Hello everyone.

Hopefully someone can shed some knowledge on the situation. My girlfriend and I have recently bought a 8wk old male sugar glider from someone who owned it for 2 days and could not care for it. It was very docile, allowed itself to be pet after bit of crabbing.

Once we got it home, we played with it in the bathroom at night. It did not like to be picked up but didn't mind crawling around on us. Later in the night, we took it out of its binding pouch and I was able to hold it in my hands while it was sleeping. It would wake up and notice this but only crabbed a bit and fell back asleep.

The next day I held it in its bonding pouch during the day and played with it at night. It let me pet it, and was taking yogurt from my hands but after some time it would bite enough to shed blood. I don't pull away for fear that it will get bad behavior but now everytime I go near it, it will sniff and bite me until I bleed. He doesn't crab during this and I've washed my hands before each time. I thought it was hungry but it ate. I don't know what to do but continue to let it bite and bond. Is this normal for babies? Is there a way to discipline it or are we taking things too quickly?

Thank for any insight.

http://www.sugarglider.com/glidergossip/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=43540
Here's a recent thread where someone asked the same question

It could be that he is at the toddler stage where he is exploring everything with his mouth.

Also, being 8 weeks old - he is still figuring out what is "food" and what isn't.

You don't want to enforce the habit of him biting you, certainly. But, you do need to react in a negative way - the same way another sugar glider would react - so he learns this is "bad" behavior. If you don't react at all, he won't know he's doing anything wrong.

One thing you can do is blow (somewhat strongly) at his face when he bites you. Sometimes that works. Making a loud noise to startle him would also work - the same way a sugar glider would crab at such behavior. What I do is say a firm "NO!" and touch the top of my gliders' heads when they bite.

You can make the tssssss noise that gliders make at each other when they don't like someyhing

"Psssssssssssssst" is something I used when I was bitten. Kind of like how they make that sound to show they don't like something. Mine always reacted to that by pulling back and wondering what the heck was happening.

I think part of the issue with your little guy is that he is pretty young and he was just taken from the only family (I mean furry) that he has known from birth. He feels a loss of security from not having a big daddy and a mom to protect him from anything that scares him. Gliders are colony animals and the thrive with their (furry) family. I have had single gliders (for short periods/quarantine) that were very scared and reacted in an adversarial way because they felt this way. It was AMAZING to me to see the difference once they had another glider friend. It was such a strong change in personality - almost like they had their security and grounding back. Not to mention, it's a great idea overall anyway. They are happier that way.

I think if you can get your little guy a friend, you will experience a much easier transition with bonding and it's not harder to bond with two instead of one.

I hope this helps.

ROFL!!!
Oh how I miss the baby joey stage.
*Giggles some more*
Mine when through that too. Just for the fun of it at times I think when they got around 14 weeks, but mostly because if they want more goodies, it's natural for them to bite at the tree bark and get more sap etc out of it I understand. And still to this day they will nibble my fingers looking for the next bite of a goodie. (Never hard enough to draw blood though)

Just wanted to follow up. Thanks for the responses guys, it was very helpful. Unfortunately, my baby glider still bites a bit hard even when blown on or Psst at. We will try to avoid it to the best we can but it can be difficult.

We started tent bonding and I'm finding that the baby isn't 100% trusting of us yet, but he does climb on us occasionally after warming up to us for an hour. He especially likes to bite toes...

A weird thing is that he isn't eating the crickets I bought him (dead ones). Is he too little for that stuff or is it a personality thing? Strangely, he doesn't like honey either but eats all of his fruits and veggies!

Ya know I can't get mine to do the honey either! I was wondering if was just mine.

I make the tsssssst noise when one of my boys bites. I try to mimic the noise a parent glider would make when scolding :P

Just to think out loud...
A bite can be a self defense thing or a "checking it out" thing.
If it's self defense (stopping an action he doesn't like or is afraid of), usually they crab first. But I suppose there could be those that don't want to waist the time talking (I feel like that myself alot lately :-/
So my question would be... when is the biting happening? The answer may be to to first figure out the CAUSE of the biting.
But if it's not a defensive thing, it may be a phase, or him looking for more treat from you - so many reasons.

Without being there to watch his behavior, I'd almost have to ask you to keep a record of his behaviors and yours leading up to the bites for a few days so we could read it and make some educated guesses.

Mine is a few weeks older than yours, but he is doing the same thing. We've narrowed it down to his predator senses. When you said he especially likes toes, made me tell you this. If you wiggle anything in front of him, does he go into "cat mode" like he is going to stalk what's moving? If so, he is probably playing somewhat like a cat does and that is form of attack. This is what mine does and if we wiggle toes, fingers, toys or even sometime when we talk he stalks our lips (ouch!). It all may as well be a mealworm to him because if it moves like food, it's food.

My 2 joeys are 7 weeks, they are like toddlers, everything goes in their mouth. Even my clothes get chewed on. I gave them some euc sticks, they really like chewing those. One in particular likes to check out everything to see if he can eat it. Got him started on mealworms 2 weeks ago ( broke it open so he could taste the guts) and the other nite he was tearing up a shrimp! They bite the cage, toys, pouches, me. I assume it is a stage, these are my first joeys born here.

Also, one of my girls when I first got her at 10 weeks, would groom me HARD! Once she was in my shirt and went at it so hard, it bruised me. Little love bites

All my joeys went through the same phase - I think I commented about that a day or so ago. They went through the chew and taste everything stage. But the also went through the biting stage like I described above. And that wasn't fear or self defense. That is when they got a little older than chewing stage and was trying to figure out where they were in the pecking order of the colony. And... we are included in that. lol