I realized tonight when I got a good look at her that Mimzy doesn't look normal. She has been eating, but less than usual for the past week and a half. She will eat if you give her food in her pouch, but she doesn't want to come out. Her fur looks a bit cracked and she looks somewhat bloated. Maybe I am just seeing things because I have been worried about her eating habit change, but she doesn't want to come out of the pouch.

A bloated appearance is NOT normal - and combined with her decrease in appetite I would be worried about her health.

Please have her seen ASAP by a glider experienced Vet to make sure she is healthy.

You have posted here about many concerns about her for the last week or longer. We are not vets and cannot determine what her problems may be. Only an examination by a vet can rule out illness - and provide her with the proper treatment.

I wrote a long reply to this but some error happened. I have explained my issue with going to a vet that specializes in exotics. It is hours away, and I do not drive. My parents would have to take me, and my parents suck. They wouldn't do it. They don't care about my animals. Today, my dad's best friend who is a vet met me in his office (accompanied by my dad) to look at Mimzy. He doesn't specialize in exotics, but he knows how to take care of bunnies and guinea pigs. He told me that he has only seen around three suggies in person. He checked her bones with his fingers to ensure there weren't any broken bones. He said he didn't feel any. We tried to get an xray but she wouldn't stay still, and I refused to let him give her a short round of anesthesia because if he isn't experienced with them then I wasn't going to take a chance. He opened her mouth and looked at her teeth. He tried to trim her nails but she kept trying to bite.

Mimzy is out playing and staring at Mia who is on the end of my bed. Mimzy is running around, eating, drinking, pooping, peeing, barking at Mia, ect. I am going to go buy her some foods that she hasn't tried yet tomorrow. Some fruits and veggies. If it doesn't help then I'll say * it and go pay the gas money, hotel money, and vet bill out of pocket because my parents won't help.

I understand not being able to afford it more than anything. or not being able to get to a vet. I Just want to make sure you know that while sometimes nothing is wrong and it'll pass, when gliders show signs of illness it often escalates. I'm sorry you're in the situation. I would be scared to have pets in that situation! I wasn't allowed to have the gliders at my house. Their huge cage had to stay in my boyfriend's tiny bedroom, along with him, his large dog, and all his stuff, because my mother is "afraid of rats." Good luck. Obviously try calling the nearest vets and asking them, explain the situation and hope they might help... or get you on a payment plan if you have the money to get there but not pay for it... or beg a friend to drive you if needed, lol. Is there any chance she's pregnant (joeys in the pouch, i mean)? Oddly enough our momma's appetite decreased a bunch, and babies would explain the "bloating" you're seeing. Momma's fur is also cracked when none of the other 3 are, and they eat the same diet. Her cagemate has smooth light fur, while hers is darker and has cracks. If it looks like two lumps it could be that. I don't know anything about bloat other than it's really bad and deadly in large dogs. She could just be getting fat, maybe she eats when you aren't around...

astockd1, thank you so much for understanding! Your boyfriend's mom sounds like my parents. Seriously. It is ridiculous. If anything were to happen then I could perhaps ask my friend's mom to take me if I paid her. All of my close friends who would do a favor like that are moved back into college hours away. Sadly, it is impossible that she could be pregnant. I wish! I was too afraid to buy a male because I didn't want them to fight, and I wouldn't be able to handle joey rejection. I brought Mimzy everywhere today with me in her pouch and baggy. She looks way less bloated for some reason. I don't know. Maybe I was just freaking myself out. She looks normal, but her fur definitely doesn't look as smooth. It isn't bad. She just has been picky with her foods. She will eat the protein, but doesn't want the fruits or veggies. I went out today and bought a whole bunch of fruits and veggies to give her. She let me touch her belly and back. She just nibbled my fingers and slept. She came out today to eat some of her pellet things. I am going to empty her pouch tonight to make sure she isn't eating rotten food that she has brought into there. She may be doing that. She may be eating the food that she has brought into there through out the day, and that isn't good. Thank you again, astockd1.

Candy, I wrote a long reply last night again but it also didn't send. What I said in a shorter message is that I am sorry if I come off rude. I get so frustrated how everyone on here jumps to "take him/her to the vet" when it isn't really an option for me. The exotic vet specialist is hours away. I live in a small town that hasn't even heard of sugar gliders pretty much. My parents are zero help to me. They are professional dog trainers, and when my dog (he is a Lhasa Apso) last week got a weird rash on his mouth and nose this is what my father and I had as a "conversation"...

Me: Hey, something is wrong with Joe Joe (my dog's nickname)!
Dad: What?
Me: He has a weird rash on his mouth and nose. I think we need to go to the vet.
Dad: Why would we do that? It is probably nothing. I am not going to waste my gas money and your money to pay to see a vet when there is probably nothing wrong. You're just worrying about it too much.
Me: No, I can see the rash. Look.
*he looks*
Dad: I don't think it is anything.
Me: I know it is! I want to take him to the vet.
Dad: Well then find someone else because your mom and I aren't taking him. It is a waste of money.

Yes, I have that kind of father. He hates the fact that I have sugar gliders. When I got Mimzy she smelled terrible. The girl who had her before me fed her pellets. Her coat was cracked everywhere. She smelled so bad. I started feeding her correctly and her smell went away aside from her pouch that she poops and pees in. My parents train 60+ dogs professionally. They know when a dog needs a vet, and my dog did. My father just refused because he is a d***. I researched his condition, went to their kennel facility that they house our dogs in training in, and found the medication that he needed. My dog's rash is practically gone.

My parents refuse to help me with my animals. I am a rescue person here in our home town that takes lost, abandoned, and beaten animals into better homes. My dog was a case that I took in two years ago. I fell in love with him, and I refused to relocate him to a better home. My dad hates that I do that. He is like a cruel person who doesn't care for animals in general. I mean, whenever I take in cats (that my mom and I are allergic to) he pitches a fit. I don't care because I know that I am helping, but I hate that he won't help me when my animals are in need. Like Mimzy is. I don't think any animal should be alone, and especially not a sugar glider... so I got Mia.

I am all for natural diets. Fruits. Veggies. I don't even feed my dog dogfood because of the arthritis and other illnesses that dogfood doesn't prevent/help. I feed him veggies, chicken, and eggs. I feed my fish cucumber pieces, boiled carrot pieces, apple pieces, peas, ect. I just believe that animals should be treated like their owners. Human. They shouldn't have to suffer, and they can't tell us when they are hurting or suffering.

I don't want to be seen as a stubborn, ignorant owner. I stress out whenever they fall ill. I can't stand it because that means my babies are sick, and I know how I am when I get sick. I am so sorry if I came off rude. Just the cards aren't in my favor for an exotic vet unless I travel hours away, get a hotel, and pay the vet bill. I am young, moving away, short for money, and on my own with my pets.

If it means saving one of my babies then I don't care if I use up all of my money to do that. I just want to make sure that it isn't her being a picky eater or anything else that is fixable.

Ilovemysuggie, I haven't replied to you, but I've been following some of your posts.

Please understand that the reason people in here always point out to take your pets to the vet as first suggestion is because in here, while people try their best to help, we can only speculate as to what is going on; we could be wrong, we could be right. The safest thing we can suggest is that you take your animals to a veterinary, because he/she will have the chance to see it up close, and use his/her knowledge to better determine what is the matter. None of us (at least not I) want to have in our consciousness that we suggested you to do something, leaving out the possibility that it could be something else that may be only a vet could treat, and have an animal suffer because of that.

And as Candy had pointed out, there had been other issues with Mimzy. When a glider exhibits symptoms of illness, in many cases, is because they are really sick, and from there their health deteriorates really quick. This is another reason we suggest the vet as first option, because unlike dogs that show their sicknesses early in their stages, making it easy to cure their afflictions; gliders will hide their symptoms, until they can do so anymore.

I understand people's different circumstances, and I know not every animal can be saved. But we are only trying to give the most responsible answer, and make suggestions based on our own experiences. At the end is the owner who decides what to do. While some here can be very bashful, in reality no one can force anybody that comes here to do anything; it is all just suggestions.

I am sorry for the long reply and if I frustrated you, I just wanted to clarify some. I am glad to hear that Mimzy is doing better, and hope everything will be alright.

rustypossumfat, no you didn't frustrate me! I am more frustrated with being not able to get her to a vet than I am with being told to take her to one. It makes me feel so bad. I wish more exotic vets were around. I know that people give the most reasonable advice, and I know that the most reasonable thing to do would be to take her to a vet. SHE ATE ALL OF HER FOOD TONIGHT AND SHE IS PLAYING. Thank the Lord! She slept in my sweatshirt earlier today, too. So I feel like bonding has gone further and I am very glad that she is acting normal. Her eating all of her food is great. What do I do if she is still hungry, though? I was previously over-feeding her so I don't want her to gain more weight. She ate every bit of her food though with her new diet. I am stoked.

Also, what does it mean when gliders hiss at one another? Mimzy doesn't hiss back at Mia, but Mia constantly hisses quietly at Mimzy when she sees her. She also makes a crabbing sound from time to time that isn't full on crabbing. It just sounds weird. Like squeaking mixed with crabbing.

If she still looks hungry and is constantly looking for more food after eating all the food she had in her cage, you can give her some more veggies; do not offer her more fruits (because of the sugars) or more of the staple (because of the protein), though. Also, make sure that the other one is not hogging the food, having multiple feeding stations can help resolve that problem.

The hissing and high pitch noise is normal, I think. My girl does that to my boy all the time, specially if he startles her (and she is easily startled), and when he comes inside the pouch and tries to steal her place at the bottom of the pouch, or puts his fat butt on top of her, or when they are trying to steal food from each other. And these 2 are twins, so they've been together since birth, and have never fought (yes, some pulling of the tail, and chasing around, but not much besides that). Still, keep an eye on them, be alert in case they start fighting; but don't separate them or do anything different.

Mia and Mimzy do not live together yet. I am doing the 30 day quarantine thing because I got Mia not that long ago. Maybe two weeks and a few days? Mia is a joey still. She is very small. Mimzy is not aggressive at all. She is very calm. Mia is so different. She is feisty, crabby, but bonding to me. She just seems more afraid of things which is why she will make a weird crabbing noise (not the usual crabbing sound) at Mimzy when Mimzy comes closer to her cage or jumps to that side of the cage. It startles her, but it doesn't seem mean. Mia is the one who hisses more and seems like she wants to be with Mimzy asap aside from the weird crabbing sound.

I put Mia's cage next to Mimzy. It is like a foot apart so they can't grab tails or hurt one another. I want them to see each other. I started off with them smelling one another, but Candy suggested I may be moving too fast with the introductions so I backed off. Mimzy ate all of her food tonight again, and I washed her pouch which meant that she exercised.

I actually was able to get my mother to come in and look at Mimzy to see if she noticed anything different. My mom said that just didn't see any difference other than Mimzy has gained a little bit of weight and just has her fur slightly cracked in places.

What I found in Mimzy's pouch was disgusting. She had rotten food all in there. I mean, it was like she carried every piece into there and left chunks. No wonder she has gotten bigger. I emptied it, sanitized it, and placed it back in there for her. I dumped it out last night and only poop came out with some bits of food, but this old food was stuck on there. I had to manually pull it off. She never did that, and I think she did it because she sensed Mia here, and that is when she started doing it. She felt some need to protect her food so she took it into her pouch. I am just glad she is no longer doing that, and that it is clean. I am going to keep checking it every day.

I will give her veggies if she looks hungry! Thank you!!!

I didn't know they were separated, sorry.

Mia's attitude could be, like you said she's just been with you a couple of weeks, that she is still getting acquainted with her environment and is a little more afraid of things, as well as being excited that there is another glider nearby. This is specially the case if the people you got her from still kept her with her parents or other gliders. And the sounds she makes is just her trying to communicate with your other glider.

As for Mimzy, it could be true that she is becoming more food protective in the presence of another glider. If she's been alone her entire life until now, it could be that she really doesn't know how to act around her. It could also be that she is trying to create a nest. My gliders, specially my boy, take all kind of stuff into their pouch. At the beginning they were even taking food like your Mimzy. It wasn't until I started getting eucalyptus branches with leaves, that they started taking those with them to the pouch and make themselves a little cozy nest inside the pouch. I still have to clean their pouch everyday, but at least now it smells of eucalyptus . That is a plus in my opinion

Oh no! It's okay. I should have made that clearer. My bad.

Well then Mimzy is mean for not communicating back really. Mimzy has been alone all of her life. She acts like she loves it, though. She seriously never wants anything to do with anything or anyone. The girl has so many toys and a wheel in her cage and she doesn't use any of them. She stares at things all night or plays with this string in her cage. Since she has seen Mia though her personality has gotten better. She comes out of her pouch way more often.

Yes, you should notice more improvements as time goes and they both bond.

I've read about, and seen, many gliders that seem to be doing just fine being alone. It isn't until they are introduced to a companion that one (as human) notice how much better they do. Activity levels increase, they even eat better, and are so much happier in general, which decreases the chances of them getting depressed or stressed.

I hope introductions go great, and with time Mimzy should settle down and regain a pattern that you'll get used to. For now, don't be too worried if you notice them acting a little different, they are just trying to adjust to the changes.

Mimzy basically ignores Mia until Mia isn't watching. That is when Mimzy will hop over to the other side of her cage to stare at her.

Mimzy has eaten every bit of her food for the past 3-4 nights! YAY.