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Sugar Gliders
Female on female attack - previously living happily together
Female on female attack - previously living happily together
Question
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Feb 09 2019
10:37:25 PM
We currently have 4 Gliders (3 females and 1 neutered male). We adopted them as 2 separate pairs.

1st pair: Adopted as babies, 1 female (Toby) and the neutered male (Ari). They are both well bonded and have lived happily together for the past few years. When we got these two we had 1 older glider who's buddy had died. The 3 of them were happily together and when the older glider passed a couple of years ago we decided to get another pair.

2nd Pair: 2 related females (Bodhi & Stix) adopted when they about 1 year old. We adopted them from a family who had kids and decided they were not super kid-friendly pets. Both of these girls were both very sweet from the start. Bodhi was much more outgoing and adventurous. She was eager to jump on us and make friends with her new family. Stix was more reserved and afraid of everyone but she came out of her shell and ended up bonding with us and the other gliders.
All 4 of our gliders lived very happily together for the past 1.5 years.

Recently, without any warning Bodhi started bullying Toby. At first it just looked like Bodhi was trying to hump Toby which I thought was weird but Toby didn't seem to mind but it turned into Bodhi attacking Toby and Toby ended up with a bad cut on her back. We took her to the vet and she's healthy and the cut healed. We separated them out for quite a while and kept them in separate cages as pairs. We kept the cages next to each other so they could still smell each other and see each other. We also continued to move them back and forth between bags and cages. We attempted to reintroduce Toby and Bodhi after a couple of months in the tent so we could sit inside and monitor them. Unfortunately Bodhi went right after Toby again We separated the pairs again for a couple more months and attempted to introduce them again today and the same thing happened! (Don't worry, everyone is safe and they are back in separate cages but we have no idea what's going on?!?)

Any time they were near each other tonight, Bodhi just goes after Toby. There was crabbing and they ended up balling up and we had to physically break it up.

Bodhi isn't generally aggressive, she's not aggressive to us or to any other gliders. None of the other gliders are aggressive at all. Toby (the glider getting bullied) is the smallest of the group but she's never been bullied or attacked by anyone else. She's super sweet to everyone and super bonded to us and the other gliders.

I had no idea this could happen after they were all bonded together. What could cause aggressive bullying by one female glider towards another female after more than a year of living together peacefully?

Is there any way to fix this behavior?

Thanks so much!
Question
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Feb 10 2019
11:59:09 AM
sjusovare Face Hugger Visit sjusovare's Photo Album France 694 Posts
Unfortunately, sometimes there is no particular reasons that we can think of, exactly like with humans, behavior and social interractions are not always rational.
If both the gliders are healthy and that there isnt a stressfull factor otherwise, it's just that they decided the colony had to split, possibly because there is a conflict over dominance which shifted.
you can keep on trying to re-introduce them untill they eventually settle down, while changing their environment, it might work at some point, but even if it does it doesnt imply that the same issue might not occure again.
Female on female attack - previously living happily together

GliderGossip GliderGossip
Sugar Gliders
Female on female attack - previously living happily together