I currently have two gliders male and female, female is a large standard grey about 2 Named Bubbles and the other is a leucistic male zed neutered about 1 6months or a little more. They have been together a little over a year. I recently acquired a third one an abused male joey about 4 or 5 months old. He is very defensive and incredibly aggressive about his food and when he is in his bed if you come close he will attack. I am working on bonding with him and when I do I plan on getting him neutered and added to the cage with the other two but combining his cage to make one huge cage. How do I go about bonding them and making them a happy family?

It sounds like your new guy is pouch protective. There are some things that can help with that, most of the time it's fear based and in part because they can't see whats happening outside of the pouch. You might consider a different kind of sleeping pouch for him until he overcomes it. There are pouches called Open Environment pouches specifically made for pouch protective gliders.

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When you start using the bonding bag with him you can also roll the pouch down instead of zipping it closed. This way he can see what is making the noises outside his pouch and can see your hand coming at him when you offer treats. It's much less threatening for him than just plunging your hand down into the pouch.
Being pouch protective it is very unlikely that he will want to come out of the pouch, but still always keep an eye on him.

When you offer treats try just meeting him part way, let him reach out to your fingers to take the treat instead of putting your fingers right up to his face. From his point of view your fingers are the size of telephone poles coming right to their face, pretty terrifying thought. If he has to stretch his neck out to get the treat he will start to understand you are respecting his space. He will probably snatch it or grab it quickly then retreat for a while, but eventually he should take it gentler and come to trust your hands.

As for introducing and bonding them together....It's going to take some time.
I would definately address the pouch issue first and get him neutered. Once his hormone level drops and his scent isn't as strong you can start doing scent/fleece swapping to let them get to know each others scent. You can also carry your current pair in one bonding bag and the new guy in a separate bonding bag at the same time. Keep an eye on their behaviors in case there is any aggression developing for any of them.

For this definately wait until the new gliders pouch protectiveness is fixed. You don't want this to add to an already exciting problem or add anymore stress. When you get to the point that he no longer crabs in the pouch, lunges or shows signs of "attacking", when you can open and close the bag and no longer need to keep it rolled down, when you can safely put your in hand the pouch with him, THEN proceed with wearing both bonding bags at the same time.

The new glider being alone can often make you want to rush things to get them all together. But please try to take your time and resolve the issues at hand first. He has undoubtedly been through a lot and needs to overcome some of that before you should expect him to take to new cage mates. It really wouldn't be fair to the two you have already to deal with an aggressive new comer who crabs at them every time they go near the pouch either.

My male overcame his pouch protectiveness in just a few weeks. I must say I was intimidated by him initially and that is what he was trying to accomplish with his behavior. Once I decided I needed to be more confident when handling him it became much easier. He knew his tactics would no longer work and learned that he didn't need to use them anymore because I wasn't hurting him.

I also had the advantage of my female whom he already had been introduced to. I would offer her treats first and make sure he could see me giving them to her. Then I would offer him the same treat the same way ( with a little more space ) he would stretch his neck out and snatch them up. After a few days of watching me give treats to Leela he figured out it was ok to take them gently. I wouldn't jerk the treat away from him or toy with him. I'd just hold my hand steady and let him take it. My female has taught him a lot and he is still taking cues from her but has become much more confident himself. Now he's like a whole new glider.


I know this was more about pouch protective and not the actual introductions that were asking for advice on but I really think this needs addressed before you worry about introducing them. When you do finally get them altogether you may want to make sure you have multiple feeding stations so everyone gets their share of the food. He may get over the food aggression when he starts to understand there will always be enough food. But if not he can't protect all of the food stations from the other gliders if they are scattered all over the cage.


I hope you find this even a little bit helpful and I wish you luck with everything and I apologize for the long post