Jules was nine months old when she got pregnant. Jules is a very petite glider. She is about 1 1/4 inches at her widest point. We have always thought she was anorexic because she has never eated a whole lot. Her mate Jasper was 8 months old when Jules got pregnant. Jule's joeys, male and female were born 2 weeks early. They were very tiny as Jules never got that large in her pregnancy. After 7 days, one morning I found the female joey on the floor of the cage. She had not been out that long because she was still standing on all fours and not crying yet. I put her back into the pouch with the other gliders. Her mother was very young to get pregnant and still likes to party at night in her wodent wheel. Two weeks went by and I noticed that the male was a little more advanced than the female. He was running up our arm and hopping a little, as three week olds do. She was still crawling and her eyes were not bright and shiny, and one eye half opened. It was at that point that I decided to supplement her feedings. I fed her twice a day a mixture of the puppy replacer (1/2 t) and Bourbon's Modified Leadbeaters (1/8 t) mixed together in a syringe. For the first couple of days I just had to squirt it on my hand and she would lick it off. On the third day she actually drank straight from the syringe. Here is a picture demonstrating how to hold a joey while handfeeding. At four weeks she is drinking about 1/2 teaspoon per serving. This could vary depending on your glider's size. They will become uninterested when full and their bellies will be slightly extended horizontally.

Back to Jules: Jules doesn't seem to be able to produce enough milk for two joeys, but fine with one. I had heard about Brisky's Booster milk and I sprinkle two pinches on her food at night. This seems to help with milk production.

Synopsis

In humans, if they are nervous about motherhood, they are unable to 'let down' when they are nursing. This is possibly what happened with Gizmo. There is a possibility Gizmo was nervous and her milk would not release, therefore the baby dehydrated and died. Gizmo never threw her baby out and was sad when he died. We will not know if Tiny Tim had a birth defect or he was born with only 3 1/2 limbs. Unless I have her tested we will not know whether she had Bovine Mastitis either. This is always a possibility. Gizmo will not breed again until this is resolved.

Jules, at 2 can now successfully nurse two healthy joeys with the help of Brisky's Booster Milk. She is a good Mommy.

Mama will be happy making babies the rest of her life.

As you can see all situations can be different. I would advise however, to wait until your glider is one year before mating, and if you ever hear a joey crying excessively, look in the pouch and don't see mom nursing them, you might want to consider being Mom yourself. If you do, it is a long battle, so you might want to try the alternative of supplemental feeding. I hope this has helped those who have had questions or fears about their first babies.

I wanted to thank Maria for kindly stepping in with some good advice and experience!