New sugar glider owner so I'm sure I'll be bombarding with lots of questions!

My wife and I adopted 2 male joeys at 11 weeks old about 1 week ago. They had a few days to get used to their new cage and a couple days ago I started taking the pouch out and carrying it in my shirt. We have t-shirts that we wore on top of the cage and strips of cut fabric that we wiped on us in the pouch. (its hot so I'm assuming they are nice and scenty!).

Main question here is, how long to wait for them to get comfortable before starting to try to handle them outside the pouch and starting to try and take them out of the pouch by hand?

Here is where we are with bonding:
- They first crabbed like crazy just hearing our voices next to the pouch, now its only rare that they do
- I am able to pick up the pouch from the cage and put in my shirt for daytime bonding with no crabbing.
- One crabs like crazy if I try to open the pouch, but only when in the pouch. They do not crab at all when awake in the cage.
- When in the cage, they are a little skiddish but will come to the sides to take treats from my fingers.
- If I put my hands on the sides of the cage, one comes over to investigate and sniff me.
- This morning, I had my hand in the cage with yogurt drop on my finger and one came up to it and ate the drop off it.
- They come to eye level when we are standing at the side of the cage and come close to look at our faces eye to eye
- Tried tent time, they wouldn't come out of the pouch.

I don't want to push them too far and push back the bonding, but also read that the younger they are the easier they get used to being held. So figured I would ask!

I am taking them to the vet tomorrow for a first pre-neutering appointment. Hope they don't associate me with that visit!

Thanks!

Congrats and welcome to the glider world.

"the younger they are the easier they are" is a myth. Some joeys ( young ones ) are easy, some are hard. Some adults are easy, some are hard.

Age has the least to do with it in my opinion.

Sounds like your progressing pretty well and the gliders have settled in.

"Main question here is, how long to wait for them to get comfortable before starting to try to handle them outside the pouch and starting to try and take them out of the pouch by hand? "

I would recommend more tent time before handling them out in the open. In the tent they are contained so if they get away from you it's easier to round them up.

They don't have to come out of the pouch in the tent if they aren't ready, that is when you sit down with their pouch in your lap, roll it down a little and pet them and let them start getting used to your hands.

Gliders will usually fuss less if you roll the pouch down before reaching in, it's not as intimidating as a hand plunging into a deep pouch that will likely result in them biting you for invading their space. Rolling the pouch down also encourages them to come out onto you on their own since they are already more exposed anyway.

Please keep in mind, most gliders do not like to be held, they prefer to just be on your body or in your clothes rather than being confined by your hands. If you try to hold them especially when awake, they will likely do their best to squirm out of your hands biting if necessary to make your hands release them. UNTIL the gliders DO stay on your body, keep using the safety of the tent.

The easiest way to get a glider out of the pouch is pushing the bottom of the pouch up to the top or rolling the pouch down as far as you can so it looks like the glider is in a boat, rather than blindly reaching your hand in there pulling them out. Blindly pulling them out risks pulling their nails if they are clinging to the pouch especially if they haven't had their nails trimmed...

You can start doing this any time but work on it gradually, if the glider seems stressed out just take a step back and pause when your ready and the gliders are calmer start again.

Great thanks for the advice. I would much rather take my time than push it too quick. But am happy with the progress.

Thanks for the tips! Going to try round 2 of tent time tonight. Will try rolling the pouch down this time.