Hi everyone, I need some help. I'm new to the forum but not new to sugar gliders. My friend became interested when I started adopting again and now he's obsessed with a certain color and looking to breed. He has a female and male Creamino. I've read somewhere that it's not good to breed the two bc of short Gene lines or something..??

Can anyone please give me some solid details as to why he shouldn't do this.

He seems determined but I'm afraid for the female and her Joey's if he does this. I've never breed before and neither has he so we really know nothing about this situation. PLEASE HELP!

Hi JazEmber. Welcome to the forum, I hope you enjoy the people here and learn new things on here. Also before I begin take some of the stuff I say with a grain of salt because I'm decently new to gliders as well.

Now to start, I'm not sure if it's just creaminos but yes sugar gliders from what I know have a small gene pool. They haven't been around as pets for very long so its a very good possibility that those two suggies are related which would be bad for the babies.

If they are related in ANY way this could seriously harm the babies. To begin with it could cause deformalities, sicknesses, and cause the mom to reject or even kill/eat the babies if she doesn't think they will survive.

A good way to see if they are related to eachother is to go to her glider vet and ask if they could draw blood (or whatever they do,) to get their lineages.

Next up, is your friend new to owning gliders? If so I wouldn't recommend breeding them at all until they are more experienced with gliders. Joeys are very hard to care for, and yes, they are adorable and it seems like it would be really easy but I assure you it wouldn't be sunshine and rainbows, especially with her first Joey/Joeys.

If the sugar gliders are lineaged and aren't related and she is new to sugar gliders but is still heck-bent on breeding than the only thing I could still recommend to do is tell her to RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH!!!! Soooo many things could go wrong even if they aren't related etc. If the mom does reject the baby/babies she would need to be prepared to wake up every 1-2 hours EVERYDAY to feed the baby a special milk replacer and she would constantly need to keep it warm, check it's weight, carry it with her, etc.

Anyways, I hope you can get your friend to think more about her choice before she breeds. Have a good day/night!

Thank you so much for the helpful knowledge. Maybe at least if I can't stop him from breeding then hopefully giving him this info might postpone his decision and instead at least have their blood tested.

I know the gene pool deal and the risks from what I've researched but I never knew the blood thing.

Again thank you so much!!!

Vets nor blood tests can determine lineage. Only the breeder of the gliders in question can and that is IF they have lineage on the gliders themselves. If they do keep track of lineage they will charge you for the information if you bought them as pet only.

Buying gliders from Reputable breeders.... Pet only purchases means you don't intend to breed therefor you don't need the lineage. IF you buy them specifically for breeding the charge for lineage is included in the purchase price.

If it's not a reputable breeder they may or may not have the lineage or even know what lineage is if the breeder doesn't have the lineage there is no way to find it out.

Breeding gliders in the white color category (leus, plats, mo's, creminos ) is always a little confusing for me to try to explain because there are exceptions to the rules and I always get it mixed up so I'll refrain from stating any misinformation instead I'll direct you to the breeding 101 group.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/breeding101/ This group is an amazing source of information and the best place to get accurate/correct information. There are breeders of all different experience levels here and they are all about breeding education. This is a 0 drama group and they take that seriously.

"If they are related in ANY way this could seriously harm the babies. To begin with it could cause deformalities, sicknesses, and cause the mom to reject or even kill/eat the babies if she doesn't think they will survive. "

"If they are related in ANY way this could seriously harm the babies." This isn't correct either. When pairing breeding pairs, breeders will usually do a kinship as well as trace the lineage on the 2 gliders to be paired. This tells the breeder if the gliders are to closely related or not and what the percentage is. There is usually some relation (from my understanding ), the trick is to make sure it's not to close that it poses any health risks or known issues with either of the lines.

"To begin with it could cause deformities, sicknesses, and cause the mom to reject or even kill/eat the babies if she doesn't think they will survive."

This can happen any time, lineage or no lineage. First time breeding pairs with or without lineage have a higher risk of issues such as rejection etc..

"To begin with it could cause deformities, sicknesses, and cause the mom to reject or even kill/eat the babies if she doesn't think they will survive."

This can happen any time, lineage or no lineage. First time breeding pairs with or without lineage have a higher risk of issues such as rejection etc.. "

I should have also said that if the gliders are to closely related the already high risk of issues increases to an ever higher level of risk.

Thank you, I think I'll still tell him he might can have blood tested.

He seems serious and serious to do it the right way so maybe he'll give it time and try to find someone to test blood (probably never will) and that should postpone his decision for a while.

It's really upsetting me bc I introduced him to gliders, basically, but not for this reason. I've seriously been considering "taking" his gliders (bc I know he wouldn't press charges) but I hate to go through all this bc he's just being ignorant.

Thank you so much for all the advice.

I tried to refrain from imposing my opinion of inexperienced breeders in my previous post because it's just that, my opinion.

Whether I think your friend (or anyone else for that matter ) should or shouldn't breed is irrelevant because I can't make that decision for someone else's gliders.

IF he's serious about breeding the "right way" have him join the breeding 101 group and learn how to understand lineage, kinship, hets etc and even ask for a breeding mentor that will work with him one on one. They will explain all that and then some and teach him how to safely pair a breeding pair.

I get it to a point but I get lost in the dominant, recessive gene stuff lol my eyes glaze over when I try to understand it all so while it kind of makes sense in my head it never comes out right when I try to explain it to someone else.

Even if his eyes glaze over at that stuff too there are very experienced well known ethical breeders in that group that will help him pair gliders up safely if he can't do it himself.

"It's really upsetting me bc I introduced him to gliders, basically, but not for this reason. I've seriously been considering "taking" his gliders (bc I know he wouldn't press charges) but I hate to go through all this bc he's just being ignorant."

I get it, but Please don't be that upset. It's a very common thing for new glider owners to want to dive into breeding it's not your fault.

Some will quickly change their minds when they find out it's not a get rich quick thing, or when they find out what all is involved. But others still dive in head first regardless.

If he's acting like he wants to go about it the right way all you really can do is encourage THAT and point him in a good direction to breed safely and ethically. But there are some things he should know before he makes that decision.

As his friend encourage him to educate himself and look past the first impulse to be a breeder because sometimes thats all it is is an impulse.

Besides the lineage, kinship, hets etc... he also needs to look at his location and how many other breeders are near him.

For instance, I live in south west fla. I can't spit out my door without hitting a breeder, n I can't spit far . The market here is veryyyyyyy saturated with breeders, both reputable/well known and back yard, so selling them isn't easy in fla unless you ship. I live in a 5th wheel and can only manage 3 cages in my living space. Knowing the market in my area/state, and my space limitations makes it very clear I shouldn't breed with intentions of selling. I would be over run with gliders in no time even with just one breeding pair.



Your not only competing with the breeders your also competing with all the gliders up for rehoming. More local breeders will also affect your prices, to compete your prices may need to be lower regardless of color.

Shipping gliders isn't as easy or cheap as it used to be so many breeders are only selling locally.

Depending on difficulty of selling... you may end up with gliders/joeys not finding a home right away. In that case you need space to provide cages for offspring that don't sell. And you need to be prepared to keep them indefinitely. Which can mean money out of pocket for neutering males that aren't sold because at that point increasing your breeding program is only going to compound the problem and you'll end up with more you can't sell.

I could go on, but those few things alone he really needs to think about before deciding on becoming a breeder.

Hope this helps some

Thank you so much. I can't wait to send your response to him. Lol. Maybe your "few" reasons will help him to think better.

I've been through the ringer with bottle feeding anything from squirrels, hedgehogs, kittens and puppies and it's not always the "cute, cuddly babies" you get to experience but sometimes there's a bad ending and I'm so much of an animal I'll try to save anything and it's heartbreaking in the end to try but eventually watch any kind of baby fade away. I try not to let it upset me but (being an emotional person) all those "bad" times come right back to mind and it terrifies me to think of any of these little guys going through.

Thank you so very much and aside from the health reasons, Leela, you've given me great advice as far financial, supply and demand for Joey's, etc. I really cant thank you enough. Surely with everyone's help maybe I can talk him out of it. Or at least make sure he does it the right way like you mentioned.