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GliderGossip GliderGossip
Sugar Gliders
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Mar 26 2015
08:05:50 PM
So I have had two gliders for a little over a month. I have one neutered male, Winnie, who is three months old and another, Mo, who is seven months old. We were told Mo was a neutered male, but after looking at his tummy, he has a small hole on the lower half, that looks a lot like a pouch. I will be taking him into a vet in a couple weeks when I have the money saved. Winnie is a very happy glider with a lot of energy, but Mo is lethargic, pouch protective, and his fur wasn't in the best condition when we got him. After a couple weeks of switching pouches, we introduced Mo and Winnie, and Mo was very aggressive and tried to fight Winnie. We thought he was a male at the time so we knew It might not go well but we weren't expecting them to ball up. Since we think he might be a female, I read that older females will beat up younger males. It has been a couple weeks since then and we haven't done any introductions since, beings that their cages are about 5 feet apart and Mo still makes angry noises towards Winnie and gets pretty aggressive when they can see each other.
Five days ago, we ordered a 4 month old female from Hartland sugar gliders. She is very shy and crabs a lot. She lets us pet her, but if we move too fast she crabs. Hart land said we would be able to introduce them 5 days after we received her, so we tried that today with Winnie who is the same age as her. We first switched their pouches for a few nights. Then we put their cages about a foot apart last night and they were both curious of each other. During the intro, Winnie was very curious and just wanted to crawl into her pouch with her. She was crabbing and throwing some bites out, but I don't know if it was because she didn't like Winnie, or if it was because she is just still scared in general of her new home and humans. We made sure to do it in the bathroom (a neutral environment) and Neither of them got too aggressive, they also didn't make the clicking noise that Mo made when he wanted to attack Winnie. I regret introducing them so soon because she still seems very scared of everything. I guess my question is, how long should we wait before introducing them a second time? should she bond with us first? And even though she came from a usda breeder, does she still need to be quarantined 30 days and seen by a vet? I'm new to all of this and just need a game plan because ive heard so many different opinions on new gliders and introductions that I don't know what method is correct.
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Mar 26 2015
08:14:02 PM
Onelove420 Glider Visit Onelove420's Photo Album USA 89 Posts
We took Mo and Winnie to a vet and she told us there were no fleas or parasites that she could detect. She guessed Mo's lethargy was due to stress of switching owners three to five times and not having a cage mate to grow up with.
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Mar 26 2015
11:11:53 PM
Candy Cuddle Bear Visit Candy's Photo Album FL, USA 8110 Posts
quote:
she told us there were no fleas or parasites that she could detect


Did she do fecal testing? The intestinal parasites like round worms and giardia are the biggest concern.

Fleas are not usually a problem for gliders - they would groom them off of each other and eat them.
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Mar 27 2015
08:27:52 AM
Onelove420 Glider Visit Onelove420's Photo Album USA 89 Posts
She did not. I don't think she had much experience with sugar gliders. Ill make sure the next vet does a fecal test. I'm taking them to a vet on the sugar glider recommended vet list.
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Mar 27 2015
08:38:00 AM
Blue Nostalgic Fuzzy Wuzzy Visit Blue Nostalgic's Photo Album 1422 Posts
Hi and welcome.

I agree that you'll need to get them all to a really good glider vet, and happy to see that you are doing so. It was too early in your case to try to put them together. Especially with your first two being with you for such a short amount of time. They're really still adjust as well. The vet saying that some of this could be due to Mo having not "grown up" with a cage mate is odd. 7 months old is young for a glider and given the time that he needs to acclimate to all of the new things going on, he should be able to get over some of these initial behaviors. Each glider, as you've seen, has their own unique personalities. They bond in different ways and one totally different time lines. With humans and other gliders.

See what your new vet has to say. Now that all three have been introduced they'll all need fecals and if one is positive they will treat them all. Then take everything back a step and allow them time to know that there are others in the house and slowly move the cages closer...not close enough for them to reach each other. See how they react for a couple days and try the introductions again in a neutral spot...your tent or glider proofed place will work for this.

Good luck and keep us posted on their progress.
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Mar 27 2015
10:32:04 AM
Onelove420 Glider Visit Onelove420's Photo Album USA 89 Posts
Thanks for the help! Winnie and Lil's cages were two feet apart last night and they were both curious and they kinda looked like they were looking for a way out to see each other closer. They're not aggressive with each other like Mo is so I think after awhile of getting them acclimated with their cages close together, another introduction will go okay!
I'll also make sure to get them all tested for parasites from the new vet.
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Mar 29 2015
02:02:06 PM
Onelove420 Glider Visit Onelove420's Photo Album USA 89 Posts
I introduced them again last night and they got along great! They were cleaning each other, playing, and sharing food with each other. I put them in separate cages when I went to sleep, but this morning when I woke up, I let her crawl into his pouch and they're currently sleeping together. I'll continue to have supervised play dates for the next week, but I have high hopes for them as cage mates:)
She still hasn't warmed up to us yet tho and crabs a lot when we move too fast or get too close. My male also scares her sometimes because he's very fast and jumps on her from one side of the cage to the other. She lets out a little squeak when he does that but then she's fine. Winnie is a wild one so hopefully he'll get her used to fast movements and loud sounds, and not just stress her out. She seems to be doing fine with it for the time being.

Edited by - Onelove420 on Mar 29 2015 02:05:15 PM
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Mar 29 2015
02:27:25 PM
Leela Goofy Gorillatoes Gliderpedia Editor Visit Leela's Photo Album Leela's Journal 2919 Posts
That's great If they are sleeping ok in the same pouch together I don't know why you would separate them again though.

If it were me, I'd let them stay together at this point and just sleep light the next few nights to check on them if they squabble.

I might be misunderstanding something though, are they currently all in separate cages? or are there 2 in 1 then the third in a different one??
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Mar 29 2015
04:42:35 PM
Onelove420 Glider Visit Onelove420's Photo Album USA 89 Posts
I now have two four month olds in one cage (neutered male and a female) and one in a separate cage. I'm not sure if Mo (in the separate cage) is a male or female and he is a few months older than my other two. I'm going to have Mo checked out by a university vet in a week or so when I have the money to see if he's male or female and to do another parasite exam. I'll have the other two checked out as well after I see what the total comes to to see if I need to save up another couple hundred. Winnie and Mo have both already been checked out for fleas and parasites but I am still worried about Mo as he is lethargic and aggressive towards my other gliders even from 5 or 6 feet away in their cages.
And I will put my pair back in the same cage now, I think they should do fine. I heard a few hisses this morning from in their pouch and that kind of scared me so I separated them before I left the house.
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GliderGossip GliderGossip
Sugar Gliders
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