I know this question has been asked a million times, but I'm wondering about some specifics with my gliders. I've had them for two months, and only one of them has had any progress. I have some other questions besides bonding too!

What I've been doing for bonding so far is I take their cage pouch out during the day (almost every day, I only don't when I miss a day for some reason) for at least an hour, but its usually a few. I always have my hand in the pouch to pet them. I did the tent a few times, but neither seemed to like it very much. PJ (the one who isn't very bonded) just tried to run away the whole time, each time I did it, trying to go back in his pouch. (I did this as they woke up, they wake up at around 8 every night, and I have them in their pouch with me usually from around 3-5.)

Sometimes at night I'll go to the cage and Pilot (my more bonded one) will run up my arm and run around my back for a while. PJ is far more skiddish and if I'm even near the cage will hide in the back corner behind the plastic castle I have on the floor. I haven't taken them out in public with the bonding pouch because they usually crab (they seem to be much more antsy if I lay with them in the bonding pouch than if they're in their cage pouch, I think they dislike the fact that it closes.

How else should I bond with them? I'd love to be able to sit with them freely in bed at one point and know they're not going to run off into my room, but they seem nowhere near that point, especially PJ, who crabs at me often, even if I'm just sticking my hand in the pouch. Sometimes during bonding time, Pilot will try to climb out of the pouch, what should I do about this, or does anyone know why he's doing it? Usually I'll let him out into the cage because I figure he has to use the bathroom or something, but then he just sits on the floor of it and shakes.

Are there any specific tips you could give me to help with bonding? I feel like it's taking way too long, but I'm not sure what else I can really do. If you have any tips, just let me know when I should do it (when they're asleep during the day, when they first wake up, or in the middle of the night when they're totally up)
Also, when you say you ply with your gliders, how/when do you play with them? Do you just mean letting them run around on you? Or can you do something else with them?
Thanks again for any help you can give me!

Sounds like your doing all the right things, and beginning to learn their individual personalities.

Two months isn't very long so don't feel like its taking to long, there is no time frame when a glider should be "bonded"

Unfortunately, gliders don't always comply with human wants and goals, the humans have to learn and adapt to what the gliders needs and wants are. This is in regards to wanting to hang out with them on your bed without running off.

Out of my current 10 gliders i have maybe 4 I can do that with, with no tent and know they will stay on me. The rest, would be all over the place if they were awake and active, that doesn't mean they aren't "bonded" to me it just means they love to be active and explore everything.

See, everyone has their own definition of "bonded" and their own picture of what bonded is suppose to look like. All bonding means is your building a friendship, and that takes time, and it never stops. There are different levels, depths, stages of "bonded" Our views on what bonded is differ so much and our relationship with our gliders is just as different. Each bond is unique to the relationship between the individual glider and individual human.

So my advice...... don't worry about how long it's taking, it's going to take as long as it takes... and you can't rush it or the gliders. As you learn to trust them, they are learning to trust you.

It takes time, consistency, routine, learning your glider, finding what works for your gliders and what doesn't...

Your off to a great start so don't get discouraged.

I have a glider room now, so at night I open the cage and let them out for a few hours. They will NOT just sit with me.
scarface will stay in cage, or go back to cage if I take her out. she will eat and stay at bottom of cage or go back to pouch.
riggs is coming out more often, does some exploring then goes to a bonding pouch on side of cage.
sophie (who is very friendly with everyone) will run around explore for about 2 hours or less, visit me a little, then find a place (pouch) to go back to.
Link will stay in the shadows much of the time, coming out for treats or some exploring, but he likes to hang out under cage or in cat tree cove.
Gus and Gizmo will explore most of the time, visit me, groom me (grooming sometimes very hard) run around, visit me, run around, visit me again for another 20 seconds then run off again. They stay up most of the 2 hours of cage open time, but gus usually can be found in the pouch with scarface and sophie when playtime is over and I turn off the tv.

keep working with them,
I make them come to me for a treat, so even scarface I can get to come to me with a shake of the mealworm container, she is just fast to run away. but as I use the new glider room more, scarface spends a little more time at front of cage.

Thanks for the replies! So I should just keep doing what I’m doing? I wasn’t sure if there was more I could be doing at this point to help in bonding. When pilot jumps on me from the cage he usually doesn’t want to get off and go back in, but he’ll usually try to jump off me to run around my room (which I try not to let him do because it’s just a bedroom, it’s not glider proofed in any way).

Also, what’s a good temperature for the room? Since it’s summer I have the ac on 68-71 usually because I don’t want to make it too cold since I know they probably like it warmer.

I keep my house at 73 to 75 in summer. they can use each other and fleece to keep warm. I wouldn't keep it overly cold. Smaller animals like gliders have a large body area vs body fat. So a large animal can maintain heat in there mass while losing less out of less surface skin.
A smaller animal like a shrew (or glider) has small body mass vs surface skin. so they can lose heat faster and have less mass to keep heat in. a small animal may eat a lot more food or much more often so they can turn food into heat.
Gliders will huddle up in the pouch, using each others heat to conserve their own heat/food. they even have a temporal?? state like a mini hybernation so they conserve heat/food.
So in the end, room temperature for you is fine for them, and slightly warmer would be good also. your providing them with plenty of good food, they will be in good shape.

You sound like your doing bonding right, and you can ALWAYS try to do more, try new things, look at some youtube videos. there is one cool one the girl lets them urinate on her hands, rubs it around her hands, then handles the new young gliders, the smell makes them comfortable and after she keeps them from leaving her hands they tend to tire out and sleep. she says after a few times at this the glider have little problem falling to sleep in her hands, without the urine.

I also read you want to limit daytime handling, that is when they sleep so keeping them awake and stressed if they are not comfortable with you yet can be stressful to them -- over handling.

Now that I have the glider room I feed them at about 9 to 10, they are awake and are FAST to jump out of cage, on me and onto the room. so If im not taking them out that night or want to wait for later to take them out, last night was 12 mid to 2am, I have to be fast and do a lot of pushing and grabbing to keep them in cage.

Torpor is what it's called.

It's pretty rare that we actually see a glider go into a torpor state in captivity though in fact I've never seen a case of it.

It's not going to happen simply from running Ac or keeping a comfortable temperature for the human that we usually keep our houses regulated to with either Ac or a heat source.

When it has happened it is under extreme circumstances, like long extended power outage in the winter, where normally the house was kept at a consistent temp by the furnace then suddenly, drastically drops to no heat at all for a long time.

Extreme circumstances cause torpor, Their entire body system and functions slow down to such a drastically reduced and slow rate the glider is thought to be dead when it isn't.

Comfortable for me is about 72* which is also comfortable for the gliders. However, mine did fine for a few months when our Ac wasn't working it reached a 100 in here a few times I'm sure. In hot weather, keep the air circulating with oscillating fans, keep more than one water source available at all times including at least one if not all open water sources like silos. I use OE pouches rather than normal deep pocket pouches when it's hot and uncomfortable just so their body heat doesn't collect and get trapped in the pouch.


During the day bonding time.. I disagree with limiting it especially if you don't know the glider well.

Yes, they do need sleep. But sitting their pouch in your lap while they sleep is not going to disturb them that much and that is what I do with new to me gliders. I don't expect them to get up and play to entertain me, I don't expect them to be active, I don't want them to be active.

I want them to get used to me, my voice, my movements, my coughing, my smell, me moving the pouch, being lifted up in the pouch, me zipping or unzipping the pouch, my hands going in the pouch. All this and more can be done while they sleep in my lap.

As they become used to all that, and aren't woken up and or affected by it..... then you can tote them around in a bonding bag while they sleep undisturbed as you go about your day, work, chores etc..

None of my gliders are bothered by taking them out of the cage during the day, they get treats, nails checked n trimmed if need and they go right back to sleep while I sit here and pet them.

Here's the thing, your going to read a lot of stuff. Your going to get 20 different answers from 20 different people for the same question. Take all the advice in, sort through it, think about what might work for you and your gliders. Try what you think will work, if it doesn't work try something else.

What works for me might not work for you and your gliders, you have to sort through it all and figure out what DOES work for you and your gliders then do THAT.

There is really no right way to do bonding. It's unique to each person and their gliders. Byk isn't wrong by limiting day time activities, he just does things very differently than I do and it works for him. So while I disagree and have a different opinion of it I don't think he is wrong at all. If it seems to stress your gliders yes limited it or change what your doing with them during the day to reduce the stress for them.