TYPES OF BONDED SUGAR GLIDERS

SEMI-FRIENDLY

When you go in the box glider will crab, but doesn’t lunge or bite. It may come up to you and smell your finger(at night). Will not climb up on your hand or arm at night. It also will not stay on your shoulder or sit still in your hand during the daylight hours. It’s struggling to get away as you hold baby. It also may bite(hard nip) if contained or you hold it back from getting loose. It may come to the front of cage to see you at night, but if you put your hand in their cage they will run away.

FRIENDLY

The sugar glider will crab at first then intensity or tone should change after it recognizes you. It will climb on you at night, but as you move your hand or arm it will jump off back into cage. You can hold your baby but it will jump off to investigate or may get scared and run and hide. It may still taste ”nip” you.

BONDED

 No crabbing(may give a grunt crab as you are waking them up, but should stop immediately once they recognize you). Will come to the front of the cage and climb on you and walk up your arm to shoulder without jumping off. It may still smell your hand before it climbs on to you(slight delay before it climbs on you). It still may jump off to investigate or if it gets scared. If it nips it is a communication that it wants something, a drink or a snack. It also should sleep in the pouch without struggling to get out but still may crab slightly when it gets bumped or woke up by strange noises.

TIGHTLY BONDED

 There is no crabbing as you go in to box or cage during daylight or night time hours. The glider at night will climb on your hand and either ride on it or run up to your shoulder after your hand is out of cage. There is no hesitation to climb or jump on you as you open cage door. Sugar glider will ride on hand or shoulder as you walk around at night and usually will not jump off of you. If it gets scared it will freeze or run in pouch or down shirt.(if you taught it to do this for comfort and security). It also will not jump off to just investigate,(you can never say never will jump off), sometimes my extremely bonded adults do, but it is a rarity when they do and it usually means they want to go back to their living quarters. They sometimes do above at night but during the day they are content to sit in my cupped hands eating a cricket. The glider should also not shake or act like it is scared while it is on you during day or at night. It should be very trusting of what you are doing or where you are going(animal in pouch). While in pouch glider should not crab if woken up or if it is bumped or disturbed in any way. In other words NO crabbing or taste nips, just communicational light pinch sometimes.

BEHAVIOR:

NON FRIENDLY GLIDER

HARD NIPPING OR BITING: Sometimes when you first get a baby sugar glider it nips or bites after crabbing, if you force it into a corner or push after crabbing or after glider is chased. This is a scared defense response and with patience and trust it should go away as the crabbing should subside also.

FRIENDLY GLIDER BEHAVIOR

TASTE NIPPING: This is totally different than biting. This is a communication that the glider wants something or it is tasting everything in it’s environment(us included). It may want something to eat(cricket or treat), some water, or if baby is contained, to see what’s going on. It reminds me of a human baby at the everything in the mouth stage of growth.

SQWAGGLE

This is what the glider does when it is marking you as belonging to it’s family group. They grab(with teeth) your shirt or skin and will rub their belly and back end from side to side three or four times in a row. When they do this if they didn’t hold on with teeth( young ones use teeth, older ones can glide across material with a little training) they would fall off(it is that vigorous). Hopefully they grab your shirt and not your bare skin. I have seen a female do this to her male and he made a noise like it hurt. It looked like the female was on top trying to mate until I saw that side to side movement. This is not an aggressive behavior, you should be honored you have made the family, even though it hurts on bare skin(pinched). It also could be territorial scent marking.

HEAD RUB

 The sugar glider will grab you with it’s front two feet and curl it’s head toward their underside and start rubbing the top of their head vigorously against you. It usually is accompanied by a girgling sound or a giggling sound. If I am sitting while this is being done, it sometimes is followed up with a ¾ full body turn and the length of body rubbed against me. I have females and males do this behavior, I think it is friendly hello or family recognition. I have seen a male do the head rub to the female also both parents do it to the babies(they have to be out of box and weaning). Sometimes they do it after I have petted them down the full length of their body. The full length ¾ body turn is like a cat rubbing against your leg and if laying down with glider can be done down length of body or legs.

BELLIE RUB: Normally done by adolescent sugar gliders or adult sugar gliders. Males and females do this underbelly rub. It looks like a wave or they are trying to wipe something off their bellies. Peanut would do this also when she had babies and her pouch was extended about ¼ in., she would lay still on my arm and spread out so her belly was flat against me. I found out later she was getting my smell on the babies through the pouch opening. I think. The reason I think this is because I caught her male sleeping with his head against her pouch opening. Maybe it is a pre oop bonding between father and babies.

TOOTSIE POP LICK

This is where the baby sugar glider or sub-adult sugar glider will climb up on your shoulder and go over to your neck and lick, lick, lick, and lick then take a nip out of your neck. It also can be done on arm or any where else on you. If you have a mole or band-aid on your finger or any thing that the glider thinks is foreign it will try and remove(groom) it. I think this behavior is taste or grooming. It usually is done by a glider I hear purring from or extremely attached to me. It usually goes away(tootsie lick, grooming usually continues) either by me moving every time I get a little pinch or with time or after puberty. Another type of behavior that can occur at same time as this grooming is the wet willie which is the glider nip on ear, purring, tootsie lick and/or the tongue goes in the ear with purring usually. I don’t mean tongue on outside of ear I mean deep in the ear.

SOUNDS

CRABBING

 This sounds like a machine that won’t start. Probably the first sound you will hear out of the baby and/or newly acquired sugar glider. It is a defense mechanism and could be followed by lunging at you and/or biting, if glider is pushed or you move too fast toward it. The glider by doing this is probably trying to say you are bothering him/her(usually tone changes), you have startled him/her, or they are scared of what is going to happen next. Look at it from our point of view; you have been at work or play all day then you come home and go to sleep. At about 3 a.m. on our schedule something comes to your house and rips the roof off of your house and wakes you up, wouldn’t you “crab” or say something worse? I would be startled or scared until I knew what was going on!

BARKING: This sounds like a small dog barking off in the distance. It is a scare call and/or telling a story to other gliders in the area. If you have more than one glider all the other gliders either freeze or they run for security or cover. If I have a bonded glider on me it will run under my shirt for protection.

GIRGLING

This is a sound that is like being tickled or a giggle. I hear it when I rub their belly or while they eat a cricket and being petted. If I am holding the female with babies if she makes this sound, the male in the box will answer as he eats his cricket. This is a happy or content sound.

CHIRPING

Almost like a giggle but it has a different pitch and intensity of sound. I think this also is a happy or content sound. It made while being held or eating treat.

TEETH CHATTERING

 (LOUD): I ONLY HEAR THIS FROM ONE MALE THAT WE BOUGHT SECOND HAND. When his female comes to the front of the cage he runs up to her making the teeth chattering noise. I also observed him doing it when she was on the side of her cage and a rival male that was on his wire close to her(about 4-6 in. apart). He chatters, then he will go and rub under her chin and her behind. I think he is jealous of me and the rival male around his girl. There is a soft teeth chatter that starts out as a single kiss or click which I believe is a friendly sound. The behavior has a lot to do with the sound meaning and intensity of the sound.

CHA CHA CHEW CHEW:

this noise will bedone only  by adult female sugar gliders with babies, either oop or in the pouch. The moms will do this and it is also accompanied by stretching movements as to reposition the babies in the pouch. They raise up on all four feet(kind of arched up) and will stretch one leg one way then another leg another way. This noise also coming from the nest box around dinner time and then the mom comes out without the babies. Maybe it is a way to tell babies to stay or stop you are stepping on my bladder or kicking me. After stretching and noise was made mom will go on with what she was doing. And we will not hear it from all the females all the time just sometime.

CHEW SA-CHEWLSOUNDS LIKE SNEEZE):

 Gliders do this to each other to tell the other one that, that it is mine and you stay away. It’s like a warning to each other. Also after babies are weaned mom will do this. At first mom or dad will let babies eat out of their hands as parents are eating, later it is if to say go and get your own.

PURRING

This is a very happy and content sound(like a cat makes). It is hard  to hear as it is not as loud as a cat’s purr

SINGLE KISS

 We will only hear this from tightly bonded or extremely tightly bonded sugar gliders. It is like a single light pucker sound or kiss. It is very soft and sometimes hard to hear, unless it is by your ear. We can make a single noise and the sugar glider  will answering  with the single pucker. I believe it is a friendly(may be greeting) or happy communication noise.

GROWL(GRRR GRRR) OR OFF BEAT CRAB

We will only hear  this between rival gliders. I hear this either the female is in season, babies oop, or babies are coming out of the box. It is a stern warning to other sugar gliders to stay away or out of their territory

SQUAWK , BABY CALL

The baby is calling for mom or dad when it’s scared or in distress. When the baby first comes out of the box and they wander too far in the cage or can’t quite climb over a branch or piece of wood. Another words like a cat goes up the tree but can’t get down, this is the reverse the baby will go to bottom of cage and can’t figure out how to climb up and/or over something. When baby calls mom or dad will talk to them or they will go and pick them up and give ride back to safety.