Breeding Quads- What should I expect???

I've only ever had breeding pairs, but had intended on having a breeding quad in the future(was waiting to put the boy with the girls). However, due to certain circumstances I had to put a different boy with the girls and, well, he's a bit of a manly-man glider and already has all 3 girls preggers with twins IP. Sooo...now we've got 6 joeys on the way in just 1 cage!

Since I'm new to this I'm curious what I should be prepared for. Are there any specific things/signs I should be watching out for as far as the girls trying to steal/kill each other's joeys?

None of the girls are related. 2 are younger and about the same age. They get along perfectly and 9 times out of 10 when I come I go into the glider room I'll find the 2 of them play-wrestling in the ball bit, lol. The 3rd girl is older(2 1/2 years old) and used to be in a trio and never bred. She just babysat. So, I didn't think she'd ever have joeys, but she surprised us and gave birth to 2 joeys a couple days ago, lol.

All 3 girls are due in July. The 2 younger girls are 2 weeks along and the older girl is just a couple days along. At what point are the girls more likely to get aggressive(if ever): the beginning/end of the joeys being IP or after the joeys come OOP?

I'm excited but nervous at the same time, lol. All the girls are realy sweet and get along like they've been together from birth, so I think they'll do great, but I can't help but to be nervous. Any pointers you all can offer would be greatly appreciated.

I had a quad that had been together since they were about 8 weeks OOP. They got along great until one female had a joey. Immediately, you could sense the tension in the air. There were strange noises that made me very uncomfortable. when I checked, mom was on top of the cube they slept in, with baby holding tightly to mom. The other two females were staring up at them like they were plotting an attack, while dad sat by and did nothing. I immediately removed the two females and put them in their own cage. I just didn't think it was safe to leave them in with the joey.

I would watch them very, very closely for any signs of aggressiveness or strange noises. Be prepared to pull one or more moms and joeys if needed.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Did yours start acting weird before or after the joeys were OOP? Also, did you ever have more then one girl with a joey IP at a time?

I thought that it was pretty odd that all 3 girls got preggers at the same time. I thought for sure that at least ONE of the girls wouldn't drop joeys IP since there's usually a dominant female, but all 3 have twins and are doing great so far. No bickering or anything. The only noises I hear between the girls are when Delia and Rosa are tsk-ing while play-wrestling, lol.

I'll be sure to update every once in a while.

Any experiences and advice with breeding quads would be appreciated!

I was reading this to my hubby and he said "wow I feel sorry for that boy glider! He is gonna be busy baby sitting all 6 joeys while the mamas play." lol. Maybe they won't all go OOP at once

I said exactly that same thing to my husband last night! ROFL! I feel sorry for my poor boy because he's probably going to get suffocated by all the joeys, lol!

Then I imagined what it's going to be like when they're finally eating on their own...there are going to be 10 gliders in 1 cage! AHHHH!!!!! :o I'm going to be scared to open the door because all 10 of then will be trying to give me facehugs! I'd better keep up on the nails! Lol.

Can you imagine how fun playtime is going to be though?! I'm going to LOVE it!

It's kinda good that all 3 girls gave birth at once though. If they'd staggered it out then my boy would never get a break. :\ As it is, I'm going to be helping him alot with the babysitting.

Ten in one cage...holy moly! I have ten gliders total! I will demand pictures of that when the time comes.

All I can really say is good luck. I also imagine that if all works out well, daddy won't be too overwhelmed. The other girls will probably take shifts watching some of the kids. I think the hard part will be making sure you know which joey is which as they get passed around from baby sitter to baby sitter.

I look forward to updates on these guys and gals!

Well, daddy is a WF mosaic/100% leu het, so I'm hoping that the joeys come in a bit of a "variety", lol. The odds of the girls all have the same colored joeys is slim, so hopefully that will help telling everyone apart.

Also, I'm a bit of a camera-freak so lots of pics will help me to keep track as well and since all the girls have twins then then can't get away with joey stealing without me noticing.

All I know for sure is that these next few months are going to be VERY interesting! lol.

HOLY MOLY! Better you than me Nicole. Can't wait to start seeing those pics.
One thing I can tell you for sure.......you ain't gonna be bored! LOL

LOL! You've got that right!

thats really exciting! your going to need to make a thread to keep us updated all the time

I doubt that the other female will be plotting to get each others joeys with all of them having joeys in pouch.

You are going to have your hands full. Poor daddy.

I had a breeding quad, they came to me that way. I never had any issues with them. Daddy is wonderful, and knows his job very well! The moms got along great, and would babysit each others joeys, which would give Dad a break too!

Mine seemed to always cycle at the same time, so we would have a bundle of babies!

You already mentioned baby stealing. If your females have always been together, you may not have those issues. It is my understanding that an older female may become the dominant one and not "let" the other mom's keep their babies. I have not experienced this, but that possibility is why I didn't put Baleigh in with Beatrice and Bosley as planned as a trio. Beatrice was older, and would possibly pull joeys from Baleigh. I wouldn't chance the joeys being injured, so Baliegh is happy with Gadget! (With her first joey IP!)

Good luck, and keep us posted!

Thank you Shelly!

I had also heard that older females could become dominant, but my older girl, Violet, used to be in a trio and she never bred, he only babysat, so I'm thinking she's probably a submissive female rather then dominant. Hopefully she doesn't change roles now that she's with younger girls.

I hope it all works out as well as your quad. So far so good!

I think I'll start taking weekly pics of the girls and start up a thread called the "Quad Chronicles", lol.

Wow Nicole, congrats on all the babies! I'm also curious about when the baby-snatching most commonly occurs, since we just got our trio a few weeks ago. You are so on top of it, knowing when they all gave birth! With our one cage of 2 gliders, we never seem to be all that aware. It's like one day I'm asking my hubby "Hey, do those look like baby bumps to you?" & then we're just waiting around to see if the bumps get bigger or if she's just fat...lol. But yeah with our trio, I guess we're going to have to watch more closely because I'd really like to know if there's snatching going on or if one of the girls just never breeds or what the heck is happening with them.

Misty

Lol. I'm always home(I work from home) so I tend to be pretty in-touch with what goes on with my fuzzbutts. I've only ever had a few sneak joeys past me and that was because we had alot going on at the time. Whenever I catch my gliders mating I mark down the day and check 15 days later. If they don't give birth that day I check every few hours til they do. I rarely miss it.

I took pics of all 3 girls yesterday and you can kinda see the bumps. I'll post the pics later.

Ok Girl, either you are crazy or I am neglectful...lol. Being as how we're only on our 2nd set of joeys right now, I don't think we even fully recognize for sure when our gliders are mating. Do you check them every 2 hours even in the middle of the night?

So back to the original question. Can anyone tell us at what point joey-snatching & rejections are most common with quads/trios?

Misty

My gliders like to make a show of when they're mating. I only have one glider that will crab at me just for walking in the room(she is SO weird! lol. She hates me with a passion. :P) so when I go into the glider room and hear tsking/crabbing then 99% of the time it's because the gliders are mating.

Also, it's kinda hard to miss when I go to take them out to play or hand out mealies and they're doin the dirty. It's usually a 2-3 day ordeal so I'm bound to catch them mating at some point in time within that window.

UPDATE: so far so good! The 2 younger girls, Rosa and Delia, are both 4 weeks along and the older girl, Violet, is 2 weeks along. Their joeys are growing like weeds!

My camera isn't working, but I'll try and get some bump pics with my other camera if I can get some clear pics.

Well, Violet didn't want to take pics and show off her belly, but I got pics of everyone else.

Rosa(4 1/2 weeks along)






Rosa and Delia(4 weeks along)


Delia


And, of course, the big daddy, Gil!


I'm SOOO happy that all is going well so far and am uber-excited for their joeys to come OOP!

Congrats Nicole! I sure hope it continues to go well! Can't wait to see what Daddy has produced!

They all look so content. Are they all still getting along well with no fighting?

Lindsay

Yup! They're all getting along perfectly! The girls act like they've been together forever. It's like all of them being preggers at the same time actually makes them more strongly bonded.

Also, even more amazing: I can't remember the last time Gil got food-aggressive! I think it was a couple weeks ago, but honestly can't remember, lol. He's started getting aggressive after being with the girls a little while, but then he slowly cut back and stopped. It was really weird! I don't mind the weirdness though, lol, I'm just extremely happy that he's finally found other gliders that he feels comfortable with and doesn't feel the need to protect his food any more.

That is great. I can't wait to see what all the babies look like.

Lindsay

I'm sooo exited for you! You always have such hansome joeys!
Keep up updated I'd love to see OOP pictures.

Will do!

Congrats Nicole. Glad to hear your quad is doing so great & thanks for sharing the pictures. It actually helped confirm for me that our pair most definitely has joeys in pouch. I was just looking at her pretty closely last night & I'm quite certain the lumps are there.

Our trio is doing pretty well but no mating yet that I'm aware of (they're still pretty young, so that's more than ok). They still bicker a little bit here & there, but I think they're doing fine. It's good to hear your quad is working out.

Misty

Congrats Misty. Glad you were able to figure out if she did have joeys in pouch.

Yeah your one girl can really crab.

Definately update often with pics Nicole. I can't wait to see these joeys. All of yours that I have seen are just beautiful and look so sweet.

Lindsay

Congratulations on the joeys Misty!

I hope your trio works out! Keep us posted.

Man, I still can't believe that Rosa and Delia are already over 4 weeks along! I've been keeping myself busy so I guess that helps, lol.

Gil is a handsome stud! Best of luck and def. keep us all posted!

Hubby came running into the room a couple hours ago to tell me that 2 of the girls were fighting. So, I rushed into the glider room and all I saw was Rosa, but she looked like she'd wet herself. I took out everyone one at a time and made sure they were all okay and checked the babies too. Everyone was fine.

I told hubby to keep his ears open(since he was sitting outside the glider room playing his video games) and let me know if he heard them fight again.

About an hour later he hollered to let me know they were fighting again so, once more, I ran into the glider room to check everyone...

I saw Delia chasing Rosa and then they rolled into a ball and were fighting. I managed to separate them both and grabbed my e-cage and put Delia and Violet in there(they are practically mom/daughter because Violet was the "babysitter" in a trio with Delia's parents so she raised Delia) and have Gil and Rosa in the regular cage(I don't think Gil would handle being in a small cage very well...he's got too much energy).

I'm extremely upset because everything was going SOOO well. Rosa and Delia acted like siblings and would play-wrestle in the ball pit and groom each other all the time and Sheba acted like the loving mom to them. I just don't understand what went wrong. My poor babies. I hope they and their little ones IP all make it through the sudden transition.

On a different note, I'm extremely glad I had a quad instead of a trio because if I'd had a trio then I would have had to put a girl all by herself. Because there were 4 I was able to split them evenly.

I think I'm going to stick with pairs from now on...

I'm sorry it didn't work out. I was always to nervous to try a breeding quad. I'll be thinking of your moms and IP joeys.

I'm sorry it didn't work Nicole. They were getting along so well too.

Lindsay

that is a shame it didn't work out

I'm so sorry, Nicole. At least they started bickering and were separated before joeys came OOP. Good for your hubby for alerting you too! Again, I'm so sorry that it didn't work out, but I do thank you for posting this so that everyone has the opportunity to learn from it.

Okay...update:

I went back into the glider room to check on everyone after the separation and, lo and behold, I find Troy running around the glider room! :\

He had to have gotten out when I was getting the food ready or something because when I checked the doors they were completely closed and there's nowhere else he could have gotten out.

Soooo....I'm thinking that perhaps he had something to do with the girls fighting. Perhaps they were trying to attack him and ended up attacking each other instead and that led to them both being mad at each other.

I'm not sure, but it just seemed to coincidental that Troy got out AND the 2 girls that have always been best buds suddenly start duking it out. :\

So, I ended up putting them back together and keeping a close eye on them. So far so good, but they did sleep in 2 separate groups(Gil/Rosa and Violet/Delia) so I'm guessing they're still mad about the tiff, but I had them all together handing out mealies and they didn't seem mad at each other.

I really hope it was because of Troy stirring them up, but I'm going to be watching them like a HAWK and probably waking up during the night to check on them just to make sure everything is fine.

What do you guys think? Do you think that Troy might have been the cause of the tension? Or should I just side with caution and keep them separate? I think it's going to be extremely stressful on them all to have to separate them, so I'd like to avoid that if possible, especially since all the girls have joeys IP and Delia and Violet would be stuck raising them with no man to help if I had to separate them.

This is the part of breeding that is NOT fun. *sigh*

I'm hoping things work out for you.

Lindsay

Unforunately, this is a tough choice that only you can really make. Breeding trios and quads are notorious for having issues arise as you know. I'm not sure if Troy had something to do with it or not, but with as far along as the girls are, I would be very cautious about keeping them all together after a fight like that.

I have a breeding quad and have had no problems what so ever from them. They too came to me as one .They are excellent parents .They are three sisters and they care for each others babies .Good luck Nicole it may have just been that they were indeed trying to get him.

Holy cow, Nicole! I hope that all this was is a big upset by the loose glider. Keep a close eye on them. I know everything has been going so smoothly to this point. We still have no idea how our trio will get along once they start mating. I would really hate to have to pull one of our girls out & find her another mate or rehome her. So far I love having them all together.

Keep us posted.

Misty

I do not have any breeding Quads but I do have two cages with Quints and they get along fine. Once in awhile I hear bickering and check and it has always been due to the fact one of the gliders got up and wanted underneath the other ones and they got mad and yelled at him/her

Well, this wasn't just bickering. It was all-out going-for-the-kill attacking. :\

However, Rosa and Delia have never even so much as bickered! The worst "fights" they ever have is when I don't give them both mealies fast enough and one will grab the mealie from the other and they get fussy, but that's it. I really think that what happened was that they were trying to attack Troy and ended up attacking each other and in the heat of the moment they confused each other as the "enemy".

When I saw Troy he was on Milky Way and Leda's cage, but he was shivering and shaking, so I'm guessing it's because of the girls trying to beat him up because Milky Way and Leda were in their pouch and no where near Troy.

I thought that if the girls were going to start fighting for territorial rights then it's be something that kinda slowly builds up. Know what I mean? Not just an all out war all of the sudden.

So far so good, but once they get up tonight I'm going to take them out and keep a VERY close eye on them. If I see so much as a dirty look between the 2 then I'm going to side with caution and break them into 2 groups.

Hopefully it was just Troy though...

I've never lost a glider or a joey and don't want to start now.

Good luck!

Misty

Good Luck, Nicole. Let us know how it all goes.

Lindsay

Well I hope that they end up being ok. Hopefully it was Troy. It would be so awesome if they all stayed together and raised the babies. Good Luck!!!!

Sounds like you had some night! It might have been Troy that caused the fight. Keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well!

Well, I definitely saw Delia chasing Rosa and then the 2 of them wrestling, but it just seems too coincidental and like I said, they've never so much as tsk-ed at each other. So I want to try and give them another chance before doing something as drastic as splitting up gliders while the girls have joeys IP.

I was hoping to finally have a normal sleep schedule tonight, but I doubt that's going to happen since I'll probably wake up every 5 minutes, lol.

With that being said, and the girls with joeys IP, I would be extremely cautious. If it were me, I would separate them to be on the safe side. Once the joeys are away from the moms, then try to introduce them again. I'm not sure what to say, it's obviously your decision. Keep a close eye on them, and do what your heart tells you to do.

Good Luck!

Well, I woke up at 3am and went to check on the girls. They were all fine, so I went ahead and handed out mealies to all the gliders and while doing that they suddenly balled up again.

So, now they're separated off into pairs. *sniffles*

I will continue to keep you all posted.

Please keep all my beautiful girls and their IP joeys in your thoughts and prayers.

QUESTION: would it be safe to try and intro a neutered male in with Delia and Violet? I have 2 boys: Troy(6 months old, never bred) and Carmine(3 1/2 years old, never bred...well, tried to twice, but with no success, lol). I'm wondering if it'd be good for them to have a "man" to help babysit the joeys or if it's better to just leave them as-is and they'll just take turns babysitting?

At this point this stress of fighting with the bonded cage mates and then the separation is already going to be stressful for the mommies. I think introducing a male would probably just create more of it. And even neutered he might not react well to the joeys. Just my opinion, could be wrong though.

Sorry it did not work out well for you. I'm also having problems with my (non breeding) colony of 5. Everyone is getting along well one sec and the next Lena turns into a beast and chases everyone around making her little rawr noise.

Either way, good luck with all your mommies hope the joeys all come out healthy

I had a quad that had been together from 8 weeks OOP. Sara got preggers with one joey but the other two girls didn't get preggers. All was fine until Lady Jaclyn came OOP. I heard a different sound in their cube and it wasn't a good sound. I ran to check and Sara was hanging from the inside top of the cube, Lady Jaclyn hanging onto mom, the other two girls eyeballing them, and daddy Jasper just laid back, watching. My gut told me to remove the two non-mommies, so I did. I am positive, had I not done so, they would have killed Lady Jaclyn. It broke my heart to have to break up a quad that had been together since weaned joeys, but I saw no other safe choice.

I am praying for all your IP babies and their mamas. I think as long as they have one cage mate, even with joeys IP, they will be fine. I think if you intro'd a new male, even neutered, he would kill the joeys because he will know they aren't his.

Nicole......NOOOOOOOOO......I was so rooting for your quad to work out. *sad*

Well at least no one has been harmed up to this point, other than probably a little stress.

Misty

That's what I figured, but I knew it didn't hurt to ask, lol.

I guess I'll be on babysitting duty in a few weeks. Man, and I JUST got out of my bad habit of being nocturnal. Well, I've got a few more weeks to enjoy it, then back to being nocturnal AGAIN, haha!



That's one reason I'm EXTREMELY grateful that I had a quad instead of a trio. At least they can now still be in pairs.

Thank you all for your help and support. I will keep everyone posted on the girls and their little ones.

UPDATE: all the mommies and IP joeys are doing great! No signs of stress and no losses!

Rosa and Delia are now 6 weeks along and Violet is 4 weeks along.

That's great, Nicole!

It really stinks that you had to separate them. At least you caught what was going on before someone got hurt.

Misty

UPDATE: all is well on the mommy and baby front!

Also, look who are about to make their entrance into the world!



(his tail is hidden in the pic, but it's all white)



They're Rosa's boys and they're due OOP tomorrow, but I think they've still got an extra day or 2 of cooking to go because they're still pretty naked, lol.

Aren't they beautiful?! I think I'll name then Simon and Garfunkel, lol.

OMG, I love the ring on that one little boys tail, how cute!

They're beautiful!

Nicole, that's awesome! Thanks for sharing the photos. Our Rikku never lets her joeys just hang out like that until they just couldn't possibly fit any more. She keeps 'em cookin' forevery.

In our trio, Taji has what looks like one baby bump. I can't wait to see what she's having and how the trio will do. I keep checking her belly every day to make sure that bump is still there...lol.

I'm glad your babies are doing well.

Misty

Well, this is Rosa's first pair of joeys and she's a pretty petite glider, so I've been seeing parts for over a week and the other day the joeys were hanging out as well, but I only got 1 pic before she shoved them back in, lol. They're due out tomorrow, but I think they might have another day or 2 extra to go.

When is your Taji due?

I have no idea...lol. We never seem to catch when our gliders are mating. I really don't know how you always know when they're due OOP. We just guess by how big they're getting. Rikku (from our duo) has 2 IP right now & we're starting to see body parts. It's so fun! Taji (from our trio) just has a small bump on one side. It's definitely growing though. The first time I noticed, I could just barely tell she was looking a little bit asymmetrical. Now it's pretty obvious, but I think she has quite a while left to go.

Yeah your little joeys look like they have a little more cookin' to do before they're ready to come out. How exciting!

Misty

Well, all WAS going well and Delia had a gorgeous ringtail girl and WFB boy come OOP Sunday night:

Girl


Boy


However, I found the boy alone 3 times and 2 times he was freezing cold and once he was outside the pouch and his mom was right inside, but ignoring him. So, I've pulled him and am hand-raising him.

Please keep the little guy in your prayers and that the other joeys will be okay.

Poor little guy!! I'll keep him in my prayers

Nicole, I will keep him in my prayers!

Paula

My thoughts are with you and these babies. They are stunning by the way. That little girl has the most beautiful tail markings I've seen in a long time. I am wishing you the very best with these angels.

I'm so sorry, Nicole.

Aww what beautiful babies! Your little man will be in our prayers!!

Thank you guys.

He's doing really well so far.

BTW, I checked on the girls and Violet's little girl was hanging out and I FINALLY got a pic of her!



She's so purty!

They all are very pretty. Lucky you.

Lindsay

Oh - your babies are adorable - lucky you - I'll keep the little one that you're hand raising in my prayers -

Good luck and God Bless

Sue
owned by &
mom to

She is a doll!

Eep! I'm drowning in beautiful joeys! I just went to check on Delia and Violet and Violet's little boy was OOP!

He's got the cutest, roundest nose I've ever seen! And he's SOOOOOO light! Man, I wish I could keep ALL of their babies because they're all so beautiful and unique! WAH!

Here's Violet's beautiful little boy:

They're all so gorgeous Nicole!

Violet's little girl was OOP this morning!







I'm lovin the triangle on her head! lol. She's so adorable!

So, finally, after ages of waiting, all 6 joeys are OOP. Phew!

Delia's little boy(the one I'm handraising) is doing great! Thank you all your for your prayers and well-wishes!

Here are some pics I took of him after feeding him this morning:





Here's a pic of him when he fell asleep in my hand. He looks naked cause of the moisture from my hand, lol.




I think I'm going to name him Smidgin.

UPDATE: Smidgin is doing AWESOME! He's sitting in my left hand and grooming as I type this, lol.

Here are some new pics I took:









I think he might be getting a buttercreamy color like his mom. He's SOOOOOO beautiful!

They are all just gorgeous! I will keep praying that he thrives!