Soooo, I have an adorable sugar glider named Luna. We are best friends, but I cannot fulfill all of her social needs. Recently (as hard as this was to admit to myself) she has become somewhat depressed. No matter how much time and attention I give her, my love isn't the same as another glider's love. For the past month and a half I've been trying to find her a friend. I recently met some people through Craigslist who were moving (due to the husband's job) to Victoria, Texas. Their new housing was to be paid by the husband's job, and the new place they are living won't allow ANY pets, so they needed to rehome their female glider, Sugar (I hate the name....)

I spent all day (and night) this past Saturday with Sugar and her family. Sunday she came home with me. :D I have some pictures....





The first two pictures are Sugar, and the last is Luna.

I'm pretty certain that Sugar is a standard grey, but she's just SO much darker than I expected. Luna is a white-faced blonde, and she's very lightly colored. The vet actually remarked upon how light her coloring is (she's adorable). EVERYTHING about Sugar is just SO much darker than Luna. Where Luna is grey, Sugar is DARK charcoal colored. Her black markings seem much deeper than Luna's. Her back almost has a silvery look to it. She also has a dark black stripe on each back leg. Anyway, unless I'm mistaken, she's just a standard grey. I guess I'm just so surprised by her coloring, as I'm used to Luna's light colors.

Sugar is about 1yr old; I wasn't given an OOP date, as her owners can't remember it exactly. She's supposed to be a year in June or July. Luna is 5months old. Sugar is MUCH more active than Luna. She is CONSTANTLY on the move, whereas Luna prefers to snuggle all the time. She's very friendly though, and her owners were surprised when she didn't bite me and happily let me pet her, before climbing all over me. (Admittedly, I was also surprised at this behavior, as Luna was much harder to win over originally and was quite nippy for some time).

Sugar was living in a HORRIBLE cage. It is smaller than Luna's travel cage (which is small enough already). If the top were open, and it were a box, you couldn't even fit LPs inside. It's THAT small. Sugar now has a big cage (3'x2.5'X2'). It's a little smaller than Luna's cage (which I ultimately hope to have them both live in). She also didn't have a wheel, but I gave her one. I gave her a couple more toys, and I have more coming soon in the mail for her. She seems very pleased with her new living arrangements, and seems to really enjoy my attention. Oh, and she will be going to the vet in two weeks (I don't have a car, and that was the first time my day off lined up with my friend's day off so she could give me a ride into the city).

Both girls live in the same room, and I've heard so many new glider sounds in the last two nights. I seriously didn't know Luna could make half the sounds she's been making to Sugar. SO much barking... There are also these weird "soot" noises they make at each other. Is that hissing? Is that bad/aggressive?

One really bad thing has happened though, and I'm not sure if I should be worried. Luna came with me to meet Sugar. She wasn't supposed to meet Sugar, but I was spending the night, and I wasn't leaving her alone without me. Anyway, Luna practically lives in my shirt. When I arrived at Sugar's old house, she was in my shirt. Catrina (Sugar's old mommy) got Sugar out and brought her sleeping pouch over to me so I could meet the little darling. I was about to ask for a minute to extract Luna from my shirt and put her away before meeting Sugar, but Luna had other ideas. She jumped out of my shirt and into the pouch Catrina was holding. Luna grabbed Sugar's head and started grooming her, and Sugar tried to do it back. I swear I've never seen her move that fast. And she bit me HARD for taking her out and putting her in a zippered bonding pouch.

Anyway, since then they haven't been close enough to touch or throw anything at each other (although they've been spending their nights/days across the room from each other). I really wanted to take Sugar to the vet and quarantine before I even started scent swapping... Should I be worried that happened? Luna is healthy and parasite free (so says the vet). Sugar's fur doesn't look as good as Luna's (she was getting a pellet protein before I started taking care of her). Luna's fur looks GREAT, so I'm sure Sugar will start looking better soon. She's alert, her eyes are clear, her nose is clear, and her ears look good. She seems perfectly normal and healthy to my untrained eyes. But now I'm a little worried. I mean, I am quite pleased that the two already seem to like each other, but I don't want Sugar to secretly have parasites or something. And if she did, has Luna already contaminated herself???

Anyway, sorry for the long message. I just wanted to introduce my new baby and ask about how that break in quarantine will affect Luna (if at all). Thanks guys!

Oh! I lied, I have a couple more questions.

One, Sugar smells different. I mean, she still smells like a glider, and she smells very similar to Luna, but not quite the same. I'm not quite sure how to explain in words the differences in their smells. Both of them have very clean cages and aren't super smelly, but I like to nuzzle them, so I smell them a lot. And Sugar smells just a little different. I'm pretty sure that I could tell them apart by smell if I had my eyes closed. Is that normal? That doesn't mean there's anything wrong, does it?

Two, Sugar's tail is smaller. Luna's is definitely fluffier. But Luna is also just fluffier in general. She's been eating better than Sugar, and I'm sure Sugar will look fluffier and softer in no time eating what I feed her (I feed Reep's Wombaroo Diet). But her tail is shorter by a solid half inch. And she's actually a little bigger than Luna. Is that weird?

Three, I loathe the name Sugar. It's so uncreative, and I really think Sugar deserves a better name (once I have the time to think of one that suits her). That being said, she TOTALLY knows her name. Luna responds more to these clicky noises I make at her than her name. But Sugar responds best to her name. Does that mean I shouldn't try to change it?

YAY! I'm happy for you! I clicked on the post and forgot what the title said. As I began to read, I thought you were getting ready to rehome Luna, by the tone of the post at first. I'm glad that isn't the case!! Sugar is beautiful. I just went through an introduction and quarantine with Rue and Liv and I can give you some help.

1) The noises are normal. It's just them communicating. Rue did it when he and Lively were in completely separate rooms. It's a weird little hissing noise. Have you heard them clicking at eachother too? A few people told me that the hissing and clicking are friendly noises.

2) It's normal to notice a different smell. I definitely did when I brought Liv home. I had gotten so used to Rue's smell that when she came home, she just smelled different. I guess just like some people smell different.

3) Every glider is different so it's okay for Sugar's tail to be shorter than Luna's. It may just be a genetic trait, or it may have been accidentally groomed off when she was a joey. My friend has a glider with only half a tail and we never knew why. We just figured that the parents may have groomed a little too rough.

4)If you feel that her name should be changed, then change it! I don't care for the name Sugar either. I named Rue after the character in the Hunger Games who liked to climb trees and jump from branch to branch. Lively just found her own name because of how lively and alert she is. (:


I'm going to send you a little PM too.

Oh gosh, no! Luna is one of my best friends. She isn't going anywhere without me. She has been depressed though, but I've noticed improvement since Sugar has been around. She's been eating better, and so far she hasn't been weirdly awake during the day and/or just staring at things and looking generally miserable.

No, I haven't heard clicks, but I also haven't spent a whole night awake with them. (Once they finally spend a night together in a cage though, I plan to stand vigil all night). The hisses happen when they first wake up at night. So far, each time it's happened, they've both been on the side of their cages closest to each other. Maybe it's a greeting of some kind. I know about the barking, because it's really loud. The other noises I've heard are kind of like guinea pig noises, if that makes sense. It sounds like a conversation when they make those noises. I've heard Luna make noises like that once or twice to me, but when she and Sugar make them it goes on for forever.

Cool, so her smell is normal. I was kind of worried that she maybe shouldn't smell different and something was wrong. I know un-neutered males can smell more, and when I first met her and smelled her, I had to sex her to be sure she really is a female. But she has a lovely little pouch (and she bit me for making sure it is in fact there).

I'm not sure if it's natural to be that short or not. Both of their tails have black tips, but the tip on Sugars is shorter. I can't really tell if it used to be longer or not. I haven't seen her glide yet (most of our interactions have been snuggling, and her running all over me and the living room). But it looks plenty long enough to use as a rudder in flight, so I don't think it gives her any problems.

If she knows her name, will she be able to get used to and learn a new one? I don't actually have one ready for her yet (I'd kind of like to get to know her a little better before I name her). But I also don't want to force a name change on her if she's not going to get it. As happy as she seems, I'm sure the rehoming process was stressful for her, and I don't want to add to that stress.

Congrats on your new glider and to Luna for having a new friend.

Cross contamination can happen during the quarantine without use of extreme precautions, I wouldn't sweat it too much. I would continue with the quarantine though until after vet visit and then ask the vet if it would be ok to forgo the rest of quarantine time. Then just follow up with both gliders after 30 days. If something shows up, it's not to much more difficult to treat 2 gliders for parasites then it is for one. A colony would be different.

As for the name change, if you're sure Sugar is very in-tune to her name, then try to think of something that sounds close that you may at least like better. When we adopted our dog, she was named Drew, they told us to use her name in combo with the new name we wanted to change to (she was about 6 months old). We wanted to call her Willow, so we called her Willow Drew for a while then dropped the name Drew, she learned her new name just fine.

Personally, I can understand why you feel Sugar is an uncreative name, try to see if you can find a name that will blend with it to work on a complete name change or just even add for as is name change.

Like say you call her Sugar-whatever new name you want to give her, find one that sounds like sugar or incorporates the name sugar.

TJones09, how exactly ARE gliders treated for parasites (sorry if that's a dumb question). Also, are parasites deadly? I don't plan on letting anything go untreated, but assuming the vet finds parasites, does that mean my babies are in horrible danger, or does it mean they'll be fine with some help from the vet? Again, sorry if my questions are dumb. All I know is that Luna's fecal float and smear said she doesn't have parasites. I don't really know anything more about them.

I really like the advice on the name change. I don't know her well enough yet to pick out an appropriate name yet, but I will use that advice when I do. We've already gotten to know each other a bit though. She's been chilling in my shirt, and last night she let me give her a belly/chin/neck rub, and then groomed me for a solid ten minutes afterwards. It was very sweet. :]

I'm sure the last thing that she's worried about is a name change. (:

I think she could learn a new one. Dogs do it all the time. I know gliders and dogs are very different, but they are intelligent little animals.

Parasites can be deadly if left untreated, but when they are caught in time, then they are usually treated just fine. I really don't know how they are treated either. I'm guessing by oral medications.

I haven't had to have any gliders needing treatment for parasites, I have had my bearded dragon treated soon after I got him, but as sierra said, it's treatable when caught in time. I'm sorry I can't answer how it's done, my dragon underwent meds, along with thorough habitat clean/sterilization, I'm sure it's similar to that. I would't worry too much over it, I mentioned it only because I'm not aware of all contagions between gliders as of yet, never had any problems with mine, but I'm still new at it.

The vet will test for those during fecal exam, if any are in new glider he should provide treatment and instructions for you. It's unlikely that you'll have that problem, but just saying if you already had cross contamination and your new glider is sick, the vet will just prescribe treatment for both at the the same time, not much harder than treating 1 glider as opposed to 3 or more.

Please don't worry, I'm so sorry if I stressed you out.

I'm really happy for your progress in bonding, you're so lucky!

I'm so glad to see you found a friend for Luna!