so my wife and I recently added 2 new members to the family. Sugar gliders of course :) and they are both girls. We've had them for about 2 weeks now and we've been trying the bonding process with them since the 3rd day. We wanted them to get to know the scents of the house first, we heard that was good for them to do before trying to handle them at all. So we try and take them out (a pain sometimes lol) and get them in the bathroom for some bonding time, even took them into the bedroom a few times and they were ok with that. Heres the problem and my question. My wife works during the day and I go to school full time but I am a stay at home dad at the moment and they sleep all day. Now I understand they are nocturnal animals I totally get that however. When my wife gets home we have dinner and then around 7-8pm at night we try and get them out to do some bonding time. However most of the time they just try and find a place to go back to sleep. Is this because they are still babies? We forgot to ask the gentleman we bought them from how old they were but we figure they are anywhere from 4-6 months old. Please help we really need some information on this.

Thank you all for your time.

My glider doesn't fully wake up until 10 PM (at the earliest) and 1 AM (at the latest.) He's approximately 2-3 years old. Often he'll wake up, eat, and promptly go back to sleep for a couple of hours. Every glider is different it seems.

Gliders won't wake up in a room that's too bright. My fella wants it nearly pitch black in the room. You can get red light bulbs that allow you to see and it won't hurt their eyes.

Luckily, gliders bond by scent which happens while they are sleeping as much as when they are awake. So while you might feel that you aren't making headway in the bonding process, you really are.

Do you have a bonding pouch? You can carry them in that in the daytime to get some bonding time in while they snooze.

My gliders usually start to wake around 8pm or so, but they won't usually come out of their pouch until 10 or so. They head me put in their dinner and they'll come out to eat, but they don't get active until later.

Depending on your schedule, if you want to play with them while they're active, you could catch them in the morning before they settle in for their sleep.

My gliders used to sleep in until 1am, but I trained them onto a better schedule by coaxing them up with treats. Over time they will adjust.

Thank you so much for the input I will certainly try the red lights. This also brings to mind another question. When I get them in the bonding pouch and I sit and I'm doing homework or chores around the house they tend to "crab" quite often, is this because I'm jostling them too much? because again even when I'm not doing chores and I'm sitting around reading a book, playing video games or doing my homework for my class they still "crab" quite often. Is this also because they are not yet fully bonded to me? or am I doing something wrong? They also "crab" when my wife is holding the bonding pouch so maybe we are both doing something wrong. Any insight would be splendid.

Thank you for your time.

the crabbing could definitely be from jostling them around. remember they're trying to sleep and feel every time you move around. they could also crab because they're thirsty, hungry, need to go to the bathroom, or awake enough to want to be out of the pouch. gliders love to sleep in confined spaces, buttons they wake up they want to be free to roam. of course some of the crabbing is probably from them not being used to your smell also.

if you're moving around when they start crabbing try to stop moving and hold your hand over them and don't be afraid to apply some pressure. they should stop in a few seconds.

if you're not moving when they start crabbing make sure they have an apple slice and if they do try letting them out for a bathroom break.

Thank you everyone, my wife and I appreciate all the information you have given us truly. We will certainly apply these techniques and hope for the best. Thanks again