My sugar gliders Joey came oop on June 11th 2018, I get my gliders out every night (unless I absolutely cannot) for tent time. usually they will groom themselves and now the joey inside my shirt or sweatshirt. However they are perfectly okay with me holding the joey (to move him typically, I rarely just hold him) and wont allow me to help him onto their backs. But when he is alone in my sleeve (please be aware I am very aware of where he is at all times!) and starts to cry they go crazy trying to get him, they do get to him, I promise I am not neglecting them, that's just where they leave him most of the time. In this time they fight. Mom and dad will crab and strike at each other while looking for the joey. Is this normal? Or should I be worried?
They are both very involved with the baby, I'm not worried about rejection or cannibalization at this point. It's just all of our first joey and I'm overly worried I guess.
Also, when the joey is not eating or on mama's stomach she tends to clean the inside of her pouch, is that a normal thing for them to do?
Thank you!

I don't have any experience with joeys.
but it does sound like they get stressed if the baby cries. I was thinking what I would do is if they leave the joey in my shirt, I would move him to a bonding pouch so if he cries I can quickly put the pouch opening in front of the parents so they can quickly check on the joey.

I have sleeve dwellers too



It is OK to just hold the joey instead of leaving him in your sleeve where they left him. Take him out of your sleeve and start handling him. That is prime time to start socializing him getting him used to you, hands, your voice, being held, etc.

I used to worry that my hands were to hot and the joey would overheat. Warm hands are actually comforting to the joey, it resembles the warmth of moms pouch.

It will also help when he starts calling to mom n dad, they will find him faster if your able to show him to them quickly, instead of them having to look for him. It will cause less stress to everyone.

He will learn to go into your sleeve from mom n dad when his eyes open


When I had joeys here, when everrrrrrrrr I saw the joey not latched on to mom n dad I'd take them out to handle them for as long as they were not fussing, even during the day. If they cried I took them back to the cage where mom or dad promptly collected them. Start gradually and build up to keeping the joey a little longer at a time as he grows and matures.

This will make for one veryyyyy handle able glider who won't need "bonding" like his mom n dad did. To the joey you'll be an extension of the family/colony like a big brother or sister that babysits him.

All 3 of the joeys born here are mellow, amazing, I can handle them easily and do anything I need to to them,they stay on me and have never once tried to get off my body.

With one exception. I can't just hand them to anyone without them crabbing. The ONLY time these joeys crabbed was when I handed them to a friend to hold, once the joey realized it wasn't me they crabbed until I took them back lol. My boyfriend and I are not that social and don't have people over very often so none of my gliders are social with anyone else but us.

The parents never bickered with each other like that, but again the joey was always usually visible to them so they didn't stress. Even if they were in the cage and I had the joey in the bedroom, if the joey fussed we went right back to the cage.

Also take this opportunity to get pics of the joey as he grows. I alwaysssssss had the camera handy and ready when I had joeys out

The first joey is always a worry, with everything. It's normal. I was a nervous wreck with our first lol but the mom was experienced and taught me and the dad as we went. I also had the benefit of having a mentor that taught me as well.

The biggest thing I can tell you is to relax, and enjoy the experience. If your worried all the time so will the parents. When the joey fusses talk to it, tell the parents you have him, he's right here... and show him to them.

Cleaning the pouch is normal for the mom and if joey is in there Dad might stick his head in to clean the joey too.

Thank you so much Leela! That's all very reassuring and very helpful. I am natural very worried about stuff like this. I also read about joys and there's so many people saying first time parents are usually not good, so I guess I get too scared, ya know?

The first time they left the Joey in my sleeve zip got him out and they brought him right back in, idk maybe they were being persistant at the time lol. I have them currently sleeping in a fleece cube to prevent the Joey falling out or something, I always leave it in the tent with us. I will be taking your advice on holding and loving the little guy, who wouldn't want to?

However if he gets super fussy and/or scared I'll just put him in the cube for mom and dad to take care of him. I'm actually very proud of them tbh, they're trying very hard and doing a swell job from what I can tell. Like I said, when they were acting that way I was kind of concerned bc I was just over reacting lol.

Again, thank you so much! I just want what's best for all three of my babies and I'm already way too emotionally invested in baby Jitter Bug.

lol im glad it helped. It's true first time parents have a high risk of joeys not making it. It's a very common and heartbreaking part of breeding, I'm glad your not having those issues

That was also one of my fears, and why I was fortunate to have been given a female breeder that had experience being a mom before I got her. I probably wouldn't have bred at all if it weren't for her and she was amazingggg. Her first joey here was born while she was on my arm I got to watch the whole thing!! Then panic because I thought one fell off I didn't know that she usually only produces one joey at a time. So yeh, I get the panic omfggggg feelin

The joey isn't going to fall out of the pouch even open environment pouches which is what I used sometimes when mine were breeding. Those babies can seriously hang on to just about anything lol. I never really changed anything in the cage the pouches stayed high, the wheels stayed in, maybe took a toy out if I thought it was something a joey could get stuck in but an older glider wouldn't, that's really the only thing I did different.

If you continue to breed you might want to join the breeding 101 group on facebook. https://www.facebook.com/groups/breeding101/

This is an awesomeeee educational group strictly for glider breeding. There is 0 drama tolerated in this group like ZERO which is almost unheard of for fb groups lol

There are brand new breeders and veteran breeders and everything in between. They can answer just about any question you may have, teach about genetics, kinship, how to make sense of the lineage database all of it. There are 0 non breeding topics in the group. So if you ask a basic non breeding glider husbandry question an admin will suggest you post it in a different group and delete the post. Shelly Sterk does a great job keeping the group all about breeding.

I will never be a breeder that sells may not ever breed again. But I still learn things in there, except for genetics god that just makes my eyes glaze over when they get into all that lol its just not my thing. Anyway, It's a great group with great topics any breeder can learn from.