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Sugar Gliders
It has been a slow going endeavor befriending this dastardly glider
It has been a slow going endeavor befriending this dastardly glider
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Aug 05 2015
03:28:28 AM
Hello, name is Meg, Sheila is my glider.

Sheila came to me some time in November of last year, she lived at my neighbors' house and belonged to their daughter. She was ten months old when I got her, as far as I know. She wasn't taken care of very well, the girl was never home. Her mom had to feed her and clean her cage, which was probably the most human interaction she got while she was there. She was given those plastic fruit cups of syrupy mandarin oranges all the time and various other canned items, meal worms;how often and how much I do not know. Rep-cal, also no idea what amounts or what it was put it. She lived there for four months, lonely, around a dog that I do not doubt would have eaten her, given the chance, and I don't even know what else. I have basically no information about her prior to that, she was a rescue or there was another couple or group of sugar gliders where she was and she wasn't apart of the colony or she was kept alone and they were rehomed and bam, she ended up there. Very shortly after she arrived at my neighbor's I was told that she wasn't being taken care of and that she may be given to me, so basically all I could do was wait around for months for them to finally make that decision.

I am babbling.

Nearly ten months we have been together, she is a grump. We have a good relationship, mostly. Our friendship has been developing ever so slowly. I was very excited when she first came to me, though I knew it was not going to be like getting a baby and she would bond to me over night. Her first night here I really stressed her out because I had no choice but to scrub her cage, it smelled so bad I couldn't put it in my room. Just standing next to it made me nauseous, it couldn't even be in the house. I had to get her out of the cage, which was awful, keep her in a fishtank for 20 minutes while i scrubbed the cage, which was awful, then I had to transfer her back to the cage from the fishtank and in the middle of doing so she escaped, which was awful. I had to trick her into thinking I was not following her around so she did not feel chased and towel scoop her ...eventually.. Back into her house, it was a nightmare. I cut her up fresh fruit and vegetables and left her alone as much as I could possibly stand to. Then I realized sugar gliders should not have squeaking wheels that are not secured to the cage, I was up literally all night. I had no choice but to get her a silent wheel the very next day. Great start.

So over time I took it slow, tried to respect her personal space. I think she may have always been alone, pressuring her wouldn't help. I handmade her a teddy bear thinking it may comfort her, I saw pictures online of cute tiny gliders cuddling eensy weensy teddy bears while they slept, she must need one. She could have cared less, oh my, it broke my little heart. She came to me with a sock and a glider house, the brown one with the loops on either side with the yellow butterfly on it. Looks like a little tree house. She also had this ridiculous pink camo christmas stocking in her cage, which I did not leave in there. I hand made her a sweet huge hammock, a tiny blanket and then I made her her first bonding pouch. It was in her cage for like a week before she even bothered with it, luckily the very day we had to go visit my family two hours away. So she climbs into this pouch and I put it around my neck and she seems pretty cozy. She had only ever crabbed at me one time before this day, surprisingly. She crabbed once that day as well but quickly quieted.

She is great in her pouch, I travel by car to my family mutiple times a year and she just sleeps the whole time, if she is in a pouch I can carry with me she will sleep against me from sun up to sun down, I pet her, cuddle her, give her treats, whatevs, she is cool. She never crabs at me. She doesn't care about my dogs, dogs don't care about her. Honestly, they fear her and never bother her even though the bottom of her cage is basically nose level. We have a good relationship, mostly.

But I am slightly convinced.. She might be evil.

No, but seriously, she is a wicked biter. She is unhandleable. She hates hands.

The funny thing about her though is I know she does not fear me, atleast not when she bites. She is a tad jumpy, but not scared of me I do not believe. She bites for funsies. She gets annoyed, she gets bored, she gets hungry, she bites. When she is sleeping in her pouch I can do whatever I want, scratch her belly, ears, head, back, legs, toes, pull on her legs to inspect toenails, play with her hands and fingers, groom her, play with her tail, scratch her cheeks, boop her nose, scratch her muzzle, play with her whiskers, move her lips around to inspect her teeth, scratch under neck, play with her spagium or however you spell it, literally take every finger on my hand and envelop her body with them and scratch and rub her within my grasp. One time I spent 30 minutes picking apart a dreadlock that formed on her back out of a dried piece of fruit, a pile of hair came out over the course of the thing and she loved it. Slept right through it, shifted her body to accomodate my intentions. As soon as she is wide awake and out of her pouch, or maybe even still in her pouch (most of the time I can scratch her back to sleep), she is a no-hands-gal. She will climb all over me, sleep in the hood of my jacket, sometimes even come to me when she is startled, but this creature will not be picked up (she clings to whatever she is on with every ounce of force and every sticky toenail she has) and she bites me.

I am well aware that gliders can not literally have mean intentions or hate you, but guys, she premeditates these bites. She doesn't bite me all the time, every day, each chance she gets. Sometimes she opens her mouth to do it and i 'tsst' her and she stops and recalculates. Then she is nice Sheila, for a time. Lately, within the last four I would say, she has developed this tactic where she extends her arms (lightning fast) and wraps her terror of ten digits around my finger and attempts to bite, usually with the intention of drawing my blood. She has punctured my skin maybe 6 or 7 times, a few of those were epic and painful, my fingertips.

Even though this is true, I still feel like we are always making progress. Something different will happen, she will react differently to the one thing, she will be more comfortable with this other thing than she was before and so on. I still try to give her personal space when I think she needs it and I do not press her to do something unless it is urgent, like coaxing her into pouch for a trip or I need to clean or something. She is pretty spoiled. I have been very much aware of the fact that she is getting older and she shouldn't be alone and as magic would have it, another sugar glider came to us a few days ago.

Another female, maybe a month or so older than Sheila, also unhandleable, at this point anyway.

Scarlett belonged to a nice young girl who just did not expect from a glider what actually comes along with owning one and did not have time for her, found my craigslist ad and rehomed her to me. She had her for a month, before that Scarlett lived with a person and another sugar glider. I do not know if she was bonded to the other glider but judging by how surprisingly well adjusted she seems after moving twice in one month, the first time leaving the human ahe had been with since she was four months old, she is surely impressive. But god, is she crabby.

I got spoiled with Sheila, she only crabbed at me personally once or twice. Scarlett though, she is a grump. Mostly if she is in her sleeping pouch. The first night she was here she was out and about, I was putting her food dishes in and she was extremely chill for having just met me, same thing last night, but if she is sleeping or accepting food from you, she crabs. Obviously this is acceptable, she has been here three days and unless I am bugging her, nary a peep is made. Even sometimes I can bug her without being crabbed at. Tonight I had my hand in her cage and she approached me, I had my hand closed and knuckles facing her. I knew she was going to bite on me so I let her. Compared to what Sheila has done to me it was nothing, so I just let her bite until she realized I was not going to move my hand. This upset her very much and she began to crab and went back into her pouch. I felt a little sorry for her, crabbing makes my uterus get all wibbly like a baby is crying or something, but mostly I viewed it as a win. All this time when Sheila bit me I pulled away. Now Sheila bites me and she knows I may pull away. If I do not pull away she bites harder on purpose.

Now, here is a funny thing. Like I said, Sheila does not crab at me. She is my buddy. I have Scarlett and Sheila's cages on seperate tables about a foot away from eachother so they can do their thing from afar. So far zero aggression, just general curiosity, I am so glad. But since yesterday, sometimes when Scarlett crabs at me Sheila will join in with her, crabbing not at me but just because she wants to be a sugar glider with another sugar glider. Part of me is thinking, 'oh god, they are going to start teaming up on me' and another part is extremely over joyed that Sheila is finally beginning the bonding experience with another sugar glider. One day they can start biting one another and realize how bad it hurts and quit biting the hell out of me, I surely hope.

Now since Scarlett has come into our lives, just a few days ago, Sheila has been acting understandably different. Who knows if she has ever been close enough to another glider to be a glider herself? She nuzzles against the bars facing Scarlett's cage, stares at Scarlett, runs around her cage and then bam, back to staring at or smelling at or generally being intruiged by Scarlett. I am glad to say it does not seem like an obsessive interest, just a genuine and general interested interest. She eats, runs on her wheel, drinks, sleeps and does her normal stuff. This is going to be a long and slow next few weeks to months getting them associated with eachother, getting Scarlett associatd with me and continuing to nurture mine and Sheila's, what seems to be, complex and semi-fragile relationship.

The thing that really grinded my gears tonight and inspired me to make a new thread in this forum tonight is Sheila. I had my bedroom light on, so I keep blankets over their cages at night when my light is on and I leave the part flipped up on either of their cages so they can talk and look at eachother and get used to one anothers smells and stuff. Sheila is fine with me just hangin out with her so I flipped up part of her blanket so I could look at her and interact with her, and a very strange thing happened. When Sheila is in her house, until recently, I can't touch her really. The last couple months she has become tolerant of me sometimes touching her head and stroking her. This evening she was sitting in front of her foraging bucket and, what seemed to be, playing peekaboo of sorts with me. It was very strange. She was very interested in the fact that I was sitting with her, a new breathe of live has come into her since her neighbor moved in next door. The mostly strange thing is that as she was sitting in front if her bucket on all four feet, close to the ground, I attempted my usual petting, but this time she welcomed it I think. A little earlier she had let me pet her head and stroke her in her cage, which is also unusual, but explainably, she was distracted and watching Scarlett bounce around. But this time, she was just sitting there letting me rub her like she does in her pouch. I was scratchin her ears and back, I hit a sweet spot and she almost, what I think she almost did, rolled onto her back. It was crazy. She didn't actually roll, but she thought about it. Woah! Then she ate some food.

I could tell she was in an oddly peaceful mood, especially for 1 in the morning, so I kept interacting with her and then I stuck my hand in her foraging bucket and moved her pellets around and she was suddenly very interested. She bounced across her cage to me, which is a never, and accepted a single pellet from my hand and ate it while I touched her head. Super impressive, right?

Well shortly after that she got wiley, and this is what inspired me to write this post. She started biting me, big surprise. I re-read recently that when your glider is biting you, let it. Don't back down, take the bite! You gotta let the glider know you are dominant and you will not move your hand and give into their bad behavior! And I thought to myself that I had allowed Sheila to do just that throughout or relationship, so I took the bite. I took a lot of bites. She refused to stop biting me. The pain was intense, at first it was two small bites and then a scraping bite that I watched her take. She ripped off a tiny piece of my skin. She ate. My piece. Of skin. Like some fruit. It was gross, and slightly disturbing. She literally wanted to eat my body and drink my blood. I read a couple biting posts on this site and gliderpedia, in addition to the kajillion different things i have read about biting gliders, and I tried doing the thing where when your glider bites, you distract it with a treat and it stops biting, or gently and sneakily blowing on your glider so the biting will stop.

She took those treats and was distracted. Then she jumped up onto my wrist and ate it. After that, she proceeded lick my blood from the previous wound she left and continued to bite me. She wrapped her tiny little arms and legs around my wrist, held on for dear life and continuously bit me until I, even in the midst of her psycho-crazy-devour my arm-fest, managed to gently blow on the back of her head until she finally jumped off of me. I then washed my arm, wrist and hand with antibacterial soap, peroxide and neosporin.

I know, this happened at night time, while she was in bat mode.. And she is bitey to begin with. It was just crazy and uncharacteristic, possibly due to all the recent changes in life and the new room mate. Maybe she could even be jealous of the attention and consideration I give Scarlett. That would actually warm my heart a little to know she cares. I guess I just haven't had any people to relate to on the topic of my gliders, so I found myself here, telling you guys my extremely long, arduous yet rewarding tale of my life with Sheila and new friend Scarlett. Thank you for listening to this novel of a post. Advice me!
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Aug 05 2015
05:04:54 AM
Kferg Face Hugger Visit Kferg's Photo Album 624 Posts
Hello!
First of all, wow. Brilliant writing. You must write in some capacity as part of your career, I'm guessing?

I'm up early with my fuzzbutts and enjoyed your tale. I believe your woes boil down to biting at this point?

I won't write a novel as I am working on my iPad and find the typing on it annoying to be quite frank, but here's my two cents:

Honestly, I could never take a bite. I'm Flinchy McFlincherson. I have six gliders and they all went through biting phases, at least one of which was scary for us both. I never let any of them bite me. In fact, I'm not proud to admit, but with my most vicious biter I actually kind of flung him off me once (onto the couch, pure reaction I would NEVER do that on purpose) when he bit me really hard. I'm just glad he forgave me

My Fionn is in a biting phase now, which in my experience happens when they are about 7 or 8 months OOP and continues for a while just like it would for a toddler. I have always made the "psst" noise, said "no bite" and if the little chomper persists then scoot him away with my finger. Now, Fionn has been very much wanting to groom those freckles off my arm. So I have to watch him and do a preventive "psst, no bite" and a finger-scoot too sometimes. I'm glad to say it seems to be working.

As for picking Sheila up, I would say, don't! Try to let her climb onto you instead of picking her up. When you need to pick her up, try an under the body scoop which mostly gives her the chance to walk onto you (with encouragement).

Hmmm. I still need some coffee. But I sincerely hope someone else reads your post and offers advice, too.
Whatever happens, please keep keep logging your tales here. I very much enjoyed it!
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Aug 05 2015
05:26:54 AM
Kferg Face Hugger Visit Kferg's Photo Album 624 Posts
Okay, just one more cent, which would make three cents, but this isn't about math...
You said Sheila hates hands. I already mentioned not actually picking her up, but I didn't mention offering licky treats. Have you ever done that? Offered a delicious bit of yogurt on your finger? Okay, now I'm guessing you're imagining the tip of your finger naught but a nub when she's done. But, if you put a nice glob of yogurt on your finger and give her about three licks then pull it away to reload, you should be fine. BUT, don't get confident or fall for the adorable way she licks that yogurt from you like it's crack. She will bite and she will try to grab hold of that crack, um I mean yogurt, if you don't pull away quick enough. This is a great way to help her get used to your hands as the bringer of yummy things, and will also be a terrific way to bond with Scardy Scarlett the Crabber (she'll crab less once she knows you better, and I laughed heartily when my Gimli first crabbed along with Thor as if he was all like, "I got your back, bro")

But really it sounds like you're doing well with your furry babies!
If you haven't read up on introductions yet, there's quite a bit posted here that could be very helpful. You sound pretty knowledgeable, but I wanted to mention it just in case. There's definitely a best way to intro two gliders to give it the best chance of success!
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Aug 05 2015
12:45:39 PM
SheilaWeila Joey 13 Posts
@Kferg

Thank you! I am actually not a writer of any kind. I typed this out on my Ipad last night... it was kind of awful, but I couldn't stop.

I haven't exactly tried to pick her up persay, I definitely have tried the under scoop and the lead onto the hand scoop and she is absolutely not willing. She has no problem jumping on my body when I am close to her and once she is on me she will climb onto the back of my hand and not care when she is distracted. If my hand is not in a fist and she realizes it she will bite my fingers. Then it isn't so bad though because she has distractions. Occasionally when I have had my hand in her cage she has crawled on top and a couple times while she was dead asleep in one of her hammocks or pouches i managed to get my hand underneath her and lift her out. She always wakes up though before I am able to hold her against my belly to let her fall back asleep.

One time, recently, she was asleep in her sock and I wanted to cuddle her. I keep her sock on a caribeanner (sp? one of those clips) and when she is in it I tie my bandana around my neck and clip it to me and she rests inside of my shirts. Well anyway, she woke up and crawled out of her sock and fell asleep in my shirt and she did that thing where she just scraped her teeth against my skin until she fell asleep. That didn't really hurt.

But I have done the licky treat thing, sometimes with success, others.. With cannibalized finger tips. Most recently, the latter. I had banana mush or something on me and one part she licked off, and I will tell you, there was definitely more to lick, but she realized my finger was underneath and made a split second decision to latch onto my finger tip. That was one of the punctures. So you're right, a couple licks and pull away would be a better idea. Sometimes I also poke her water bottle spout and get water on my finger and let her lick it off, she has never bitten me over that. I actually did that last night before Sheila went zombie and tried to eat me.

Thank you again! I enjoyed your input, I will check out the introductions section to gather more info
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Aug 05 2015
05:31:30 PM
Kferg Face Hugger Visit Kferg's Photo Album 624 Posts
Lol you should write, blog, whatever

Well, I also think some gliders just develop bad habits my first glider was alone for sixth months, and I would let her nibble my finger tips because she seemed to like it and it seemed like playing the same way a kitten might. (She's always been so gentle my little love nibbler) And, to this day, she likes to nibble my fingertips. None of the other gliders do, but she does! It's so gentle and sweet I couldn't bear to "psst" her.
And then there's Thor. He's my rescue. I got him off of a Craigslist ad that said "cranky glider that bites and draws blood". (Who wouldn't run out and adopt that, right?) He has come a long, long, way in the two years we've had him and I love him to pieces! He hasn't bitten me and drawn blood ever, for the record. He has bitten, but just pinches, and not recently even though I manhandle him when I clip his nails. However, he does not in any way want me to pick him up ever! No way, no how. He comes out of the cage in the morning on his own only if I stand away from it, and goes back on his own about 20 minutes later. Lucky for me he does that (lucky for him, too). If I had to pick him up From outside the cage I would probably put his favorite treats in a pouch and get him that way. He never even climbs on me. But, I know he loves and trusts me in his own way. He will come over for treats when I call his name, even from inside a pouch. And I can pet him. And clip his nails. And move him from pouch to pouch. But those are his limits lol

Anyway, your gliders are still young so keep working with them. Probably the best bet is to do your best to keep her from biting. I also hand Fionn a plastic bracelet sometimes as a distraction.

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Aug 05 2015
06:07:43 PM
WithyWillow Glider Visit WithyWillow's Photo Album 97 Posts
I know the pain of having a biter. When I rescued Sebastian, the family told me he bit one of the nieces and drew blood. The mom refused to even touch him. They were all afraid of him. He never came out of his cage, and all they did was feed him whatever they had lying around and clean the cage pan.

Needless to say, he came to me petrified of people and would bite me the moment my hand would go in the cage. I've had him a few months now, and he's definitely come a long way. However, I still don't pick him up. He just doesn't like hands clasping around him. I extend my arm out and let him jump on and scamper up to my shoulder. It took a lot of work for him to allow me to pet him, but now I can scratch and snuggle him. But if I dangle my sausage fingers near the opening of his pouch, I'm still going to get bit.

And yes, I took it like a WOman and let him clamp down. I figured it was the least I could do. He had issues. I was his third owner. He needed to beat the stuffing out of something and as unpleasant as it was, it seemed cathartic for him. For me? Not so much. But there came a time when enough was enough. There was hissing. And puffs of air. Sharp words and a whole lot of cursing.

I'm not sure when it happened, or how it happened, but my guy finally chilled out. I started carrying him in my bra (and would get bit there too.) I petted and talked with him constantly. I made full use of his daytime narcolepsy and handled him while he was sleeping as much as possible. Every night, I made sure he watched me feeding him. I'd pet him while he was eating. Somewhere along the line, he realized hands aren't so bad after all.

But licky treats? Forget it. He tries to scrape my skin off like I'm ice on his car windows. And when he's in full turbo mode, I know to keep my fingers and toes tucked at all times.
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Aug 05 2015
10:13:23 PM
SheilaWeila Joey 13 Posts
Kferg, it is definitely just a bad habit I am attempting to curb. She knows I mean her no harm and that there is no need for it. Thank you for all your responses!

Willow, Sheila slept on my bra once when the crawled out of her sock and also chewed on me a fair amount. When I have her in my clothes I always wear a tight tanktop and a long sleeve shirt under my t-shirt so when she is in her pouch she is pressed against me. Also helps if she crawls out, she just falls asleep against me, I love that.
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Aug 06 2015
12:46:51 AM
Candy Cuddle Bear Visit Candy's Photo Album FL, USA 8110 Posts
Please consider getting your glider FLEECE sleeping and bonding pouches. Socks are made of a knitted fabric that can entangle a gliders toe nails which can cause an injury severe enough to require vet care. Gliders have ripped out nails or broken toes trying to free themselves from loosely woven fabrics. Their response to pain can result in further injury because they will literally chew off a toe that is painful.
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Aug 06 2015
01:20:37 AM
SheilaWeila Joey 13 Posts
Every object in her cage is made of fleece, except for that sock. Its not a normal sock either, it is an extremely soft, fuzzy and teeny tiny new born baby sock.
It has been a slow going endeavor befriending this dastardly glider

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Sugar Gliders
It has been a slow going endeavor befriending this dastardly glider