after treatment.  A white discharge may indicate some infection present, and you don’t want to spread that around to other pets or yourself.

‘Til next time, in good health for you and your gliders, we sign off in appreciation of all of you who share great glider adventures with us!