Hello everyone, I'm new here and I decided to join this forum because I often visit it for useful informations..
I'm Italian and sugar gliders are not much known in my country..

I bought a couple of sugar gliders few days ago and their age is around 7 months and they're totally not used to human contact. I heard the best age to adopt sugar gliders is 4-5 months but I had no choice since there aren't many people that sell those beautiful creatures..

The fact is, when I try to approach them, in any way, the start the "crabbing"; it can get frustrating especially when I try to feed them from my hand and they bite me with all the strength they have.
For the past 3 days I fed them honey with a plastic spoon (a very little amount each day) and I always make sure that they have nectar and fruit ready.

Today I tried something new, I put some nectar on my hand and they started the routine: crabbing and bite.
But even if they bite me till I had some blood on my finger I stayed perfectly still and didn't make a sound. It stopped biting me and kept liking the nectar at the end.
I don't care much about the pain, I just need to know if this method is good or not.

I also put inside their "nest" a piece of my own clothing to get them used with my smell.

Their cage is not very big, because I'm using it for bonding.. I've a much bigger cage ready when they'll be ready.

PS: the previous "owner" said that he never tried to bond with them or tried to get them used to human contact because he said that this could prevent them from bonding with another owner.

Also, I spend most of my time near their cage, and during that time I rarely see them coming out, which they do for few minutes.
When that happens, I watch them from 1 m of distance and when they start looking at me I talk to them with calm.

When I go away the usually go out of their "nest" and start eating fruit or nectar.

I also put a cover on the cage to protect them from the light.

I just want to be sure that my behavior isn't making them angry at me and their behavior is led by fear (which is better because I don't want to be hated by my pets and they'll get used to my presence after some time).

It sounds to me like they're afraid of you right now, which is not unexpected. They just had a huge change in surroundings and they have this big face looking at them all the time. I'd say the first thing you need to do is calm them down and get them used to your presence.

They may or may not bond to you as tightly as ones that have been hand-raised from the beginning but they CAN get used to you. I got a pop-up tent and would let mine play in the tent with me inside while I surfed the web or watched TV/moviss. I'd have treats ear me and wouldn't move so they could cautiously come get the treats and see I wouldn't hurt them. I wouldn't even make eye contact at first so they didn't see me as a predator. I would slowly move the treats toward me until they literally had to climb onto me to get the treats.

I eventually got them used to me although they never did get to the point of wanting me to hold them. They would happily perch on my arm or even hand eating their yogie treats. I'd like to think Anson even got to the point he liked me before he died although he never did cotton to being held. He certainly came out of pouch and scrambled over to meet me at the cage door when I came up -- although it may have had more to do with the yogie treats or mealworms than me.

Realize that like us, gliders have individual personalities and what works in general may not work with a particular glider.

Thanks for your answer,

But, to be completely honest, what you said just made me a little sad..
I was hoping to have a pet that would like me and eventually to play with, not one that would "tolerate" my presence.. You'd probably agree with me that it's not the best thing ever when you give someone your love and it's not returned..
That said, I was expecting that it would be hard and it would take patience and time, and I'm ready to do that, but not at the point that this will get them to just to get used to me.. I don't think I could ever give up to that.

I was wondering if there's a way to led them in the "bond" direction, and not the opposite.

1 it's only been a few days. They do need time to adjust to their new world, sights, sounds, smells, activity levels etc everything has changed for them. Crabbing is normal for the first week even few weeks until they get adjusted to their new environment and your routine.

2 stop trying to feed them by hand and you will probably stop getting bit. They don't know you yet and aren't sure of your intentions. Treats on a plastic spoon is fine though, that gives them a little space.

3 It doesn't matter if the previous owner handled them or not, your not the same person and they don't know you yet. Just because one person could handle them doesn't mean just anyone else can too. I am the main person that handle my gliders, my boyfriend can pick them up and put them in the cage but that's about it.

I was gifted a joey from my best friend who I knowwwwwww handled him all the time and he was so mellow with her... he was a crabbing nightmare for me for about 6 months before he figured out I wasn't a demon sent to torture him He ended up being sweet and mellow but it took time.

My gliders are mainly bonded to me, I can't just hand them to a friend without the glider crabbing or jumping back to me. None of my gliders crab UNLESS I hand them to someone they don't know. I am their human and I am part of their colony strangers aren't. Most of this is because I am not social with humans and I really don't have friends over very often so my gliders are only social with me. I had ONE exception to this, one glider named Pico fell in love with one of my human friends who also has gliders, because the glider chose her over me I GAVE her to my friend. There were extenuating circumstances in that case though and I know in my heart it was best for Pico.

Even when breeders do socialize their gliders before selling them the bonding starts at the beginning with the new owners, sure some gliders are super social with their new owners but the majority of the time they aren't, every glider is different as much as every human is different.

Age for bonding doesn't matter either. I've gotten joeys as young as 12 weeks out of pouch and as old as 13 years old some were super easy some were not age had little to do with it. You just have to get to know the glider and they have to get to know you.

Here's the thing, you get out of it what you put into it. If you invest your time and emotion into them they will return it. Yes some gliders just tolerate us but even those gliders bond to us. Some gliders prefer to be in the cage rather than on a human, but you can't take it personal because it isn't personal.

Gliders DON'T hate. However, they can get as frustrated with us as we can with them. If your getting a negative reaction to something you did, YOU have to change how you did what ever it was that made the glider react negatively. If YOU don't adapt and adjust and change how YOU do things the gliders reaction isn't going to change either. Don't expect the gliders to be the only ones that have to adapt to your wants and demands of them it's a two way street.

It sounds to me that you have no problem with taking as long as it takes... that is that attitude you need to hold on to. Don't put expectations or time frames on 'bonding' bonding is no different than building a long term friendship. It never stops evolving even when you think you hit a road block you really haven't. That's when you step back think about where your at and why you aren't moving forward and try something else.

quote:

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Originally posted by Streetsvp



I also put a cover on the cage to protect them from the light

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Light time is day time and time to sleep, dark time is night time and time
to get up and play and eat. they will be protected from the light INSIDE the
sleeping pouch. you could be messing with their sleeping cycle if its dark
in the daytime.

I work at night 50% of the time, then we first got our gliders we wheeled the cage into the bed room to keep away from the dogs, I would sleep during the day
with lights out and bedroom dark. Those little guys would get up at 2PM IN THE
AFTERNOON and be running all round the cage making a ton of noise and waking me up.

I think you should start off slow, my wife did gizmo with lots of bonding pouch time and he came along great.

GLIDERS CRAB, SOME GLIDERS CRAB ALL THE TIME, SOME GLIDERS NEVER CRAB.
I highly suggest you stop worrying about the crabbing, connor will crab until
he can see me, and we have had him about 1.5 years and he still crabs bad until he sees me then he stops. I open the cage door, BIG BAD CONNOR is crabbing.

some of our gliders are super friendly and bonded, some love to come to me for a treat then run away. We have 2 colonies and sadly I don't have time to get all of them super bonded, most I can pick up, pet etc.

I BELIEVE. (I did not read all the other responses,but the video is great) (PLZ stop letting the glider bite you)
If you take it slow, talk to your glider, give him time to get used to you, do
some bonding tricks, give him time, maybe a push once in awhile. He will come
around to you.

with connor I would just talk to him, give him a treat threw the bars or just leave a treat in cage. LATER I moved to opening cage door to give him a treat, off of a spoon or container lid. FINALLY LATER I would give him a pet while he was busy eating his treat so he was to busy to bite me. I would take his sleeping pouch out once I figured he wasn't going to jump out, I talked to him while he crabbed back at me, after awhile he would stop crabbing, each time I did this he would stop crabbing faster. Once I was pretty sure I would not get bite, I put my hand in front of treat, make him step on my hand, finally much later he would get all the way on my hand to eat his treat.
connor came to us a single that lost his cagemate that the other owner did very little with, just feeding him only I think.

Ok, I'll try to answer to all of you:

In the first place, I know that even 1 week is not a long time, but I'm trying to understand if I put effort and persistence into my gliders they'll start to bond or to interact with me, because, as probably as you would, I want this kind of relationship between us, and not just "tolerating" each other.

Secondly, I know that if I stop putting my hand inside the cage they'll stop biting me but it's the only way I can approach them. Also, very important, this evening they stopped biting me, they just licked the food on it (maybe a little bite but very softly).

Crabbing isn't a problem with me, I just want to make sure that those little guys don't get too much upset..

Also, last thing, it's not about the previous owner handling them or not, it's because I read on many places that if they don't get used to human touch during 4-5 month they'll less likely bond with you.

like I said before... you get out of it what you put into it. If you invest your time and emotions into gliders they will return it.

3 lick rule if your going to keep offering them food on your fingers only allow 3 licks at a time then pull your hand back and put more treats on. Gliders lick yes but when food runs out they bite to get more... as if they were licking sap from a branch when the sap runs out they bite the branch to produce more sap.

"I read on many places that if they don't get used to human touch during 4-5 month they'll less likely bond with you."

False.

Gliders bond at any age.......if you invest your time into it. They also bond with more than one owner, I'm the second, third and sometimes 4th owner to some of mine of all different ages and they all bond. People that say the glider won't bond either aren't giving it time or they aren't changing their own habits to accomadate the glider. This is usually why gliders get rehomed so much, they take work...