Well, it's been awhile since I've posted here. 13 hours of school has kept me busy. This week is Spring Break and the week I'm going to introduce Ricky to his new babe - Lucy. I got Lucy from a pet store. I didn't want to get a suggie from there, but I couldn't find any girls within driving distance from me. I called around and found Lucy. She had a sister, but one is enough for me right now. The pet store didn't know how old she is = they thought probably under 6 months out of the pouch. I took a pouch to the store to bring her home in and I thought she was going to eat through the pouch and eat me. She bit me once at the store when I was trying to get her off the salesperson and again when I gave her a blueberry through the little opening in the pouch when we were in the car. She's fiesty!! I've had her for about 10 days. She's calmed down considerably, but I haven't held her yet. I'm going to take her inside the tent with me tomorrow and see what happens. Her cage is close to Rickys and they've sniffed and sniffed. If all goes well in the tent tomorrow, I'll put Ricky in with us and will be prepared to grab Ricky if necessary. I could grab Ricky much better with less chance of getting bit than I could Lucy. I want them to get along. I have a new large cage coming for them. I've read all the posts on putting them together, but I'm not sure how I'll actually put them together to stay yet. I'm debating on whether or not I should wait for the new cage so they are in neutral territory or if I should clean one of their cages real well and put them together in that first as it is smaller and will force them to be closer to each other. Oh, well, I will wait for sure and see what "tent time" brings tomorrow. I so want them to be buddies. Ricky is unneutered and is 3yrs. old. There is no chance they are related so if they have babies, that will be alright. I would like a colony and Mom wants 2 also. After that, I will have the boys neutered as I don't want to have to rehome any.

Well, Ricky is doing well. Jennifer said he was running around his cage, playing with his rope and bell toys when she got up this morning. That makes me happy. I hadn't gotten the opportunity to see that yet. Whenever I take him out during the day and he's in his sleeping bag, he runs to the opening after I get it on my lap. I think he's looking for a snack but it makes me happy that he's coming out instead of staying in the bottom scared like he did the first couple of days. For not being handled much in the last 3 years, he's a pretty trusting little fellow. I can tell when he's had enough of lap time as he will look for something to snuggle into. **** As for the diet, he LOVES peas! I hate peas so it's a labor of love on my part to feed them to him. I can't stand the smell, but watching him eat the inside while leaving the outer shell pretty much intact amazes me. After peas, his favorites so far are grapes, bananas and of course corn. He liked the yolk of the hard boiled egg, but didn't care for the white. He spits out the chicken and turkey, so they are definately going to be acquired tastes.
I confirmed with my local vet today that she does not do any kind of exotics, so it's off to the Lubbock phone book tomorrow to see who, if any, I can find. When we had a hedgehog, it got cancer and a vet in Lubbock removed the tumor, but I wasn't real comfortable with his bedside manner. Hopefully I can find someone else.

I can't seem to decide on a name for this little guy. He's been everything from Skooter to Snoobi and now I'm leaning towards Ricky. What a change!! His big black eyes remind me of Ricky from the Lucy Shows, which I'm a HUGE fan of. So, I think it's going to be Ricky. That's been the easiest for me to remember too.
Yesterday, Ricky scratched my arm right above my elbow. I didn't think anything of it since I have a zoo full of animals and it's not unusual to have a scratch from something. This morning though, it's pretty infected. I've washed it deeply with an antibiotic soap and put an antibiotic cream on it and it does feel and look a little better. It's taught me to treat any sugar glider scratches right after playing with Ricky though.
Ricky did eat all the veggies I left for him last night. Sure beats the apples and cat food he was used to. Today, I peeked into his cage to see where he was and lo and behold, he heard me and out from his little hammock he came. I think he was disappointed when I didn't have a treat for him, so next time I go armed with a pea or a green bean.

I pretty much left Skooter alone today. I did sneak over to his cage a couple of times and made him come to the top of his pouch for a bite of grape or blueberry. He happily did that! To me, we were making progress. Then tonight, I got a couple of frozen peas, corn, carrots, green beans, some apple, banana, blueberry and grapes and brought him to my lap again while he was in his pouch. It didn't take him long to understand that I wasn't going to feed him while he was inside the bag, but he would get whatever he wanted after he got out of the bag and was sitting or lying on my lap. I have to remimd myself that all Skooter has ever eaten is catfood and apples. He went for the banana first. I had been warned that some gliders don't like bananas. Skooter sure does. He burried his little nose right in the middle of it. Then came the blueberry. While he was eating the blueberry with both hands, he looked up at me with those puddle of love eyes. We just stared at each other the whole time he ate. When he was finished with the contents of one piece of something, he'd push it away and look at me to get him another of something, which I did. I kept thinking about what he must have been feeling. All these flavors and textures and smells are new to SKooter. I bet he felt like it was sugar glider day at the grocery store. While watching him eat, I couldn't help but shed a tear or two. I'm so happy that he'll never be alone again and that we have someone else to love!!!!!!
People keep telling me to get another glider for company for him, but that may take awhile. You never hear of anyone having any around here. I'll have to begin an active search. I also need a much larger cage. That is going to take awhile also as I don't want to pay alot for a new one.
But for now, I have to gather all the ingredients to make his mixture food. Hopefully, I'll do that tomorrow.

I got a 3 yr. old glider from a 16 year old kid who didn't spend the time with him that he should. His Mom talked him into giving it away. They took an add to my vets office where I saw it. I called the family at approx. 2 P.M., went to look at him at 5:30 P.M. and carried him into our house at 5:45 P.M. So, we have a new addition to our family and I couldn't be happier. I have always wanted a sugar glider, but they are very hard to find around here and when you do, they are very expensive. I believe in fate. I wasn't going to go by the vets office, but something told me to go get some extra medication for one of my dogs, and lo and behold, I saw the ad. The people that had the glider only live 1 block away from me. The boy knew my teenage daughter, which helped ease his mind that the glider would be taken care of.
I know he loved his glider, but unfortunatly no-one had taken the time to learn how to best take care of him. {For now, I'm calling him Skooter.} He came in a med. size Cockatiel cage that had a water bottle and 2 plastic food dishes. They had been feeding Skooter cat foot and 1/2 an apple every night. They had an electric reptile rock in one corner and a closed plastic index card box in the other corner. The lid on the box had a hole cut into it and that is where Skooter slept. He had a 6"toe end of a sock laying on the floor for him to get into, if he wanted. The cage was very bare and gave off a very cold feeling. Unfortunately, I don't think Skooter was held much. Maybe a little every couple of weeks or so, but the boy timid when I asked him to get him out and hold him for me. He didn't get him out, he just stroked him through his sock. I decided right there and then that Skooter had to come live with us. So, we have a new member of the family.
We brought him home and put his cage in the diningroom where it is fairly quiet. I had some fleece, so I made him a triangle hammock for one corner and made a quick pouch to tie to the wall so he would have two different places to sleep. I left the plastic index card box in there for tonight, but I did put some fleece inside of it. I left him alone until it was almost time for me to go to bed. Then around my bedtime, I wanted to see how close I could get to him. I reached inside his cage and found he was already in his pouch so I took that out onto my lap for "getting acquainted" time. After about 20 or so minutes, he was coming completely out of the bag to eat the 1/2 grape I was holding. Then I tried a blueberry and he took that from me, but stayed right on my lap while eating. I was able to pet him for about 30 min. of so and then he wanted back into his bag, so I let him and I put him back in his cage. I thought our first bonding time was successful. I was very pleased!! I left the cat food in one of his plastic containers but I put the apple and grape along with a little cut up turkey into another container. I'll see what's left in the morning. I am going to phase out the cat food.

zoomom
Gender: Female
Occupation:housewife and student
Member since: Jan 15, 2009
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