Hi, i know there are a bunch of other topics on this. But i need an answer to my particular situation. Recently i got adopted a new sugar glider from a guy here in town. Everything seemed fine until i noticed my original sugar glider over grooming on top of his head. I noticed this a few days ago and it had not seemed to get worse until last night. They are small patches right now but i think they got slightly bigger last night. I thought maybe it was because i put the cages in the same room too fast so i moved them to separate rooms. He has not changed eating, playing, or sleeping habits. Any ideas on why this might be happening and how i can find a solution? I am taking them both to the Vet in a couple of days just in case but id still like some opinions. Also one other small question could it have anything to do with the fact that one is neutered and my original one, the one over grooming, is not? Thanks!

Personally I've found there are a lot of reasons for over grooming. The new male in the same room could have triggered it since your original one is still intact he is also more territorial. But lets look at some other things too.

how long has your intact male been alone?

How big is his cage

Does he have a glider safe wheel

Are there stimulating toys in the cage for him

How old is he

Can you please post some pics of him and his cage and the things in his cage?

His cage is decent sized. I would say it's kinda big but some people have the enclosures you can walk in. He has quite a few toys and a wheel. Although the wheel is kind of small now that the other glider came with a big one, but he still loves it. I've put more things in his cage than what he came with and gotten him a bigger cage. He's been alone his whole life until now as far as I know, he's a year old is what they told me when I addopted him a few months ago. Up until this point I've never noticed any health concerning things. Im at work right now but I'll get a picture as soon as I can. Where he has over groomed is hard to see because he doesn't want to sit still very often lol. But it is two small patches missing on his head behind his ear.

I don't have an updated picture of his cage but I have the size of it when I first got it.

Ok that's a typical place for over grooming. For now that's all I can say until you can upload pics of what his cage is like now. Based on these pics they need more toys but the size should be ok but like I said if the cage has more stuff in it now It would be easier to see it

Now, that one wheel in the pic is not the safest wheel. It has been known to cause a lot of injuries and deaths. Do you know if it has a bar guard inside it ? That can make it safer but it's still not a safe wheel.

If your interested I can get you some safe wheel links..

Here is an updated pic of his cage. Also i did not know they were unsafe wheels, he just came with it so thats what i have. I wouldn't mind a link to some safe ones.

http://customchoicecruiser.all4gliders.com/ http://www.mygliderwheelsandmore.com/
http://www.spinzoneglobal.com/Wheels_c_11.html


These three are probably the most widely used wheels. They may seem a little pricey but they are well worth it and designed for gliders and how they move on the wheel. The reason the one you have isn't safe is because there is a center bar in that wheel. Gliders don't typically just run or walk on a wheel they jump and hop and spin around. slow motion and normal speed


Your boy might be a little bored and need some different toys, is that the cage the over grooming one is in? It's better than some cages I've seen and sparse compared to others

Try giving him something to figure out like an easter egg with treats in it, or braided fleece to undo. Change where they toys are that you do have, move things around.

You might consider getting him neutered before you try to introduce him to the other male. If the other male's cage in the same room stressed him out enough to over groom introductions might not go well. Neutering him will reduce his smell considerably and lesson his territorial issue making it easier for another male to be introduced.

Yes that is the one the over grooming glider is in. I have already tried introducing them, maybe that was a bad idea. I just moved him to his bonding pouch and noticed his bald patches are getting a little bigger since last night. I will make up some toys and move things around before he wakes up again. Is he going to stop over grooming on his own? Im not sure what else to try if this does not work. I am almost sure that its because of the other glider, hes never had a problem with boredom before. Should i keep them separated again and keep switching pouches for a couple weeks? i have been letting them "hang out" for a few minutes at night and stuff. Yesterday i had them in separate bonding pouches and Freddie, the new one, climbed into Sid's bonding pouch to sleep. They do not fight or anything, every once and awhile they hiss because they do not like something the other is doing.

Also do you know anywhere i can find more toy ideas, or have any of your own? And when is it considered "too many toys?"

Ahaaaa the rest of the story ok that information helps. Now, did the over grooming start after you did the introduction n play times ?

If the new one climbed into the pouch with the intact one, n there was no fighting and they curled up together n went to sleep...... then my guess is the intact one is stressing when you separate them. I would go ahead at this point and see if they go in the same pouch again, if they do DON'T Separate them again unless they start ball up fighting. Once they are in the same pouch, thoroughly clean the biggest cage you have and everything in it to make it as neutral smelling as possible and put both in the same cage. Once you FIND the cause of over grooming and FIX the cause they will usually stop over grooming n the fur will grow back but it can take a while

Your intact male must be very lonely and if he is ok with the new guy let them stay together. What you are doing is actually kind of cruel n please don't take offense to it because I know it wasn't intentional.

But how would you feel if you were on an island somewhere for years and someone allowed another person to come "visit" for a couple hours then pick them back up and leave you alone again? That is what it's like for gliders. Once introduced, if it is successful they should NOT be separated. THAT is most likely where the stress is coming from. Once they are together in the same cage you will have to monitor them and listen for any fighting at night. If they ball up you may need to pull them off each other use a piece of fleece to protect your hands.

Yes i first noticed the over grooming after they were first introduced. I also had the cages about 12 inches apart at the time too. So i thought maybe it was too much to soon for him to handle. It definitely was not intentional but i am rather new to gliders yet. I had them both close to each other and the neutered glider climbed in with the intact again just now. They are not sleeping yet but rubbing all over each other squeaking and stuff but both seem okay with each other, other than the occasional "psst" sound. They are starting to settle down but in about an hour is usually when they both wake up anyways haha. The only reason i did not put them together for good is worry about them being unsupervised and getting into a fight. While the neutered one is one year older than the intact, the intact is noticeably bigger.

What is considered a successful introduction?

I've been there myself lol I had two separate pairs of gliders I was scent swapping n one day my neutered male dove head first into the new girls pouch... I had to do a formal introduction after that and the introduction was successful usually if they are in the same pouch loving on each other it's successful. HOWEVER, A month after they were all living together in the same cage I was still having problems with one girl from each pair getting into spats. I finally had to separate one of the new girls from the colony. She had pretty bad facial wounds as you can see here

I used this on her face twice a day


and she is healing up just fine, this was today, it happened about a week ago.


We now have a new rescued girl I just got home yesterday who will be Amy's ( the one from above) cage mate. The female that did that to Amy's face is only about 20 grams bigger than Amy but it was still quite an advantage when it came to pinning her down. The new girl Pico weighs the same as Amy so neither will have a weight advantage.

I'm telling you all this because even IF the introduction is successful they still have quite a while to adjust to living together in the same cage and you will need to monitor them closely for a while to make sure all is well.

Weight difference isn't always an issue though, My male is twice the size of my female and those two have never once had an issue. It was just these two girls could not co exist.

Wow I've never really seen after math pictures of a fight, Because who wants to google pictures of hurt sugar gliders? That's pretty sad. I'm glad to see she is healing well and getting better though! I will work on some more toys and getting them housed together asap. I'm actually thinking of making a pvc cage for more room and such but we'll see how that all turns out.
Thanks for the help and advice, hopefully this will help the over grooming problems and all goes well! :)

It's not pretty I know, and this fight only lasted about 2 minutes, it was only like 10 pm we were awake and right at the cage and Leela would not let go of Amy. So imagine if we hadn't been awake and right there...

I hope your boys do well together sounds like they already do. There are a few members here that have made pvc cages and they are a pain to make but once they are done people do like them...