Hi.

I hoping a few of the local experts here can put me at ease.

Background:

We have had two gliders for over a year, they are approximately 3 years old, brother/sister, male is neutered.

We were able to get a wonderfully sweet female, 7 months out of pouch.

We set her up in our decent sized travel cage, and placed it close to our other cage. Each night we swap pouches.


After more than a week, we tried introducing the male and the new female. She crabbed and lunged a little, but he just sniffed and tried to mark her by rubbing his head on her belly. It went relatively Ok, but with her crabbing we decided to try again the next night.

The next night we put the male in a smaller travel cage and they seemed ok. One made the clicking greeting sound. When we put them together the male was near her tail and they balled up fighting. I'm not sure if the male nipped her or she was just spooked.

We separated them and continue the pouch swap/close cage. The male now is extremely interested in her. He rarely leaves the part of the cage that are close, and mirrors her movements as she walks on her walls. A couple of times I've seen him charge the bars if she makes a quick move. This has been going on for a few days. I'm nervous to try putting them together again, as I can't confirm if his actions are aggressive or not.

Advice?

Would pictures help?
I could also video his behavior as it's pretty consistent.

Thanks.

Good morning!
There's lots of posts on this site about introducing gliders. I recommend you search it and read a bunch, to get a nice wide perspective of the different opinions.

Here's my two cents:
I had some trouble introducing two of my gliders. The girl went after the boy. So I took a step back and started over. I had them in the same room, but the cages were far apart. I swapped pouches about every three days or so, so that each pouch would soak up all the scent possible from the one glider before putting it in the other glider's cage. I did that for about eight weeks, and without washing those pouches (sounds gross but it wasn't that bad). By the end of the eight weeks I believe the scents were completely mingled and each of the gliders had the mingled scents on them. When I finally introduced them, I did it in the bathtub in the middle of the day while they were tired. I offered a clean pouch which they eventually crawled into together. I put them in a small, clean cage for the day while I watched them carefully and cleaned the big cage so it would be neutral territory when I put them into it. That night I watched them again and for a couple weeks after I used a baby monitor to make sure they were getting along. So all in all, I got the boy in January, tried to introduce them after the 30 day recommended quarantine and two weeks of scent swapping-it didn't work. Then did what I described above, and finally introduced them again in April. It worked that time.

So i recommend
1. Separate the cages. Sounds like there's some aggression across cages and that won't likely get better on its own.
2. Scent swap for a longer time. I don't know if you did the 30 day quarantine, but either way, try to give it a few weeks. Especially since they've already balled up.
3. I'm not sure exactly what steps you took while introducing them, but I strongly recommend neutral territory like a bathtub, and doing it during the day. Offer a clean pouch if they seem to get along, and a clean, neutral cage as well.

I don't remember if you're new to the forum so just in case, welcome!
Best of luck to you. Try to be patient

Thank you so much for your reply.

I am new to the forum, and thanks also for the welcome.

I cut the 30 day quarantine short after I got the ok from the vet that the full wellness exam was fine.

I'll try an intro reset like you suggested and see how it goes.

I'll seperate the cages more and rather than swap the pouches nightly, I'll swap every few days.

I did the original introductions during the day. I washed a fleece blanket, laid it on our bed and introduced them there. With a clean fleece floor and a room neither has really visited, I felt that to be pretty neutral environment.

Thanks again for the advice, I'll keep you updated.

You're welcome!
I hope you find something that helps, whether it's my post or another.
Hopefully giving it more time and them more space will help.
One of the things I read about the bathtub is that it's a little strange to the gliders so that maybe makes them a little more likely to want to be together or something like that. Whatever it is, it did work for me.
Good luck!

Thanks again.

Yeah, there is a lot of information out there, though a lot of it conflicting.

I read your point about the bathtub, how the strangeness brings them together; the enemy of the tub is my friend, sort of thing.
I also read how the strangeness freaks them out thus making them more prone to being aggressive.
I read that besides pouch swaps, cage swaps are also a brilliant idea. This only to be contradicted about how cage swaps are the worst idea since...unsliced bread?

And reading all this info and how it is presented makes all the arguments sound pretty valid. Thus a lot of doubt on my part.

But I will most certainly take your advice on moving the new one's cage away. Though I will sort of miss watching how the male lazily and tiredly makes his way down to the connected section when he first arises, just to sit and wait patiently for the new one to wake up so he can, do whatever it is he thinks he is doing.

Time and space. Let's see how that goes.

And a side note, we haven't even tried introducing the two females together yet. But as our old one never pays the new one any mind, we don't think it will be an issue (fingers crossed)

Lol you are funny...and right! There's always a ton of conflicting info. I think truly all gliders are different like all people are different, and so that's probably why there's so much mismatching info?

As for the female...I'm not sure but I think most often people intro the pair to the single glider at the same time. Since they'll all be basically sharing pouches for a while, she should be used to the scent as well.

I read about cage swapping but I personally just didn't like the idea...if they're territorial animals, I feel like it would freak them out to just up and stick them into someone else's territory. Plus just imagine the scent marking that would happen....

If you have any other questions don't be afraid to make a new post. Although right now I'm the only response on this thread, there's a lot more knowledgeable glider owners out there that could offer their perspective. In the end though you know your gliders and make a decision based on what you know about them.

I felt a little sorry for my male my last night. He kept sitting the looking sad wondering where his friend/nemesis went. Or maybe it was a victory look of ha, I showed her who's the boss of these them here parts.

I put back one of the pouches that only my pair has used. I was curious if they would pick the old one or the one infused with the new ones scent. They picked the new one, so I'll take that as a good sign.

Though I've read a lot of pros and cons of cage swapping, I side with you and will just stick with the pouches. Though one thing I found to be pretty consistent though was introducing one at a time. The idea being colony mindset won't set it and they gang up on her.

But I have at least a month or so of pouch swapping before I cross that bridge.


Thanks again.