Let's Bond

Many new sugar gliders owners, and even older ones, want to know the secret to bonding with  their babies. There are so many different ways, so many different opinions and so many different styles. There is tent time where you actually set up a tent and climb in with the glider and let them jump around the tent and all over you to get used to you. There is bathtub time where you actually put the glider in the bathtub (no water of course), sit there and pet them and play with them. There is the bonding pouch which most everyone knows, you put the glider in a little pouch and where it around your neck for several hours throughout the day. I'm sure there are other methods but these are the most common (or ones that I have seen and heard most commonly anyway).
The problem with all these different methods is that no two gliders are the same and no two gliders have the same personality. The other problem is gliders have their own time frame on when they want to do things, you can't make a glider bond with you when you want them to. Trust me on this one, I have had Henry for almost a year now and have done everything I can possibly think of, including begging him, to get him to bond with me. Although he is doing a lot better, we are still not quite there yet.  If you want the best advice anyone can give you, LISTEN UP!
SPEND TIME WITH THEM!! I don't care how you do it. I don't care if you walk circles around your house for three hours straight while letting them climb and run all over you. It doesn't matter if you do tent time or bathtub time or whatever your method is. Simply spend time with them. Talk to them so they know your voice, sing to them (they don't care if you are good or not 😄, pet them, give them treats from your hand. Let them crawl on you. Let them investigate you. When they feel completely comfortable with you, then and only then, will they start to bond with you. It really is that simple. 
As most of us know, some gliders take longer than others and the amount of time can vary depending on your glider. Don't stick with just one thing, like the bonding pouch, because it may not work. Try different things with them. As long as you are spending time with them, that's really what counts. 
Please feel free to drop a comment... or two.

Good Luck and as always, thanks for visiting my blog! 

Sugar Glider Recipes

Having 6 sugar gliders, 2 dogs, a cat, 3 kids and a husband at home it's really not easy to find time to just sit and do the things I want or enjoy. Last night, I had a bit of extra time and decided to spend that time on Pinterest, yeah I'm a pretty interesting person, lol. 

At any rate, I'm on Pinterest and I ran across some weird recipe for sugar gliders and got curious. Of course I have seen recipes before but never really gave them much thought. I typed "sugar glider recipes" into the search bar and came up with a lot of different stuff. Keep in mind, when I look for recipes, I want something reasonably cheap and easy to prepare. I copied down the recipes and off to the store this morning to buy ingredients. Below, you will find the recipes I used (I do not own the recipes). I spent roughly $16 at Meijer and that includes a few little extra things I needed for the house.

First we have Glider Pancakes...

You need: Plain or fruit flavored shredded wheat cereal (not frosted) and an egg.

I used one pack of Post Shredded Wheat Original Big Biscuit and 3 eggs. 

To Prepare: Crumble shredded wheat and mix with the raw egg then cook just like a pancake. No need to use butter or oil. 

You can freeze these also. 

Glider Pancakes

The ice cubes really are not a recipe but I figured I would throw it in. I had some blueberries, raspberries and bananas I bought a few days ago so I put them in the ninja, chopped them up and put them in a cute heart shaped tray. Gliders LOVE them!

Frozen fruit treats

So next we have Glider Quiche.

You need: 1 egg, diced veggies or fruits or whatever glider safe food you want to use. I used a veggie mix of sweet potatoes, spinach, carrots and baby bok choy. Also, mini cupcake baking cups. 

To Prepare: Mix ingredients, Bake at 350 degress for about 15-20 minutes.

You can freeze these as well.
                                             

Glider Quiche

And there you have it. The photos are what I actually made btw. 

Do you have any other recipes you use for special treats for your gliders? Please feel free to share!

As always, Thanks for visiting my blog!
                                           

Tent Time

Last night was Jericho's first tent time. He did pretty well but was really scared at first. I know he was scared because of the horrible smell of him marking me (remember the post yesterday about the different smells, lol). When we first got in the tent, he climbed up on the side and didn't move for probably a good 10-15 minutes. After Jericho watched Lucy and Yoda jumping around and finding all the hidden treats I had left for them, he decided it was safe to come down. He moved really, really slow at first then would run across the whole length of the tent and stop. Eventually he warmed up to me and got comfortable with where he was and started jumping and running all over the place like he had been there his whole life. He ran around, climbed, leaped and even jumped on my head several times. By the time we finished and started packing stuff up, I couldn't keep him off me. I say tent time went really well for him and bonding has begun! 😆

The Smell

I have heard and read a lot of complaints/concerns that sugar gliders smell horrible. This can be true... let me say that again... it CAN BE true.

Some interesting information for all of you:

Male sugar gliders have a scent gland on top of their head as well as one on their chest. Female sugar gliders have a scent gland in their pouch. The thing most people don't know or don't mention is that both male and female gliders alike also have an anal gland. They also have 3 different smells... bet you didn't know that! Yes it's true! One smell is kind of sweet (sounds disgusting considering what we are talking about), another scent they have can be quite strong but is usually only when they are breeding and will go away. The third scent is a very strong smell that is from the anal region and happens when they get scared. In other words, if you are holding your baby and smell something horrible... they are probably scared. 

Now that we know all of that, the question becomes, how do we get rid of or control the smell so our homes don't smell like a zoo?!?

You should know, the more you clean... the more they will mark. They like to mark their territory, just like dogs. If you clean it up and make everything smell fresh and pretty, they will mark it up all over again and the process starts over.
Cleaning needs to be done in steps and on days. This is my cleaning process....

1. Once a day or every other day (depending on how dirty it is) I will clean the drop pan of my cage. I remove the soiled newspaper, wipe the tray with a baby wipe, put down fresh newspaper and it's done. 

2. Once a week I remove all fleece, pouches included and wash them. Sometimes I use Tide with Downy or just plain vinegar. Either way, they get run through the washer and the smell is gone. 

3. Every other week I remove all toys and their wheel. (ball pits, hanging toys, shape sorter, anything toy related). These can be cleaned either by putting them in the dishwasher or swishing them in soapy water (use Dawn, it works the best). Make sure they are completely dry and they can be placed back in the cage. 

4. Once a month, I remove everything from the cage (including the gliders, lol) and wipe down the cage. The grate in the bottom is usually the worst part and that is put in the bathtub to get it completely clean. I use a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water to wipe it down. 

Now, on step 4, I usually put the dirty pouch and toys back in the cage because if I don't, it becomes scent city but by this step nothing is really too stinky or too bad.
Food dishes obviously are changed every single day and kitchens are removed every other day and washed for obvious reasons.

There are some important things to note here though. In-tact males will mark more than neutered males and females. However, even if your males are neutered, they can still mark and so can females... it just won't be as bad or as much. Diet and cage cleanliness can also impact the smell of your gliders and cages. From my personal experience, I can tell you, my gliders had more of a smell when I was using the BML diet. I switched to the TPG diet and the smell wasn't as bad. THAT DOES NOT MEAN you should not use BML. This is my personal experience. Some gliders do very well on BML and some don't.

So... any questions? Comments? Concerns?

😃 Happy Gliding 😃

Jericho's First Photos

Finally got some photos of Jericho. He doesn't like to be still and absolutely loves to attack the phone, although he doesn't take very good selfies, lol. 💓

Glider Kitchens

Glider kitches... why do we use them, what purpose do they serve?

I always thought it was kind of a dumb idea to use these "kitchens." I mean, seriously, give the little guys their food and be done with it. I never really saw the purpose of using one except to take up extra space in the cage and it was just another thing to spend money on... like we don't spend enough money on our cherished fuzzies. Of course, I was having these thoughts when I still had only Henry, then I got Yoda and Lucy... then I added Gizmo (he is currently living with my daughter in his forever home) and then... I got Pebbles and Bam Bam...  Now, I also have Jericho. See how that works... they are truly addictive!
Anyway, back to the point I was trying to make, lol. By the time I was up to 4 gliders, I realized Pebbles and Bam Bam are SO messy; they would throw food everywhere, all over the cage, the floor and of course my wall. I thought it was just because they are blind and couldn't see what they were doing. Turns out neither of them are actually blind, but have cataracts. Even still, the mess was just horrific. I was wiping down and cleaning the cage, floor and wall every single day. As we all know, cleaning up after these babies is sometimes an all day job just in itself.
Eventually I gave in and decided to use the kitchen. WOW, what a difference! The food actually stays pretty well contained in the kitchen and there is not much of a mess to clean up. 
So, why do we use them and what purpose do they serve? ... yeah, I answered that. The kitchen gets pretty dirty but it's easy to grab it out, throw it in the dishwasher or wash it on hand and put it back in the cage. Wa-la.. clean up is done!

I use the igloo style hamster hideaway in my cages but there are several other things you can use. I opted to use the hideaways because they only cost about $5 - $10 depending on where you go and buying was just easier than trying to make one.

I have added some photos for everyone and I highly recommend using one of these.

Thanks Again for visiting my blog!

This is the igloo style I use

Homemade kitchen

I love this one but it looks hard to make 

Sugar gliders and Other Pets

I have seen and heard so many different opinions on whether it is okay for sugar gliders and other pets to be around each other and to "play" together. I am on the fence with this issue. I completely understand the view of the sugar glider "community" and the (for lack of a better term) Facebook hate groups. I understand why it is said by many, many people these small creatures should not be around other animals. I understand the dangers involved.

Taking a closer look...

Cats: their saliva is supposed to be toxic to sugar gliders, their instinct is to hunt, chase, kill. Cats will pounce on their prey. Cats like to bat at things when they play, most times with claws out.

Dogs: size alone is an issue regardless of the dog, dogs like to bite when they play, they become rambunctious and bounce around, they paw at things when they play.

With all that being said, the fact remains... YOU KNOW YOUR ANIMALS! Maybe you have the sweetest , most loving cat or dog in the world and maybe they don't do all the things mentioned above. Maybe your animals will just lay there and be completely oblivious to everything around them. Maybe you have an older dog that just likes to cuddle with anything and everything they possibly can, including sugar gliders, lol.
Maybe your cat is lazy and doesn't like to hunt. Maybe your cat has been declawed.

There are so many different factors we have to consider when we determine if it is safe for our fuzz butts to play or be around our other animals. Not all dogs are the same, not all cats are the same and as we all know too well... not all sugar gliders are the same. Each and every animal has their own personality and demeanor.

My point is this; While it may not be safe in some households, it could be completely safe in another. Yes, there are risks and there are dangers, but at the same time, YOU are the one taking the risks and weighing the dangers between YOUR animals. In my home, I know without a doubt, it is not safe.

So, instead of asking in facebook groups where you will get yelled at, degraded and told how horrible you are for even having the thought.... make the decision for yourself. You know your animals and you are the only one taking the risks.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Meet the Crew

Here I am Creating a blog about sugar gliders. Lame? Maybe, but here you are reading it.

So... Let me introduce you to my crew...

Henry is a classic 

Bam Bam is a white face

Yoda is a ringtail mosaic

Pebbles is a white face

Lucy is a ringtail mosaic

Yes, I know, I said I have 6 gliders and you are only seeing 5. I just got Jericho this past weekend and have not had a chance to snap any photos of him, not to worry though, there will be plenty coming.
That's all for today. Stay tuned for more about my sugar glider life ❤❤