Pregnant Glider?

I'll start with a little back story to help you understand why I don't know anymore than I do about my glider. Snappy was had raised from a joey because her mom died not longer after she came out of pouch. My best friend's mom is the one who got her as a joey and raised her. About 6 months ago her SIL asked her if she could breed Snappy with one of her males. Snappy's mom agreed and Snappy went to stay with the other lady. She was there for about 2.5 months. During that time we have no idea what her living conditions were, what she was fed or what happened to her. My friend's mom started having major health problems so she had to find a forever home for Snappy. That's where I came in. When my friend and I picked her up she was in a small carrier with nothing but her pouch. It smelled awful. The smell was so strong that we had to open the windows in the car on the way home. We know that during her stay there she was fed cat food.

After I got Snappy I immediately started her on fruits and veggies and started researching diets. I found one that I like (GliderKids Staple) and have her on that now along with her fruits and veggies. When she came to me she was seriously undernourished. She was thin and you could tell she wasn't as healthy as she should be. Since I've had her she has put on some weight and her temperament has gotten a lot better.

Last night during tent time I was looking her over and my son asked me about her pouch. I held her up to show it to him and noticed it was open quite a bit, much more than the pictures of the underside of the glider. I very gently rubbed her belly and felt what feels like a bump. It was hard to tell anything because the bump was only about the size of a jelly bean. How would I know if she has a joey in pouch or if this is just normal? I'm mainly worried because she is a single glider and I know that there are special considerations for the joey if the dad isn't around.

Here is a pic of what her pouch looks like. Sorry it looks like I'm squeezing her in the pic. She moved as I snapped it.
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Brandy I can't see much from the picture but unless a glider is pretty close to oop date it's hard to see the baby bump. If you even think she may be pregnant she needs protiene in her diet. Give her some boiled chicken or scrambled egg. I;m not sure what gliderkids staple is but I am guessing maybe a pellet food. You may also want to start giving her some brisky's booster milk to up her milk production because if she had been on a bad diet she may need extra help now. You may also want to order all the stuff for a joey rejection kit. The brisky's booster milk works to feed a joey also...yeah

GliderKids Staple is not a pellet. It's a blended diet with the HPW and bee pollen. Here is a link to it - [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. I don't use pellets at all and it has the protein in it. Would I need to add more protein?

I need to try and get a better picture. I was trying to show how big her pouch opening was. It's almost the size of my fingertip, with it sometimes looking a little larger.

Oh sorry for the assumption about diet being pellets...if it's blended with hpw and bee pollen it is a good diet for pregnancy. I would still add the brisky's booster milk though. It helps add extra protien and helps mommies make more milk for the baby. I feed HPW and all my pregnant or nursing gliders get the brisky's booster milk added to their diet. I just sprinkle a bit of it into their hpw every night, you can also sprinkle it over their food. All my moms have done so much better since I started using the brisky's. I order it from Shelly Stark...glider nursery. She has been great to work with and has the cheapest prices...suz from suz's glider web site has it for the same price shelly does and is great to work with too.

Thanks for the tip about the brisky's. I'll check into that and add it to her diet as well. No worries about the diet assumption. I know that a lot of people do feed pellets at first. I was lucky that Snappy has never been fed pellets because she refused to eat them. For the longest time they did give them to her, but she would eat maybe 3 pellets a week.

Check her baby bump area in another week and see if you feel anything then. Try not to keep going back to feel too much because it could disturb her and cause her to eat the baby, or knock the baby off the nipple. Not that you have to worry too much about that but I know when I think one of my girls in pregnant I want to just keep checking until I know for sure. You just don't want to overdo it causing any stress. If she has a bump now in another week you should be able to tell if it's there and any bigger.

My friend is coming over this week to look at her too. She's been around her so much that she will be able to tell if anything looks different about her. I'm resisting the urge to feel her belly again. I figure that me messing with her won't help anything so it's better to leave her alone. I spent today making her new toys to play with. The way she peeked out of her pouch and looked around was priceless.

Have fun with the toy making...you'll have your lil girl spoiled rotten in no time.

Hope all goes well!

Most likely if you felt a jelly bean bump she does have a joey IP and the Briskey's booster milk is a wonderful suggestion. What I did for my little Mamma was to mix up some glider formula (suz has some formulas on her page) and give her a little of it, I still ended up needing to supplement one of the twins though (she wasn't rejected, but wasn't putting on weight like her brother). . .

Thanks for the info. My friend came over today and saw her. She isn't sure but she felt the same thing I did. She has had a pregnant glider before so she thinks we may be right but it's still too early to tell.

Honestly, based on the photo alone... she LOOKS preggers! And the pouch will often be 'open' more because they will be cleaning the joey and what not.

ok I am a new glider mom.. tonight was watching Elanore and it looks like she is cleaning her pouch... the previous owner called last night conviently after i had already picked the gliders up and said oh by the way the female may be pregnant... so I guess i just wait and see. but i guess what i am asking is if her cleaning her pouch is a sign she may be pregnant? she is not hand tame yet so no way for me to pick her up and feel for a bump. I am working with her everyday but am sure the adaptation will be harder for her if she is pregnant as her instinct will be that i am an outsider and she needs to be protective of the joey? am i right?