I have been offered 2 suger sliders to care for while ny friends is out of town for the next several monthes. I have never had them before and know very little about them. I have been looking up info on them and found many useful sites. But one thing I can't seem to finds is how they are with other animals. I do rescuing for ferrets and currently have 6. I also own several cats. I'm quite concerned about taking the sugar gliders due to lack of cooperation of all the pets. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly apprecaited.
Thanks
Natasha

First your ferrets will eat your suggies if they can get them. Cats also just percieve this as an odd mouse.

Personally I have no problems with my pets, but they have been around all different animals since they have been here.

My advice would be, see if your friend knows anyone who is more knowlegable about the species. If not, I would confine the suggies to a room by themselves during their stay, to ensure their safety.

hmmm, hot topic. Sadly, I have seen many posts about cats or dogs killing gliders though. The original owner of our little Critter had a dog. Anyway, that dog promptly killed and ATE Critters mate. So this topic kinda hits home. Our friend critter013 here saved and brought Critter to us after nursing Critter back to health from a lack of protein and other issues.

Interestingly, the original owner bought the pair over three years ago from Custom Cage Works at a trade show. This is the same company that shows prospects photos of how swimmingly dogs and cats get along with gliders... One wonders whether the practice of showing photos of a glider on a dog's head is a helpful gesture or not. An old friend had a dog once that allowed you to put biscuits on it's head. He would toss the biscuit in the air on command and catch it with his mouth and of course eat it...

The thing to remember is while some gliders are perfectly fine with a dog and the owner present when the owner is NOT present....the dog can go attack it. Someone got in chat once with a dog and a cat that were fine with gliders, they left for a few days and a sitter was watching and the dogs went crazy and knocked the gliders cage over and ate them.

Also, remember that gliders will attack the larger animal in some cases as well. My glider bit my cats ears and they have the potential to do serious damage despite their size.

If you are babysitting I would leave them to their cages and interact with them from there with licky treats and petting. If you take them out it would be in a seperate room as well as housing in a seperate room. They can be stressed with other animals present as well. Check water bottles daily, esp if these are joeys. There are cases where sitters took gliders outdoors and they died from heat, wandering in the home, no water, toliet bowls, etc. While some people let diff species interact I don't agree with it and definitely would not do so with pets who were not permanently housed together.

My dogs are fine with them but Bella has been through rigours training from the time she was 8 weeks old. Our new mastiff is not present when the suggies play. I think it depends on the animal, and your confidence in the traing you have provided. Bella went through what they call eastate guardian training. She is trained to protect the house and its contents, even other pets. If you have not done this I would be very cautious. My cats are also not present when they play even though they have never shown any interest in them. Just a precaution. We have what we call the predator pyramid. By instinct we designed it to what would be deemed a predator to what, so we can take appropriate measures till we achieve a harmony, or a rotation. Take adequate precaution, and all should be well.