Hi all! I have 5 gliders split up 3 and 2.my trio's been together for years. But several months ago we got a pair that were in pretty rough shape. Clearly terrified of us and the other gliders. Whatever their lives were before us wasn't safe for them. Over the months they have settled a bit but still on edge. We have been able to put the cages close together and they were quite curious about each other so I thought fantastic onto the next step. Before I got a chance to start the intro our youngest got out of the cage in the middle of the night and needless to say no one was happy about it. No injuries but the first intro was definitely traumatic. Not sure if I should adjust my plans for a "classic" intro to one like scent masking. Idea's please!

It's hard to tell from your experience how they will react to a classic intro, because it's impossible to assume anything from their reaction "behind the bars".

Many of my gliders will not tolerate any other gliders walking on their cages when they are inside (not even their own cagemates), but they never have problems interracting with the same gliders when they are outside the cage...

I'd suggest to try regular intros 1st place and going to scent making only if this doesnt work

Gliders are pretty resilient in my experience. Cut their nails gets them
mad, but as soon as it is over, they are fine.
have a grabby glider in pouch that is really bad, he doesn't bite, once he
calms down I can pet him fine.
So I'm thinking this first bad meeting might not be a problem.

I would do the standard stuff before intro. cages 8 inches apart, swap
pouch every 2-3 days (I think this is important, keep the new scent fresh,
get them really used to it in their life)
I used 2 pouches per cage, and only swapped one, when I noticed both sleeping
in the scented pouch, then after 3-4 weeks, my wife did the intros of 4 glider
and one glider, they all did great.

I think once they are used to that new scent, then when they finally meet,
it won't be invading strangers (intro should be done in a scent free area, we use
the bathtub) but a friendly scent. Also once all are together in bathtub we
give the cage a good cleaning, so they can all scent it up together.

this has worked for my wife about 8 times with many combinations of
gliders groups. We had one failure going 8 gliders and adding 3 new gliders, one
of the 3 was rejected for 3 nights, kept getting chased to corner of large cage, so she was removed.

Thank you BYK for this post..

not to hijack this from MHamilton, but I am experiencing something similar.

I have 2 cages close to the same size but different ratios - this is not relevant just added for color.. anyway, I had lost one of my 2 gliders (cancer). he was nine years old. His 8 year old companion, who chose her own name which is not the one I gave her - which is another story- was all alone for the first time in her life.

After a couple of weeks I unexpectedly got a 14 weeks OOP male and the intro was one of the fastest positive that I have ever had. Then a few weeks later I got a 10 weeks OOP female that I had already "reserved" as it were. After some time in adjacent cages and about a week of wearing them in bonding pouches at the same time (but separate pouches 2 in one, 1 in the other)we had successful tent time. Still separate cages. She is more... skittish than I am used to in some ways though. Then some time later we had a rocky start but successful bathtub time. The 8 year old female took to her instantly and vice-versa but the male is unsure. Though that evening they all three were in the same bonding pouch without issue, he is having NONE of her being in the same cage with him. I've never seen this before but I've also not had many gliders. I've had gliders (no more than 3 at once) for most of my life without a gap (20 years) but that said my first 2 lived 11 and 13 years so it is not like I have had many.

The woman from whom I had adopted the new girl mentioned cage swapping and that is what I am now doing. But I find it so very strange that the boy who is not much older than her is SO against sharing an environment with her. Meanwhile the 8 year old female is completely comfortable with her.

I should say that the young male is very comfortable with me, as much as the 8 year old female - but he has a lot more energy. Never even heard him crab.

The young female is still learning to trust me, she is really making me work for it. She is loud. It has only been a couple of weeks but as I said I guess I have generally been very lucky with gliders and introductions.

I want to stress that in the tent and the tub at worst I'd say that the 2 young ones were aloof towards one another, but the 8 year old and the young female were buddies after about 5 minutes of mutual sniffing.

Does anyone reading this think during cage swapping I should leave the older female with the younger? Even leaving the older female always in the same just swapping the young ones?

I also have 2 sleeping pouches in each and only have been swapping one, leaving one. I will do this as long as it takes, I hope it is likely I will succeed. I think she had a little separation anxiety to begin with - as this is the first time without her glider parents and humans she knew since birth.

As I said, she is only quasi good with me. Will take a treat from me when she feels like it, but does crab off and on in the bounding pouch - but less than before - and does not want me handling her quite yet but she will climb on me.

thank you to all

quote:

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Originally posted by BYK_Chainsaw

Gliders are pretty resilient in my experience. Cut their nails gets them
mad, but as soon as it is over, they are fine.
have a grabby glider in pouch that is really bad, he doesn't bite, once he
calms down I can pet him fine.
So I'm thinking this first bad meeting might not be a problem.

I would do the standard stuff before intro. cages 8 inches apart, swap
pouch every 2-3 days (I think this is important, keep the new scent fresh,
get them really used to it in their life)
I used 2 pouches per cage, and only swapped one, when I noticed both sleeping
in the scented pouch, then after 3-4 weeks, my wife did the intros of 4 glider
and one glider, they all did great.

I think once they are used to that new scent, then when they finally meet,
it won't be invading strangers (intro should be done in a scent free area, we use
the bathtub) but a friendly scent. Also once all are together in bathtub we
give the cage a good cleaning, so they can all scent it up together.

this has worked for my wife about 8 times with many combinations of
gliders groups. We had one failure going 8 gliders and adding 3 new gliders, one
of the 3 was rejected for 3 nights, kept getting chased to corner of large cage, so she was removed.

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your male might be territorial, I would suggest to try in a cage which belongs to none of the gliders, or at least totally washed in a way that no scent marks belonging to any of them remains.

I have done that. Right now I am continuing swapping cage every other day. I wear them together but separate daily as well. But I will wait a few weeks before another intro I think.

Thanks for expanding on this the more info the better. My biggest concern is just how aggressive my newest male is and the extent of the fight noises and posturing from our youngest female. Our newest pair(the set that is aggressive) won't even connect start connecting with me without an aggressive power struggle (including heavy biting) each time they are integrated with. Even if it's just taking a treat. I want to get them introduced but I'm afraid for their safeties. I know the aggression is defensive because of the environment that they were in before but. I'm completely at a loss.

with me i've got the connection with the older female (of course since i've had her for 9 years now), the younger male (which was oddly instant), and now the younger female is really making me work for it but slowly i am making progress.

*washing everything and resetting the cages and now the every other day flip flop seems to be working in my favor. the younger female was barking last night *maybe* at me but hopefully to the others.

she still crabs A LOT when i take her to wear her, and i frequently put the sleep pouch into the bonding pouch, sticking out enough in hopes she'll just climb into bonding. but lately she has been glider purring so i think that is a positive.

some basic thoughts.
sounds like Mhamilton85 and devoted 101 might want to just try to bond some and
tame some of the gliders before worrying about combining colonies/groups. BUT just
cause they are aggressive/defensive with the HUGE and DANGEROUS humans doesn't mean they will take the same stance with other gliders.
we put connor in a colony of 4. cupcake would try to bite us, we cant pick
up pinkie only pet him, he first came to us very defensive. BUT connor went in NO problems.

devoted101. our connor and cupcake will grab like crazy in the pouch. Once I talk to them for awhile, looking in pouch, or if I take them out, and they see its
me, they stop crabbing. It's mostly just for show to defend the pouch/home.
Look at how they react to you, more then if they crab, can you pet them while feeding, can you get them to sit on your arm to eat a treat. will they come to
you for a treat or hide at the back of the cage.

I only have 3 gliders, Phi-Phi (9 year old female - not the name I gave her but the name to which she responds), Echo (5 month oop male), and Ace (3 month oop female. Ace and Echo are not friends with one another and for this reason I have been flip-flopping cages. Ace is slowly slowly bonding with me. She crabs a lot, yes, but she will come to me if I hold out a yogi long enough and will eat it from my hand - if she is in the mood for that. During tent-time she will crawl on me but usually my shoulders but won't exactly let me pet her.

But sometimes when she is moving in the cage Echo will look over into that cage with a very intense stare. I still don't trust him to share a cage with her. Meanwhile, Ace and Phi-Phi are fine together but generally I have left Phi-Phi in with Echo.

quote:

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Originally posted by devoted101

I only have 3 gliders, Phi-Phi (9 year old female - not the name I gave her but the name to which she responds), Echo (5 month oop male), and Ace (3 month oop female. Ace and Echo are not friends with one another and for this reason I have been flip-flopping cages. Ace is slowly slowly bonding with me. She crabs a lot, yes, but she will come to me if I hold out a yogi long enough and will eat it from my hand - if she is in the mood for that. During tent-time she will crawl on me but usually my shoulders but won't exactly let me pet her.

But sometimes when she is moving in the cage Echo will look over into that cage with a very intense stare. I still don't trust him to share a cage with her. Meanwhile, Ace and Phi-Phi are fine together but generally I have left Phi-Phi in with Echo.

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I have always done pouch swapping, NOT cage swapping, that sounds different. The idea with pouch swapping is they sleep with the other gliders scent and that scent becomes an acceptable part of their territory. changing cages or territories may have same affect but I dont know, I wonder if you could just be stressing them having to remark a new cage, new territory and they are NOT at home.

If phi-phi and ace are together in a cage all night, I would leave them together ALL THE TIME. some instructions have stated that taking them back apart after they have finally got a new friend will just stress them out.
www.sugarglider.info/care/intros/

I don't agree with everything in the write up, but most of it sounds good.
its says meetings should only be one on one, but my wife has done a variety of
meeting sizes and all went well.