I’ve only had Oreo for about a week and I was feeding him a grape out of my hand and then he stopped eating it so I put it away but then I put my finger in front of him and he started gently biting and then it got a little harder so I pulled back but was he grooming me or trying to see if I was food?

The first bit sounded like grooming but the second half sounds like testing for food.

Whenever my gliders have groomed me it's been very gentle and little teeth if any. Mostly my gliders have sat down and just licked my finger for a good 3-5 minutes. Grooming shouldn't be painful.

But if he was actually trying to hurt you, or thought you were food, you'd know. Glider bits aren't fun, they have very sharp long teeth. From what you've described he definitely wasn't trying to hurt you or being mean.

Once your glider knows your smell they won't do that. Every glider owner goes through the "I'm not food" stage.

Sounds to me like he could smell and taste the grape on your finger and was trying to get another bite.

sometimes our gliders will lick the salt off my skin, specially the back of the neck. but when they get a hold of my hair they can start grooming or pulling very hard. They get interest in some spots and don't want to stop grooming or pulling.

this is GUS a very friendly and a NEVER bites me glider(I can just grab him and pick him up and he doesn't mind) just getting into a very hard grooming spot.

BYK_Chainsaw oh yeah that's what they do with sores eh

That's why it's so important to keep a wounded glider separate from the rest of the gliders. They pick and make it worse.

Very cute here though, you have been cleaned. Lol

Alright cool, thanks for answering guys!

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Originally posted by BYK_Chainsaw

Sounds to me like he could smell and taste the grape on your finger and was trying to get another bite.

sometimes our gliders will lick the salt off my skin, specially the back of the neck. but when they get a hold of my hair they can start grooming or pulling very hard. They get interest in some spots and don't want to stop grooming or pulling.

this is GUS a very friendly and a NEVER bites me glider(I can just grab him and pick him up and he doesn't mind) just getting into a very hard grooming spot.

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My sweetest one will set to work on wounds as well! He also spent a good 5 minutes trying to take my watch off the other night, he eventually gave up but it was so cute (and not painful like the de-scabbing sessions). All 3 will playfully nip, and one will also nip to tell me he doesn't like something. If they are actually biting, it hurts, he only bit me on purpose once and didn't get me full strength and it still drew blood and hurt for days. He also got me another time accidentally when I was giving him mealworms,

My 4 yr old Gizmo,never bites, only licks with slight nibbles which are part of grooming... my 5 mo old baby Stripe, mouths EVERYTHING he comes in contact with, but it's never hard, I think he's just curious...