Hey all,

My two suggies and I used to do playtime before bed each night. Due to a recent change in my schedule, though, I've had to move playtime up by a good two hours. Problem is, my girls are usually still sleeping at this time and they -like me lol- do NOT like waking up early.

The first night I tried early playtime, they climbed out of their pouch, sniffed around a bit, and then went right back in the pouch to sleep. The second night I took their pouch away as soon as they left it . . . my girls are resourceful though and so they just climbed inside my tshirt to snooze there instead (which led to some adorable cuddle time but not so much playing). They stayed up a tiny bit later the third night, but then it was right back to sleep in my shirt again.

My question is: if I am consistent about waking them up for early playtime, will they eventually adapt their sleeping schedule accordingly and start waking up to play? Or am I wasting my time even trying? I can switch to pre-work morning playtime if I really need to, but holy cow does the thought of waking up at 4am every morning horrify me lol.

Thanks for any tips/insight!

(I've lurked on this forum for a while but this is my first time posting so please go easy on me if I've done something wrong/put this in the wrong place or whatnot )

I have actually heard of people training their gliders to be awake during the day. This sound mean and just down right horrible to me, but if it can be done why couldn't their schedule be tweaked by a few hours?

Well, I agree it's possible they'll change their routine with repetition, my gliders have changed up their routine (mostly on their own) since I first homed them, and definitely a bit seasonally.

Any time from evening to early morning is a good time for out of cage play. When they're up and the most active would be the ideal time, but that doesn't always fit in with routines we have to be on. Better to work off their schedule a bit then to skip out of cage play all together.

I personally like morning playtime best, but not 4am, lol. I loved when my schedule and living arrangement allowed me to get them out anywhere between 6-6:30 am till about 7 am or so. I would do this three times a week and found clean up easier (less pooing and peeing, lol) and also they were more willing to go back into their cage when done.

I've had a lot of disruption in routine and living arrangements since 2014, and have struggled getting a good routine to stick with. So I just do the best I can, and it seems evenings are the most convenient all around with my latest work schedule.

Thanks guys!

I've heard a lot of people say that morning playtime is great bc of easy cleanup and easy return to cage. I wish I was a morning person!

For now I'll keep trying early evening playtime and hope my girls get with the program. If they don't . . . well, pray for me lol.

Lol, at least you're spending time with them, it all helps with trust building