Boys Will Be Boys

You know those movies where the big burley guy gets overprotective of his girl when another guy just attempts to talk to her? "Hey boy...who do you think you are talkin' to??" Well it wouldn't be a stretch to put Taz in a little tiny "wife-beater" give him some little fake cans of Coors and recreate that scene sugar glider style. (It's Jay's idea for the costume, not mine!) The other night we decided to put all three gliders in the tent together to see how they'd react to actually being able to interact, not just see each other through cage bars.

We had reasons for concern. Males, even if both our neutered like Bruce and Taz, can be very territorial, especially if a female is involved. Testosterone is the same across the animal world! Both of our boys techincally have lower levels now, but they still have working boy parts and get typical boy urges. Sydney is Taz's mate and he is very fond of her.

Sydney ran up to Bruce right away and they both started sniffing and grooming each other, an awesome sign that they will get along fine. Taz however, wasn't as happy to have another boy in the room checking out his girl. He waddled ('cause Taz can't run or swagger yet!) over to Bruce, gave him a sniff and started crabbing. Down they went into a little mini glider brawl. Jay pulled them apart quickly and Bruce sat on Jay's leg. Sydney came back over again to say hi and Taz was right behind, still not happy. This cycle continued a few times. We did have a couple of moments when they were all sniffing and Bruce and Taz were not fighting, but they were short lived.

Despite the first attempt not going perfectly, we are pretty sure we can get all three of them to the point that they will play together at least with our supervision. We aren't sure we'll ever be able to have them cagemates, but it's our hope. We are on the lookout currently for another female about the age of Bruce to give him his very own mate. That might make him and Taz be a little more friendly of each other and not look at the other as a rival. Tonight we are going to try tent time with all three again. Maybe I can actually get a few more pictures and even a video.

Tent Time!

I think they actually like us! We have done a few sessions of tent bonding with Sydney and Taz the past few nights and it has been a blast. We thought they were skittish with us because of all the crabbing that went on when we'd try to touch their pouches when they were inside. Apparently we were wrong! I think it's more protectiveness of their sleeping spaces. In the tent, they are almost completely different gliders. Sydney enjoys doing very fast laps around whoever is in the tent with her, pausing to climb us like a tree. Taz is more slow, but he also enjoys climbing up to your shoulder to perch like a parrot. We even saw our little chunk butt jump a couple of times. No gliding yet, but maybe once he loses some weight he'll be able to do so. We are SO happy that in less than a week with us how much they've accepted us. We still can't pet or cuddle them, but we hope to get there eventually.

Some pictures from the fun in the tents:

Sydney climbing on Jay. ("Daddy, do you have food in this hand?")

Sydney climbing on Katie.

Taz hanging out on Katie's shoulder. ("Taz want a cracker or cheese or whatever you are willing to feed me!")

Taz considering jumping from me to Katie. He changed his mind that time.

Taz in my hair. He really liked our hair. ("Mmmm, I just LOVE the new shampoo!")

Sydney climbing on Katie some more.

Taz figured out how to get up to the mesh window of the tent and climb. I am amazed sometimes at how well he hangs around like that as big as he is!

Next time, I'll let you know how our introduction of Bruce to the new gliders went!

Bonding Adventures

As mentioned in the introduction post, our suggies Sydney and Taz came to us very recently. Although they had been well fed and had accommodations that most gliders only dream of having, they had little socialization with humans since they were fostered 7 years ago. Their foster mom warned us that Taz was quite crabby and would bite if handled. Sydney wasn't as vocal about her dislike of attention and she would sometimes come out and be a little curious during feeding time. With 10 guinea pigs, a bunny and a cat to also care for, there just wasn't a lot of time left over for the large amount of time necessary to bond with these two. We can tell though that their former family that had to give them up did spend time with them, but it's just been a while. We have now set out on the adventure to encourage Sydney and Taz to enjoy contact with us and hopefully become tame and sweet pets.

Most glider owners purchase their pets as joeys and begin bonding right away. Bruce was raised in this manner. Bonding with older gliders is a similar process, but can take longer because of ingrained habits. We are pretty sure that we can get Sydney and Taz used to humans again, but know it is going to be a long journey. A really good series of articles about bonding with gliders can be found here. It's a 6 part series from the folks at Sun Coast Sugar Gliders, one of a few reputable stores and breeders we have discovered.

So now we start the adventure. The first night Sydney and Taz were with us, we only took them out in their sleeping pouch for about 5 minutes. Taz crabbed most of the time, but Sydney was quiet. We decided on a plan of action to take them out and get them in individual bonding pouches (shown on the right) each night while we watched our TV shows. We placed a small bit of apple in each pouch as a calming and positive treat. Also, on the days I am home all day, I will carry the duo (or each individually) around for a few hours each day in the pouch. This will get them used to our scent and sound of our voice in a non-threatening way. The 2nd night Sydney and Taz were with us, we tried this technique. Taz was NOT a happy boy at first. He was very vocal and crabbed a lot. After about 15 minutes though, he calmed down and relaxed with Jay. I had Sydney and she was a sweetie. She, however, got restless after a while and was trying very hard to find a way out of the pouch. (Based on the weight difference between the two of them and the behaviors we've observed so far, she is a VERY active little gal, so we may have to do a lot of the pouch bonding with her during the day when she's sleepy.)