You should do it. They are COLONY animals. If you don't stay awake the WHOLE night interacting with your glider then he is not getting the attention he needs and deserves. There's no way around it.
He needs a cagemate to play with during the WHOLE night and to sleep and cuddle with during the day.
Imagine if you had zero interactions with human beings...No one to understand you, to talk to, to listen, no one to hang out with, etc. It doesn't matter if you have 10 cats or dogs...It's just in NO WAY the same.
You are not now and never will be a replacement for another glider.
Also, you can get gliders cheap...you don't have to get one from a
breeder. There are TONS of gliders that need homes and they are MUCH cheaper than one from a
breeder. And sometimes
breeders offer pet only joeys at very low prices too.
People recommend a 30 day quarantine.
After the 30 days you can start introductions.
Being in a smaller cage for a month or two is no big deal, btw. Being in a small cage their whole lives is the problem, not a few months.
Introductions probably will not last a week. It all depends on the gliders. If they get along quickly or not (they may not even get along at all).
Usually you start with exchanging
pouches for a while.
Although some people say that exchanging
pouches doesn't really do anything because, it doesn't matter how many times you exchange
pouches, if they don't like the smell of the other glider they just don't.
You can also buy double
pouches (or w/e they are called) and introduce them that way after you have been exchanging
pouches. They don't have access to each other in those
pouches, they just smell and see each other.
You can also put their cages beside each other so they can see each other during night time when they are awake.
After doing that, if there seems to be no problem, you can put the new glider in the bigger cage while you are there. Like, during the day when they are sleeping so you can keep an eye on them. It's a good sign if they are happily sleeping in the pouch together.
I guess there are different ways to introduce them.
It all depends on your availability. Like if you work during the day or not, how many days you work, etc.
I didn't do the 30 day quarantine because I was doing home renovations and had to put them all in the same room around 2 1/2 weeks into the quarantine.
Not everyone actually does the quarantine, though...I say wait at least two weeks. Don't just put them together right away. And take the new glider to the
vet before introducing them.
If I were getting a glider from a rescue or from a random person (not from a
breeder that actually takes their gliders to a
vet and makes sure their breeding facility is clean and free of parasites or w/e) I would definitely do the full 30 day quarantine.
My gliders all got along, luckily. I didn't really follow recommendations word for word...I just used my brain haha
I have experience with many different animals so I kind of knew what I was doing XD