Hey everyone, I have a situation with my gliders I'm trying to figure out, so I'd love thoughts from anyone... TLDR: we introduced a new glider to our bonded pair and everything was great for a month, then a fight broke out. More details below.


Background: I adopted two bonded gliders a little over a year ago. They're about 2 yrs old: a neutered male (Biscuit) and a female (Peaches).

A few months ago we adopted another girl (Sarah). She's also about 2 and had been living alone without another glider her whole life.

So we did all the usual: for a month+ slowly moving the cages together, swapping pouches/cages, bonding side by side in separate pouches, etc. A week before the actual intro everybody got a vet check up and a clean bill of health. The meeting went well. No initial fighting at all: we did 1-on-1 (both girls) and they ended up cuddling and grooming right away so we brought in the boy, Biscuit, and Sarah (new girl) ADORED him and was immediately rubbing all over him, etc. We'd planned to have intros span a few days or weeks longer but they just seemed so comfortable and you could tell Sarah was SO happy to be with other gliders that we couldn't bear to separate them. They went (closely monitored that whole night, of course) into the same cage, and didn't show any signs of having an issue. They were like old friends.

So, fast-forward. For a month they all lived in the same cage and slept in the same pouch and we heard/saw NO fighting. Then I went out of town and a fight broke out! My boyfriend saw it, thank goodness, but that means I couldn't use my own judgement about what I saw. He said: Biscuit (the boy) and Sarah (the new girl) both had food splattered all over them. Peaches (original girl) was biting Sarah's neck and riding around on her back. They were all making 'weird noises' and scuffling about. Sarah couldn't get Peaches off but clearly wanted to.

He was able to get Sarah back into our secondary cage, where she's been for a week. Nobody had any visual injuries, thank goodness, so I'm not sure how serious of a fight it was or whether they would have been okay to sort it out alone, but better safe than sorry. We've started to swap pouches again in hopes of re-introducing.


So my thoughts: since they got along for a month in the same cage I don't think it was an intro problem? I've considered food aggression and will definitely have more feeding stations when they re-intro. My best guesses are: hormones from going into heat, and Peaches trying to show Sarah she's the 'dominant' girl/in charge.

Has anybody had experiences with girls fighting like that, or newly introduced gliders having fights break out a while into their relationship? Do you think long term they can still be together as a colony?

sorry no one has responded to this...It sounds like you did all the right things.

I do have experience with 2 girls fighting a month or so after an intro its long so I will try to condense it.

I had my original pair neutered male and female, then took in 2 females. Intro went fine I have it on video if you'd like to see it, it's rather long tho. We had two brisbane cages attached side by side so plenty of room, plenty of toys wheels etc... they were ok for a week or so, we also had 2 plates of food separated by toys so they could eat in peace with no food aggression.

There was some crabbing goin on, and some chasing here n there n we changed things in the cage to see if that'd help. Well it was quietly escalating.

Then one night ( about a month to a month n a half into all this ) the girls balled up and fought. Amy suffered a big scratch on her face and bite bruises and hair loss on her side. We pulled her from the quad. There are pics of her in my albums.

We didn't want to pull her origional cage mate from her new colony since the 3 of them were successful and getting along. She couldn't go in with Amy immediately anyway because of the injuries.

So Amy was single and I set off to find her a younger glider. My friend ran a rescue and called me about a 6 month girl that needed surrendered sooo we got her.

Two weeks later when I was doing bonding bag time with Amy and the new one Pico, Pico dove into Amys pouch and introduced herself They got along amazingly and Pico gently brought Amy back to life and boosted her confidence.

Then another glider needed me so we introduced him to Amy and Pico they all got along fine.

So now I have 2 trios cages nearish each other. We kept it that way for sometime then decided to try another intro with all 6. Which was awesomeeeeeeee the intro was mayhem but great!! For a few months. Then Nicky got a neck wound and it all started up again with Leela and Amy, not as bad but I was recognizing it starting to escalate.

So when Nicky healed and was ready for cagemates I had to make some choices
( she had a bald line from her wound so she'd be a target for some so she couldn't go back in a big colony)

We decided to pull Amy and Simon to go with Nicky (Nicky and Amy were cagemates before the first intro) Simon just loves any body lol so we were back to 2 trios.

In the last year or so we've lost Amy, Simon and Pico but until then they were successful in the trios. The others have some new friends and are made up of 3 cages.

We will not attempt another big colony but if someone needs pulled for whatever reason we do our best to figure out which cage will accept them the easiest. Leela is not an aggressive glider nor was Amy they just didn't gel in the cage.


Sooo just because intros go well doesn't mean they will work long term. Always watch for changes in behavior no matter how long they have been together, things change. It's not uncommon for bonded pairs or colonies to fall apart even when they've been together for sometime. Always have a temp cage in case things change.

"My best guesses are: hormones from going into heat, and Peaches trying to show Sarah she's the 'dominant' girl/in charge."

could be either of those, could be food aggression, could be figuring out whos doing what job etc there are so many things it could be. All you can do is what their behavior towards each other and know when to separate them if you try another intro. Continue to watch them if caged together again ... I know its easier said than done lol anyway i'm not sure if any of this helped other than knowing yes it happens even long after intros

Sorry for the delayed response but that's actually really helpful, thank you. It's good to know we aren't the only ones who have experienced that! We're going to try a reintroduction soon and hopefully this round goes more smoothly.