I feel that "singing" is a terrible description of the sound that mother sugar gliders make when nursing. This sound only comes out after a number of days of nursing and is the mother grunting in pain as the little joey gnaws and gnaws on the nipple with increasing strength. I'd call it nipple burn.

So my question is, what can we call this sound besides singing? What sound does a mommy sugar glider make when she is wanting nothing more than baby to get off of her nipple?

Grunting? What would you call the sound YOU make when your nipples are inflamed?

Sugar Glider Nursing Sound

Isnt this somewhat similar to the sound some might make when pooping and/or with a UTI? Perhaps we should generally call it grunting. In the original sounds article I have been calling it shrieking which probably is not a good reference either.

Fussing.... give her baby the smack down...

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Originally posted by torilynn

Fussing.... give her baby the smack down...

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anyways, i like the term fussing.

Fussing is a good word. Cussing is another.

Unlatch.... as Dinner time is over.

This sound is not singing but is the mother telling the little one stop nursing.

Singing... is more like a high pitched twilling sound much like a bird. The mother is content and talking to her little one.

I find it fascinating that mom doesn't just grab the head and yank it off the nipple if under such distress. These sugar gliders are fascinating creatures if you take the time to look.

They really are I love when I open the pouch now seeing moe curl up around Mia's pouch like ahhh light hide the baby. He also has been giving her his meal worms which is so cute cause if u know Moe he don't share food. It is so sweet to see.

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Originally posted by Kazko

I find it fascinating that mom doesn't just grab the head and yank it off the nipple if under such distress. These sugar gliders are fascinating creatures if you take the time to look.

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I agree. I didn't breast feed my son for that very reason. lol. I might have done that.

But these critters are fascinating. Mine bark all the time. Usually when one barks another one comes and gets in the pouch with it. It's like they are saying come to bed honey. I have had mine for 4 years and have never noticed what happened last night. Last night one started barking and the rest of them stood still like statues (i have read about them doing that in the wild) like a warning. Funny thing happened when they were all standing still. I have a couple out of the 7 that don't let me pet them. While this was going on they just stood there frozen and let me pet them like you would a dog. It was, as you say, fascinating.

Maybe they were playing freeze tag :)

I am a mother of two wonderful boys that I gave birth to naturally and breastfed. Sometimes the latching doesn't work right or when they get older it starts to hurt but you do not want to scream and kick them off... so you hum or sing until the pain starts to subside. I can only assume that this is what a mother sugar glider is going through when she is "singing" to her joey. She doesn't want to scare the joey off with a full on get the double hockey sticks off of me but "singing" helps move through the pain, I would guess from personal experience. So to me it is a type of singing or humming, not a full on screech of pain that comes when gliders are in a brawl.
And that's my 2 cents

It isn't even necessarily a verbal noise they're making. It reminds me of a rattlesnake or a sprinkler system. She's shaking/vibrating quickly to shake them loose or to re-adjust. If you've ever seen it, it almost looks like mini-convulsions.

I don't believe it is a noise of pain at all. I believe they make the noise to stimulate milk production. Many animals make sounds or movements to help stimulate milk production while their babies are nursing. The jerky movements they make could serve the same purpose.

And - I call it singing.

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Originally posted by kyro298

It isn't even necessarily a verbal noise they're making. It reminds me of a rattlesnake or a sprinkler system. She's shaking/vibrating quickly to shake them loose or to re-adjust. If you've ever seen it, it almost looks like mini-convulsions.

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Ohhh, coco has been doing that a lot lately and just got done of doing it, her shaking fattles the whole cage xD

Videos please.

Yeah, we love videos more than pics.

I can relate to the idea that they are working thru the pain of nursing and I too did things like deep breathing or humming to deal with it.I agree singing may not be the best term for it but I'm not sure what I would call it. Maybe nursing noise?

I'd call it grunting, I watched some of the video on the gliderpedia article and that what it sounded like to me

Really? It doesn't sound anything like a grunt to me.

At our house when we hear it we say, "Mom's talking to her babe." We envision it's kind of like her peeling a child off of her so she can leave the house and get away for awhile. We know she is shaking loose, and if we wait for a couple minutes we can go in and hold the joey - cause mom's getting the heck out of Dodge!

Hmmm... myabe the " Nursing Mantra "-lol Or, chanting? Just trying to throw a little karma to the nursing suggies out there.
Wendy

i liken the sound to the mom saying in sugar glider lingo over and over "please get off, please get off, please get off"