Hello,

This is my first post, but I've been reading these forums for about a month now. I purchased my Sugar Glider almost a month ago, he is a well behaved year old neutered male. We have bonded very well and I'm extremely happy with him. I felt he needed a playmate and began searching in my area. This is where I need to share my story and get advice/help.

Yesterday someone was selling a 2 year old female on a local Facebook "for sale page" for only $100.00! Cage/food/vitamins etc... They claimed she was a sweet girl and they were only getting rid of her because they had a baby and no longer had the time to devote to the Sugar Glider.

I thought it was too good to be true (and was right) but went to go look at her anyway. When I got to their house, she was in an empty cage with nothing but a heat rock with dried glider droppings on it and an extremely dirty ratty t shirt. No toys, no wheel, and nothing for a pouch but the nasty shirt. The guy claimed he had her the entire 2 years and he was the only one who could handle her with getting bit.

She was obviously stressed out and made their trademark stress cry when she was put in her fleece pouch (which smelled like cigarette smoke). My daughter had to hold her close to her to get her to stop.

Basically we adopted her as quickly as possible, I felt $100.00 was a small price to pay to save this poor animal.

Oh yea... The guy "wished me luck with her", so sad.

So, I need some guidance from experienced Glider owners because I've only had ours a short time. Here are my questions...

Do you think it is worth it to try and introduce my 2 gliders? I'm afraid of the effect on my current glider.

Should the rescue glider be bonded to me as much as possible before introducing them?

Tips for bonding with this rescue glider?

She smelled very poorly and was fed some mysterious pellet food, I'm hoping a proper diet and time will fix her smell.

I put toys, a fleece den, and a wheel in her cage as soon as I could and I think it was a welcome change for her.

She is currently in the same room but different cage (obviously) than my other glider and sure they smell each other. Anything I should be aware of with this?

So much is going through my head trying to do the right thing by this new female glider, any advice is appreciated.

Anyone have any questions for me that I haven't thought of?

Thanks so much!!!

She sounds like a Pocket Pets baby :c

I'd definitely make sure you take her to the vet asap, if she was in filthy conditions, she easily could have some sort of parasite. She also likely has a calcium deficiency (among other things) if she was on their pellet food. Other than that, I'm no expert on introductions of new gliders, so I'll let someone else talk on that. I just wanted to wish you luck and, I hope everything turns out okay!! Poor thing is lucky someone with common sense rescued her.

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Originally posted by Jadeziaa

She sounds like a Pocket Pets baby :c

I'd definitely make sure you take her to the vet asap, if she was in filthy conditions, she easily could have some sort of parasite. She also likely has a calcium deficiency (among other things) if she was on their pellet food. Other than that, I'm no expert on introductions of new gliders, so I'll let someone else talk on that. I just wanted to wish you luck and, I hope everything turns out okay!! Poor thing is lucky someone with common sense rescued her.

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Yea I think she was def a Pocket Pets Glider. The vitamin powder he gave me was "Glide-A-Mins" from Pocket Pets. I'm more than likely going to throw that stuff away along with the mystery kibble.

Hi and welcome!

It's always good to hear that a glider has been taken out of a horrible situation...which she certainly was. Rescues can quickly turn to heartbreak especially when one is relatively new to gliders, but you have gotten her off to a good start. You mentioned that she will now be getting a proper diet. Which do you use?

Since you haven't introduced them yet, now is the time for her to get a vet check. The fecal smear will determine if she has parasites and they will be able to treat her if she does. You'll need a second smear (whether the first was positive or not) in 30 days. After an all clear you can begin the formal introductions for the two. More on that later. Scent swapping, cage swapping, etc.

It will be very important for her to have a good well check at this time considering that she is 2 years old and has been kept so poorly. With good initial care she will have a good chance of beginning to really thrive and live out a healthy life.

Generally, the bonding would go better with two gliders when you have one that does trust you. The other will watch and learn from the first that you can be trusted. You will have this month, however to begin working with her. Pouch time while she is sleeping during the day will be a great start since she most likely has been traumatized. Some extra time spent on this stage before trying too hard to bond during her play time may help her acclimate. A couple hours of being on you hearing your voice and getting accustomed to your smell, associating that nothing bad happens while she is cozy in that situation will give you a leg up.

As always, the treats are a good start to her beginning to trust your hands.

Take it slow and gently with the poor thing. She deserves the best. Get her medical and dietary needs as well as habitat and mental/physical needs taken care of first. She'll come around in her own time. Hopefully eager for the love that she's never had!

A couple posts came in while I was distractedly typing.

Definitely ditch any of the vitamins and food that she came with. Get her on a good diet...do not be concerned with 'weaning' her onto a good diet. She may turn her nose up for a couple days, but the saying goes..."A healthy glider won't starve itself".

Great! Thanks for the reply, I hope to be referring to this thread quite a bit. Currently I give my glider a mixture of BWL, fruits and veggies like apples, mangos, melon, broccoli and carrots and hard boiled or scrambled eggs. I do have Sugar Glider pellets from Petco but try not to give that too often.

I live in Panama City and do have a Vet I took my glider to, and will be bringing our rescue in for a check up very soon.

I got her last night, so going to give her a couple days of cage time to acclimate to the new scents. I'm honestly a little leary of trying to get her in a pouch to carry with me but understand the necessity behind it. Any tips for getting her in the pouch without just having to grab and manhandle her?

My male is named Rocket... I really need to name this girl so I can stop referring to her as "Rescue" lol...

This may have been mentioned already, but before even thinking about introductions, a 30 day quarantine is needed, with a check up plus feacl test at the beginning and end of said 30 days.

The best thing to avoid getting any diseases passed on to you current glider is to have them, if at all possible, in completely different rooms. If that is not possible, try to have them as far away from each other as you can, in such a way that they can't possible throw things at each other, much less touch each other. Make absolutely sure you don't allow them, or anything of their come in contact with the other. Wash your hands before and after handling each glider and their belongings. Otherwise you will need to treat both gliders if they get sick.

Diet is a big issue here. As mentioned above, she may be calcium deficient, have your vet examine her for this, explain the diet she was previously on, and what you are planning to feed; your vet may have recommendations on that.

You can find on the gliderpedia (tab at the top of the page) about introductions. But your first concern should be the quarantine.

In terms of bonding, each glider is different; but neglected gliders can be especially hard. Try to leave her alone the first few day, so she may aclimate to her new surroundings. Talk to her when you are near her cage, so she can get used to your voice. Put pieces of fleece with your scent in them in her pouch, so she can start relating to your smell. After those first few days, you can put her in a bonding pouch that you wear around your neck (DO NOT put both gliders in the same bonding pouch, or wear them at the same time). Putting her in a bonding pouch may be hard, but if you have one of those with detachable straps, you can use it as her sleeping pouch as well. Just take the straps off, make completely sure the pouch is UNZIP and put it in her cage as her sleeping pouch; when you want to take her with you, you zip the pouch with the glider in, take the pouch out of the cage, put the straps back on, and then is a bonding pouch again. For playtime, just let her have her own pace, when you feel she is becoming awake, you can take her in the bathroom or tent, and let her come on her own, have toys and treat you offer her (not abruptly). You can take her for playtime after she's eaten too, but it may be harder to get her out of the cage after she has come awake.

Sorry for the long post, but hope it is helpful.

Sorry, for some reason it did not post what I wrote when I did, so I reposted.

Now that it has updated, I see you mentioned you are feeding "BWL", I have not heard about that; but perhaps you mean BML (Bourbon's Modified Leadbeaters), which you can find below:

www.angelfire.com/nb/sugargliders/bml/leadbeat.html

This is one of the strictest diets out there. If you are feeding this plan, you must follow it exactly as instructed. No replacing any supplement, not even the fruits and vegetables. The reason is because this diet is very high in Calcium, and the fruits and vegetables are meant to balance it out by providing high amounts of phosphorus. If you change any of it, you will be upsetting the balance of the diet, therefore causing your gliders not to get or getting too much of what they need; either case is not good.

The BML advantage is that you can get all the ingredients from local stores, but it offers little variety.

Oh my goodness. Such a sad story! I'm so glad she has you now.
Definitely give her a couple of days to adjust. You could talk to her through the cage, too. I can't wait to find out what you name her! She deserves a sweet, loving name.
Anyway, as for getting her into the bonding pouch, here's my suggestion. If you have a nice, soft nesting pouch sometimes those will fit into a bonding pouch without being too squishy so you could just one pouch inside the other while she's sleeping inside it. Or, if you have a bunch of fleece cut into squares you could make a little pile of those for her to nest in, and then when she's in there you could lift her while she's in the fleece (glider and fleece together) and put her into the pouch with the fleece. That second one is what I did with my scared rescue who hadn't been handled right. He eventually got used to me lifting him out of his "nest". Keeping him in the fleece also saved the tips of my fingers from bites!
I wish you all lots of luck and furry snuggles! I hope when the time comes to intro Rocket and Rosie (how's that?) that they have love at first sight. Good luck with your rescue!

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Originally posted by rustypossumfart

Sorry, for some reason it did not post what I wrote when I did, so I reposted.

Now that it has updated, I see you mentioned you are feeding "BWL", I have not heard about that; but perhaps you mean BML (Bourbon's Modified Leadbeaters), which you can find below:

www.angelfire.com/nb/sugargliders/bml/leadbeat.html

This is one of the strictest diets out there. If you are feeding this plan, you must follow it exactly as instructed. No replacing any supplement, not even the fruits and vegetables. The reason is because this diet is very high in Calcium, and the fruits and vegetables are meant to balance it out by providing high amounts of phosphorus. If you change any of it, you will be upsetting the balance of the diet, therefore causing your gliders not to get or getting too much of what they need; either case is not good.

The BML advantage is that you can get all the ingredients from local stores, but it offers little variety.

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oops, yes I mistyped. It is the BML, I'll def have to be more strict with it. Your advice on where to keep them is great, I'm going to move her out of the room for awhile till I get her checkup next week.

Its funny because Rocket started making a different sound last night that we never heard before. It wasn't a bark and it wasn't the stress bark either, not sure how to describe it but it was almost as if he was calling out to the new glider.

I'll keep you guys updated on how it goes over the next few days. Thanks again!

also you can wear little strips of fleece to put in her cage to get use to your scent. I done this with every glider I own and had a lot easier time with intros. I am hopping you have great and long future with this little lucky lady.

I'm sure he was checking out and excited to have a glider in the house. Unless you happen to have plenty of room, the cage doesn't really need to be removed from the same room. Just not too close so that debris can be flung back and forth, and especially not close enough for them to grab at each other.

You will want to use some precautions during the quarantine, such as hand washing between cages, just basic steps in preventing any cross contamination.

And yes, get the diet dialed in a be strict with it for both gliders.

UPDATE:

Well its been a couple months and I have sad news... Rosie and Rocket just would not get along. Rosie made huge strides by herself and became a much better behaved little girl. Unfortunately, her and Rocket would just ball up and fight every time I tried to put them together. Neutral location, scent swapping, cage swapping etc... Nothing would work.

It got to the point where Rocket would just crawl up on my shoulder and not move until Rosie was out of sight.

With that I made the decision to adopt out Rosie to a friend who really wanted a glider. I'm confident she went to a great home and will continue to become a nice well mannered glider.

So now, Rocket is alone again... Any suggestions on trying again? Rocket is 1 year old and a neutered male. What should I look for? Anyone know of any available gliders who would make a good fit? Thanks so much, this site is amazing!!!

I'm sorry I missed this thread first time around, but have read and you certainly received correct advice.

I'm also terribly sorry that the pairing didn't work out for you and them. There are two points I'm going to focus on here, please read both before you really think about what I'm saying.

First point: Two months isn't really that long to have had her, I understand it included the 30 day quarantine and you may have been anxious to have two lone gliders together. I'm not sure of the procedures followed to prepare them for their face to face meetings, I may have missed another thread somewhere perhaps. But really one full month of preparation isn't always enough time to begin face to face. This first point is mainly to give you advice to consider for future, when you find another glider buddy for your little guy, and by no means am I trying to criticize you or your adopting out your girl. Which brings me to the......

Second point: Since you, and your gliders had a terrible experience it is understandable that you would not want to wait to try again, although sometimes, future introductions can be better than the initial if proper procedures along with both glider's temperaments, in complete combination are present. There is still no guarantee though that you would have success, it's possible, her being alone for so long, it could take a while for her to even want to be paired, and possibly she could be one the rarer gliders that prefer to be alone. All this being said, and that you have found a good home for her, you still have done her a great service removing her from a bad situation, improved her trust in humans and then secured her a good home. This is what "Rescues" do, and you did rescue her.

I wish you luck in finding your Rocket a cage mate.

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Originally posted by TJones09

I'm sorry I missed this thread first time around, but have read and you certainly received correct advice.

I'm also terribly sorry that the pairing didn't work out for you and them. There are two points I'm going to focus on here, please read both before you really think about what I'm saying.

First point: Two months isn't really that long to have had her, I understand it included the 30 day quarantine and you may have been anxious to have two lone gliders together. I'm not sure of the procedures followed to prepare them for their face to face meetings, I may have missed another thread somewhere perhaps. But really one full month of preparation isn't always enough time to begin face to face. This first point is mainly to give you advice to consider for future, when you find another glider buddy for your little guy, and by no means am I trying to criticize you or your adopting out your girl. Which brings me to the......

Second point: Since you, and your gliders had a terrible experience it is understandable that you would not want to wait to try again, although sometimes, future introductions can be better than the initial if proper procedures along with both glider's temperaments, in complete combination are present. There is still no guarantee though that you would have success, it's possible, her being alone for so long, it could take a while for her to even want to be paired, and possibly she could be one the rarer gliders that prefer to be alone. All this being said, and that you have found a good home for her, you still have done her a great service removing her from a bad situation, improved her trust in humans and then secured her a good home. This is what "Rescues" do, and you did rescue her.

I wish you luck in finding your Rocket a cage mate.

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I understand what your saying and I'll try not to be offended. I felt I did everything I could based on the information, procedures, and recommendations available. I certainly agree that 2 months might not have been enough time, but based on their interactions I felt I made the right decision.

This experience has been good overall though and I know more about Rocket because of it, and Sugar Gliders in general. Temperament will be the key factor in our future attempt at finding Rocket a friend.

I may be saying this because I am biased, but I am not the only one to think that caramel gliders have a calmer disposition compared to other gliders. I currently have 4 caramels, and the only times I've heard them crab was the first day or so I tried to handle them, but they always relaxed fairly quickly after the first shock.

Now, my breeders also run a rescue, and as such they receive lots of single gliders that need to be paired up before rehoming. Some of those cases have proved really hard to paired, and for the very extreme ones, if the interested party that is trying to adopt any such glider agrees to buy a caramel, usually those cases turn around perfectly. Caramels are bigger than regular gliders, and therefore they are able to fend off for themselves better, even against the most aggressive gliders; and their easy disposition makes them great partners for the more temperamental gliders.

Perhaps, if you have the resources, you should consider getting a caramel glider to pair up with your little guy. Caramels have xome down in price quite a bit, you can get a joey for $350 or so, and an adult for even less.

Besides that, the only other advice I can give you is to try to get in contact with breeders and/or rescues. Tell them about your situation and all you know about Rocky, and if they are good breeders/rescues, they should know their own gliders' personalities and be able to find you a good partner.

Anyways, best of lucks!

Awesome!! I did not know about the different breeds. Rosie was just a tad bigger than Rocket but she was also a year older. Not sure if there is much of a size different at that age though...

Rocket is very easy going and hasn't crabbed in months. I'm def going to look into Caramels, thank you!!

I'm sorry if you felt even a little offended, that wasn't my intention at all. I'm sorry that I couldn't find the right words that may have sounded better. I mainly wanted stress the two points: 1. that the time frame wasn't that long, especially considering her circumstances. 2. at the same time, I felt like you still did a good thing. Even if you have waited, there was no guarantee, and she still ended up in a better home than she had, you did good. I felt it was important to make both points, in case the next time you may want to give a new glider a little more time to acclimate and use longer periods of "pre-introduction" methods if needed. Hopefully, you'll find an easier going glider friend.

I understand, thank you. I know the end result wasn't what I had hoped for but it was still a success for Rosie.

I'm Glad, you and Rosie both gained something, you got a new experience and joy knowing you improved a glider's life, she got a better quality of life.