SugarGlider.com

ten4city's Journal

Jan 2, 2019

Sugar Glider Attacked Me!

Hey everyone!

I just want to start out by giving some minor details about this incident. So I have been with my girlfriend for 3 years now, and I am over at her place 3-4 days out of the week. Every other week or so while I am over there, I make my way over to her glider's cage in the center of the living room and talk to him/play with him. She is usually around when I am interacting with the glider.

Most of the time when I am interacting with him, I put my finger in the cage for him to nibble at and give me kisses. It seems he has gotten to know me pretty well and my scent. Sometimes my girlfriend will even open up the cage to hold him and I will pet him carefully and he doesn't mind it. There has been a few occasions where I went over to his cage while my girlfriend was busy with something, and I'll open up the pouch he sleeps in and pet him and he will lick me and give me nibbles. Well, until today...

This afternoon when I was over there waiting for my girlfriend to get home, I saw that the glider was outside of his sleeping quarters and was hopping around in the cage. I went over to the front and opened the door ever so slightly and reached to pet him while he was looking at me (very slowly not to startle him). Well, the moment I reached in he latched onto me and bit my index finger very hard, drawing blood. My reaction was to take my hand away and close the cage door really quick, but he was very pissed off and wouldn't let go, biting down even harder on me with his claws around my hand still gnawing on my finger. While in a bit of pain, I pulled his body away with my right hand while he was still latched onto me as fast as I could, and he didn't budge. He started to bite down on my other finger, this time drawing a lot of blood. I finally managed to grab him firmly and pull his body away and threw him into the back of the cage. I closed the cage door and walked off, very very pissed off.

It took about 30 minutes for the bleeding to stop from the wounds he created on my hands (managed to bite my right hand a few times too). Keep in mind that I have been bitten by many other animals but this was one of the most painful continuous bites I have ever received...

I'm looking for reasons why he would act out this way today. I was never aggressive with him in the past and didn't startle him or approach him in any threatening way. I'm still puzzled about the whole situation. My girlfriend was very shocked that this happened because this is the first incident of him full on attacking someone. My hands now have a bunch of red bite marks all over them and I made sure to clean the wounds appropriately. Please help!