QUARANTINE, INTRODUCTIONS, NEUTERING, AND NUMBER:
It is also important to note that sugar gliders, while they can be kept as single pets, have a greater chance at a full, happy life if they have a BUDDY. Getting your glider a cage mate is best done by acquiring two glider joeys at the same time from the same breeder. If you acquire a male and a female, remember that the male needs to be NEUTERED by 14 weeks of the time the glider came “out of pouch”.
** Female gliders can NOT be spayed or they WILL die **
Getting two females, for instance sisters of the same age, is fine. Getting two males may require you to neuter BOTH of them by 14 weeks OOP (Out Of Pouch date). If you get a single glider and later decide to obtain a cage mate for him/her, it is essential that you follow these rules:
· New gliders should be kept in a separate cage, in a separate room in your home for THIRTY (30) DAYS after you get the new glider. It will be necessary to WASH and SANITIZE your hands and CHANGE CLOTHES after handling glider(s) from one room BEFORE you go into another glider(s) room. This is called QUARANTINE and is ESSENTIAL to making sure your old and new gldirs do not transfer communicable diseases between them.
· At the BEGINNING and the END of the quarantine time, BOTH old and NEW gliders should be checked by a VET for any illnesses or parasites. IT is NECESSARY to do it BOTH times.
· Once they have all received a clean bill of health, it is time for introductions.
Introductions are important. NEVER place gliders unfamiliar with one another in a cage and "just let them fight it out" or assume "they will get along fine" and just walk away. This could result int he DEATH or DISMEMBERMENT at at the least the SERIOS INJURY of one or more of your gliders.
Start out by putting one glider's "blanket" from a sleeping pouch intot he other gldier's sleeping pouch and vice cersa for 2-3 nights and then switch the whole sleepign pouches between the two cages every other night for 10 nights to get your gliders accustomed to one another’s scent.
· Spend another 10 days switching cages every other night… put the gliders from cage “A” into cage “B” and the gliders from cage “B” into cage “A” for the night.
· After that, put the cages next to one another (about 8 inches apart) for a few days. No closer, please- gliders CAN and WILL injure one another between cages if placed too closely before they are ready!
· Then begin face to face “introductions”. This means take ALL the gliders to a glider-safe room or tent inside your home where NEITHER of the sets has EVER been before so that the intros happen in an area “unclaimed” by any of the gliders. Allow them to interact and get to know each other but BE PREPARED to intercede if a fight breaks out. You will PROBABLY be bitten while breaking up the fight, but it will also probably save the life of one of your gliders.
We highly recommend the "vanilla bathtub method" of intoduction. In this method, (for which you may want to have a second person on hand to help if necessary), you place a small bowl of water in the center of your bathtub first. Then you place a single drop of vanilla extract between the shoulderbaldes of each glider being introduced and place the gldiers at opposite ends of the tub. The vanilla scent masks their individual scents some and also is a gldier attractant. They may spend time grooming themselves or each other as they meet. The bathtub location is important as it smells like neither glider so it is "neutral" territory and it is a bit of a strange surface for them to walk on so it is also something of a distraction. If a fight breaks out that you cannot separate, pick up the fighting "ball" of gliders and dip them slightly into the bowl of water which SHOULD distract them enough to make them let go of one another. REMEMBER TO COMPELTELY DRY THEM BEFORE PUTTING THEM BACK IN THEIR CAGES!!
· Once they are getting along during playtime for a few nights, try putting both gliders into a new or recently deep-cleaned cage (so it is not "teritory" already "claimed" by one or the other) for a few hours but NOT OVERNIGHT and keep an eye on them. Once you feel certain they are NOT going to fight or harm each other, it is now safe to keep them in one cage from then out.
HOWEVER, you will need to keep SEPERATE food dishes and WATER BOTTLES at DIFFERENT HEIGHTS on OPPOSITE sides of the cage to discourage either glider from hogging all the food and keeping the other from eating or drinking enough, just in case.
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