LGRS Room Glider-proofing Tips

The easiest type of room to Glider-Proof is a bathroom. You can stuff towels under the door so they don't go out into other rooms. You can drape fleece over the shower rod. You can clean up after them pretty easily because of tile and smooth surfaces.

You can use other rooms, but there may be more dangers. Here are some things to watch out for:

A. Plubming. All plumbing or access to plumbing behind walls must be blocked off. Plumbing
often comes out of walls with plenty of space between the pipe and the wall. The last thing you
want is a glider getting stuck in a wall.

B. Valuables. valuables should be taken out of the room. If you have fine jewelry, heirloom
photos or knick Knacks - they will be unceremoniously destroyed. Say goodbye to heirlooms,
nice hanging pictures, plants, candles - anything nice. Say goodbye to anything you think is
sentimental or valuable in any way - just take it all out of the room.

C. Poisons. Poisons such as bug spray cans, solvents, detergents, etc. need to be taken
away. If you can lock them in a cabinet that cannot possibly be opened, fine. But you have to
be sure not to leave that door or drawer open.

D. Candles. Just say no. Candles often contain material that is harmful to gliders and it is a
BIG NO NO to have them lit with gliders in the room.

E. Toilet seats. Down and covered. If they get in, they will drown. Some people have rigged little mesh ladders so if they do fall in they can climb out...

F. Holes, cracks, etc. Holes in walls and cabinetry must be covered or blocked off. You have
to devise a way to block gaps under the door like with towels or anti-draft gadgets. Door cracks
must be covered by stuffing towels under them or anti-draft gadgets.

G. Applicances. Refrigerators, washers, dryers or any thing with a fan, heater or open flame
in it or under it is very dangerous (don't let them in a room with those things). Recently, a
poster on sugarglider.com reported that a glider climbed in to the VHS slot on a TV/VHS
combo and died inside, probably from electrocution.

H. Fans. If you have a ceiling fan, shut it off and rig it so you can't turn it on by mistake. Fans
with exposed blades are also dangerous for obvious reasons. Consider one of those ionic
breeze jobs that has covered blades.

I. House Plants. These are generally a bad idea. They will wreck the plants, scatter the dirt
and possibly get killed eating them. Here is a good URL on good and bad plants:
http://www.moondance-sugargliders.com/sugar_glider_plant-tree_information.htm
But just don't have them in the room. It's easier and safer.

J. Cords and Outlets. Gliders are like kids. So it's not a bad idea to plug-up open (unused)
electrical outlets with child safety "blanks." It is a good idea to wrap cords and give them
alternate things to chew on and destroy. The fewer the electrical devices with cords, the better.

K. The Cage. Part of glider-proofing is to make sure your pets always have safe refuge in
their cage and total access to it. You must leave the cage open so they can get food and
water, else you have to put food and water out in the room. You should also leave the cage
open in case they want to nest there.

L. Other Species. "No" to other pets in the room. You should not expose them to animals
they can eat or attack (gerbils, hamsters, chins, guinea pigs) [yes they are omnivores and they
will attack and eat at least a part of a Chinchilla]. It is not fair to leave them in the same room
with these other animals because it is a tease to the omnivores and he other animals can get
stressed out. You should not expose them to animals that can eat them (Snakes, birds, cats).
Just no ther animals in a "Glider Free Range Zone" we say.

M. Safe Alternative Nesting Places. You should leave different nesting boxes and pouches
all around the room so they have a safe place to hide and nap when they are out playing.

Some other tips

Safety protocol. You have to be extra careful and get into a rigid protocol for safety
including when doors are open, making room safe, watching where you are walking in the
middle of the night, etc. You have to learn how to back out of a room and slowly close the door
so you don't crush them. You have to learn how to distract them by putting them on a wheel or
bribing them with a treat so you can escape to go use the bathroom without them chasing you
out the door...

Headcount. Do a proper headcount before putting them back into the cage. If you can't
find him or her right away, you have to have a plan for just blocking off the room for the day so
he or she can't get into the rest of the house or outside. (Of course you leave food and water
out). If you can't make allowances for this, don't do this thing.

Poop Zone Warning. The whole room becomes a "free range poop zone" so if you are grossed-out
by their little droppings and cleaning them up each morning, this is not for you. Ditto pee. You
need to wipe that up as soon as possible or it will stain rugs and eat through and warp wood.
We drape towels or other material on top of wood surfaces to help ameliorate this problem.

Another fantastic thread, Ed!

Just a quick note about cabinets (as I had to learn the hardest way possible), is that they can also get in from the top. If there is even a small gap, little hands and noses can fit/squirm their way in. We decided baby locks wouldn't be good enough so we are installing a small magnet that you can purchase at hardware stores. I think they're normally used for drawers? Anyway, we found the gap by feeling the top of the cabinet as it wasn't visible if you were just looking at it. It looked normal.

Double sided draft dodgers also work well under most doors as they are permanent and can still be washed when necessary.

great tips Kylah thank you for that. We found a glider in a drawer during playtime that we thought was all the way closed. Those little rascals are apparently strong enough to wedge them open!

Thank you Ed for posting this-it needed to be done! An excellent thread! Can we assign gold stars to a thread? We should be able to!

Other hazards (skillfully pointed out to me by my Sassy) are the under sides of cabinets. When installed, there are sometimes spaces between each cabinet unit that could allow a glider to squeeze in. Check carefully at the sides of a cabinet next to the wall where a spacer may have been placed to make the cabinet fit the space.

Use a mirror if necessary to look at the underside of cabinets along the floor for any open spaces.

I also learned there was a space under the counter at the top of my old bathroom cabinets that Sassy found to be a fun way to get into the cabinets. I covered that with duct tape until I replaced the cabinets all together.


Shower Door frames - my shower is a walk in with glass on one end and sliding doors on the front. The corner post is hollow! It is also open at the top under the header that the doors slide on. I have fleece tightly packed into that opening after having to pull Sassy out. She had her head in the hole and was trying to get into the post.

Pocket doors - mine has a bracket under the door with a 3/4 x 1.5 inch opening. Sassy got the towel away from the door one night and went under the pocket door and into the wall. I coaxed her out with some mealies but was fully prepared to knock a hole in the drywall if necessary. I now use two of the long wooden cage perches slid into the bracket under the door. These double as a space filler when the pocket door is closed during bathroom playtime. I slide them across the door opening and they fill the space under the door. They are held in place by the door frame on one side and the bracket on the other so they cannot be pushed away by a glider.

quote:

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Originally posted by Candy

Other hazards (skillfully pointed out to me by my Sassy) are the under sides of cabinets. When installed, there are sometimes spaces between each cabinet unit that could allow a glider to squeeze in. Check carefully at the sides of a cabinet next to the wall where a spacer may have been placed to make the cabinet fit the space.

Use a mirror if necessary to look at the underside of cabinets along the floor for any open spaces.

I also learned there was a space under the counter at the top of my old bathroom cabinets that Sassy found to be a fun way to get into the cabinets. I covered that with duct tape until I replaced the cabinets all together.


Shower Door frames - my shower is a walk in with glass on one end and sliding doors on the front. The corner post is hollow! It is also open at the top under the header that the doors slide on. I have fleece tightly packed into that opening after having to pull Sassy out. She had her head in the hole and was trying to get into the post.

Pocket doors - mine has a bracket under the door with a 3/4 x 1.5 inch opening. Sassy got the towel away from the door one night and went under the pocket door and into the wall. I coaxed her out with some mealies but was fully prepared to knock a hole in the drywall if necessary. I now use two of the long wooden cage perches slid into the bracket under the door. These double as a space filler when the pocket door is closed during bathroom playtime. I slide them across the door opening and they fill the space under the door. They are held in place by the door frame on one side and the bracket on the other so they cannot be pushed away by a glider.

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these are great tips too. Maybe we need to mash them all together for the gliderpedia...