The other night I discovered my male had passed for what appears to be unexplained. He was fine a few hours prior, playing, talking and even loving on me. I go to feed them a few hours later, find him at the bottom of the cage and my female bouncing like crazy from wall to wall.
I’m absolutely torn to pieces and feel like I failed him as a mom, he wasn’t even a year old yet. My female seems to be handling it well, eating and drinking well and her ears are still perky and she’s still acting herself. She’s started attaching herself to my dog, no contact has been made other than my dog resting her head on the table near their cage and my female touching her nose through the bars. It’s heen a few days now and I’m aware she’s not in the clear and I’d like to buy her another mate.
A friend of mine offered to give me his 2 males, I’m concerned she’ll reject both of them or worse, they’ll reject her. She was very attached to my Gizmo and I’m worried that introducing her to 2 new males who are already bonded to each other will make things worse for her.
Does anyone have any advice or experience with this? I want her to have the best and I already failed once..I don’t want to fail her too.

Sorry for your loss

are the males neutered?

I’m not sure. Im getting all information soon. He just offered since he heard mine passed on. She’s not. The original plan was to mate the two and get babies. Now I’m not sure.

Please don't take this the wrong way, it's not intended to be harsh or mean in anyway there is just no gentle way to say it. I realize you are unsure if it's what you really want to do so hopefully you will take the information as it's intended and it helps you make your decision.

The fact that you don't know this is a pretty good indication to me that you are not ready to breed. Females don't get fixed, it's a very invasive procedure for females and it's only done when medically necessary and even then it's debated on very heavily by the vets and the owners.

It's not a bad thing that you don't know, many people don't, but it is a very good indicator that while you have done some research, you haven't researched much about breeding YET.


Breeding gliders is not by any means an easy thing and shouldn't be jumped right into.

There are a lot of things to consider when pairing up a breeding pair, breeding trios can be even more complicated with even higher risks. Even long time, very experienced breeders have difficulties with breeding trios.

I personally had owned gliders a minimum of 3 years, researched specifically about breeding, and had a veteran breeding mentor hold my hand the whole time before I was even close to being ready to experience breeding.

I started out with the MOST ideal situation possible. My pair had 3 individual joeys then we neutered Dad and the one male offspring. I learned from each joey they had. Even with all of that, I was still nervous and felt out of my depth and sometimes still do when it comes to certain issues with breeding.

Fortunately, I never had to deal with a rejected joey myself. It's no joke hand feeding a rejected baby. It's work, and emotional, exhausting and sometimes devastating.

A few weeks ago I met a girl from this site with a rejected joey that wasn't thriving. She happened to be local to me and I actually got to meet her and the joey.

I was out of my depth with that situation and hooked her up with someone more experienced with first hand rejected joey care. The owner worked her a$$ off night and day tending to that joey and took alllllll the advice being hurled at her, and for a few weeks he started to thrive and gain weight.

He was doing so awesome and was just starting to eat on his own and we were so happy with his progress.

Then he took a turn last night and within just a few minutes he passed. There is absolutely nothing the owner could have done for him and I am so proud of her and the lengths she went to give him the best possible chance she could.

This is the downside to breeding. It's absolutely heart breaking to watch and go through. Sometimes There are no answers. There is no 'reason' you can put your finger on. It's just part of breeding that you have to be ok with and knowledgeable enough to handle or find someone that is that will help you.



Now I didn't ask if your female is lineaged or not and I don't like to assume.

If she is not lineaged, and if you don't know what that means ( and many people don't) it's not wise to breed her.

There is no way to know if she is related to the male without lineage. It doesn't matter if the gliders came from different people, or different states even. The gliders could be related, gliders are shipped all over the country it is not uncommon for someone to get a glider in fla, and a glider from ny and find out they are related, without lineage there is no proof that they are or are not. That alone is reason enough not to breed her for most of us in the community.

Now I'm not saying you shouldn't everrrrr breed.

What I am saying is, if that is really what you want to do, even if your only wanting to breed for yourself..... please do more research specifically on breeding and know what your getting into.

Some great places to learn about breeding are..


The breeding 101 group, it's strictly about breeding and breeding education. It's also a great place to ask for a breeding mentor that will help you learn. There are a ton of experienced breeders in this group that WANT to share their experience and knowledge. And there are a ton of inexperienced people there that are learning. This group is a very strict no drama group.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/breeding101/


The sugar glider nursery is another great site that is owned by the same person that runs the breeding 101 group

http://www.glidernursery.com/breeding.html

Another great resource is

https://www.suzsugargliders.com/breedingsugargliders.htm

Then if you still want to breed, get a lineaged pair to breed ethically and responsibly and let non lineaged gliders be pet only.


If those boys are intact, and currently get a long. Introducing a female to them could change them getting a long and cause fighting between them. They will potentially fight with each other for breeding rights to the female.

Trios with two intact males and 1 female is probably the most complicated trio combination there is regardless of lineage.

So I would reallly consider neutering them before they even get a whiff of the female if they are indeed intact. They will need at least a month after neutering for their hormone levels to decrease to reduce the chance of fighting over the female.

Now if they ARE neutered...... there shouldn't be any issue introducing her to them. It is a then back to the normal 50/50 chance they will all get along instead of the higher risk that they won't.

Thank you so much for all the depth your answer gave and no did I in no take that as you being cruel. Any Info I’m trying absorb like a sponge.
As for the lineage yes, both my gliders came with all the paperwork and what not. The breeding wasn’t somethinf we were planning on doing, more of if it happens yay if not that’s ok to. Breeding my Astrid is so not a priority or anything of the sort. IF by chance she got pregnant then I’d be over the moon, if she didn’t, that’s perfectly fine. And it will be the same if either of these males are in tact but after reading your advice neutering is definitely at the top of the list now.
My only concern is that Astrid is happy and if I take on 2 more gliders, they’re happy as well. That’s all I care about. Happy, healthy gliders.
Thank you so much for all the advice you’ve given so far. It really does mean a lot to me as a new owner. I just want the best for my babies.

I'm glad it was taken as it was intended ty, sometimes it's hard to know how someone will interpret the tone via text and I can easily come off sounding snarky even when I'm trying really hard not to lol.

With her being lineaged, pairing her up with another lineaged male would totally be acceptable if that is what you want.

I still would suggested joining that group and asking for assistance in checking her lines against any potential males lines your thinking of pairing her with. Those folks are more than happy to do that and teach you how to do that yourself. In fact that group loves doing that right in the group so others learn how to do it as well on a real scenario.

one thing I will warn you about that group is they don't like to just give the answer to questions, they like to make you learn how to find the answer yourself. Which is awesome and sucks at the same time But they are very gentle about it and it's never done to make anyone feel stupid, they truly just want to teach you how to think and learn for yourself.

Genetics is probably the main weakest area for me out of all the glider topics, I only "get it" when it's broken down in the simplest terms and reading about it only makes my eyes glaze over and my head hurt I don't even pretend to know wth I'm lookin at on the database, I get the basic family tree part of it, n that's about it lol.

So if I ever decided to breed my lineaged female Cocoa again, I would also go get assistance from that group or a breeder I know that knows how to do all that. Until then, she is pet only with 2 neutered males and one of her daughters. She is extremely easy to introduce so if I ever want to repair her and breed again I could.

So, you also have options, and you don't necessarily have to decide about breeding right away.

But let me also say...

Putting a intact male and female usually results in babies, but, the conditions have to be right and if the conditions are not met the pair may dispose of the babies before you even know they had any.

Females can also hold a pregnancy in stasis for up to 12 months, if the conditions change she can give birth when she's ready. Soooooooo if the male you recently lost was intact there is still potential they bred and her producing joeys long after he's passed. Just something you need to be aware of as a potential possibility.

Kimberlyd14 Don't take this wrong either but if you are not sure(why he died) get a wellness check on your female, and before you get the males ( if they no neutered they can actually start fighting over who gets the breeding rights with her) turning 2 tame boys into mad gliders on drugs lol). causing fights and even another death. I know it too late, to have his death looking into to make sure it was not something in the house like a pest control spray or a poisoned mouse he got. but i would be careful for a while to make sure she also does not show signs of some poisoning or something if it was not a sudden natural death.

Mechnut450 I don’t have any reason to believe it was poison only because when I would let them out it was strictly supervision and controlled. They weren’t allowed to leave the area I had them in for fear of them getting into something. if anything my female was the explorer. My male just wanted to be held and crawl over me. I think maybe dehydration. But I know I’ll never know. The soonest I could get my female in won’t be till next week only because the vet is out of town. And no introductions will be had until I know my Astrid is ok. Right now she’s my concern and doing what’s best for her. So far she’s doing very well..I think it’s me that’s taking it hard lol. She’s very active and eating and drinking as normal.