I have a pair of newly adopted gliders, they've been with me for three days now. They were found in a heap of old clothes in an abandoned apartment in my building. I'm now in the process of bonding and getting to know them. They're my first gliders.

There's a male and a female. The female is definitely the boss, and she's a lot fatter than the male. It's easy to see why - when there are treats to be had, she's right at the front, and the little male who is shy is lucky to get any.

Miss Bossy also likes to boss me around, by crabbing. I know they crab when they feel threatened or irritated. I've been carrying them around in a bonding pouch at home for the past couple of days. She's quiet most of the time unless something happens to annoy her (like a cat getting too sniffy at the pouch). In two days she's managed to put the fear of God into my cats.

I've noticed she also starts crabbing as soon as she catches a whiff or a glimpse of anything yummy. Today I had a bowl of yogurt and frozen berries. As soon as she smelled it - CRAB-CRAB-CRAB! She didn't stop until I gave her a bit of yogurt on my finger. I'm starting to think that she crabs as a way of demanding treats! I'm wondering if her previous owner would give her treats as a bribe to stop her from crabbing.

I've noticed that if she's crabbing and there are no treats around, she's also quick to lunge and bite. If there's a treat, she'll crab until she can reach it, she doesn't lunge but just grabs at the treat (or my finger if it's something on my finger). If the treat is a mealworm, she's so greedy that she'll make a mumbling "mouth full" crab sound while she's still eating it, because she wants to make sure another will be waiting. If she's not crabbing and I get a treat out, the crabbing starts.

I've decided to do a little experiment - not giving her the treat until she stops crabbing, and pulling it away again if I offer it and she starts it again. If I'm right about her having her previous owner trained to give her treats when she crabs, she will eventually stop crabbing when she's no longer being rewarded for it. If she's smart enough to train people to feed her treats when she crabs, then I think she might be smart enough to do something more positive (like sit up?) for a treat in the future. Plus, she could stand to lose a bit of weight.

you sound like you could be on to something, but most likely thats not it.

Like you said, they tend to crab to scare away the unknown danger. some gliders
do it when new, other tend to keep crabbing for a long time. The more comfortable
they get with you the less they will crab.
I have had the eating and crabbing glider issue, they want that treat but want
you to stay your distance. They do want that treat, but are still very scared
of their new home and new human.

If she's not crabbing and I get a treat out, the crabbing starts.
As soon as I make a noise with the 5 colony, opening a door, opening a lid to a treat, 2 or 3 will start crabbing in pouch. Once they are OUT of pouch, that crabbing goes way down or away as they can see its me.

It's going to take many weeks and maybe months for them to get comfortable with you, specially if their last human was a bad one. the trust and bonding could be a long and slow process. keep up the work, don't give up, keep trying anything
that works, you might get lucky and they warm up to you fast.

It could be. One of my gliders has an annoyed crab he does when he doesn't want me to disturb his sleep. It sounds a bit different than his scared crab, which I rarely hear. He is very vocal in general and will make squeaks and chirps more than the other two as well, usually because he's grumpy.

Sounds like she's very food motivated, she'll probably train relatively easily. They're lucky you were there to take them in. People abandon these poor little things in the weirdest ways.