My Athena has always been a biter. I've gone through many cycles of trying to teach her to stop and then giving up and accepting it as part of her personality. I'm wondering how many other people have gliders that act like this? She is 4 1/2 years old and well bonded to me. Her body language tells me she is not scared when she bites me- sometimes she is even making the popcorn sound when she bites. She bites HARD, usually hard enough to leave a mark or draw blood. I don't recoil and I try to tsk at her every time but it has never seemed to help. My scent doesn't change regularly. It happens seemingly randomly, when my hand is in their pouch cuddling with them she will bite down on a finger, or when we are having play time she will hop over and bite a toe. At this point I chalk it up to love bites coming from someone who doesn't know her own strength. She's also a toothy glider just in general. I don't let her groom me because she uses her teeth so hard it hurts. She loves to chew on plastic toys around the cage- she has chewed the arms off of all the monkeys from a barrel! I guess it's just part of who she is, but I wonder how common this trait is among pet gliders in the US because it's totally different from the behavior shown by my other 2.

Have you tried hissing at her when she bites or grooms hard?

Use sugar glider language to your advantage.

Yeah, I mentioned that I tsk at her. I've tried everything.

You could try gently pushing her nose away while tsking her.

Offer all treats in a spoon or dish. Watch for when she goes to open her mouth to bite and redirect her.

It takes patients.

All three of my gliders, all adults, will bite. It's been for different reasons:

Skadoosh, my mildest glider rarely bites or nips, but will if I try to hold her or pick her up when she doesn't want to be. She give a little warning nip that tells me "I don't like that". This is rare, and I understand and respect her. Otherwise she is my gentlest glider, although they all can get a little carried away at grooming.

Lulu, oh my Lulu. She was the fearful one when I got her, I was so scared of her until I learned she was acting out of fear. My attitude towards her changed and we came a long way. She will still bite, but usually not as hard and normally it's the kind more along the line of Skadoosh. Lulu is the easiest at nail trims, Skadoosh a close second. Lulu still gets pouch protective, but usually when she realizes it's me, she calms quickly, although I've receive an occasional nip from her first. She also still doesn't care for me messing around with their things in "her" cage sometimes and will act out, but this is more rare, and usually occurs after a laps in out of cage play routine, so maybe it's part grudge.

Ollie boy, my oldest and he is a nipper, I don't even know why. I don't think it's fear, but I can't say entirely for certain. It just seems he just likes to nip, and it hurts.

Oh, and mine chew as well, although I wouldn't call severe. The girls had done serious damage to their wheel they came with, but had relatively no other toys, accept a few cat/bird balls. Now that they have so many toys, they still chew, but more like "testing" chewing. I haven't seen real damage to anything, but have notices marks on toys from them.

Not adults, but wanted to share.

Two of mine will occasionally nip, Merlin in general wants to taste everything, & Gwyn is a biter. Like you, I don't thing believe it's fear or territorial either. Several times she's been playing on me or around/with my hands for a while before she decides to grab on to a nearby body part & take a hard bite or two. When I'm watching her it is fairly evident right before it happens (she opens WIDE).

I'm trying to discourage her much as you've described, but also as you mentioned, I'm beginning to wonder if it is just who she is.

Hello -
Wanted to weigh in, Stuart is only four months oop, but I feel as if I hit the jackpot with gliders. He has never bit me or even attempted to bite me. He takes food from me and licky treats like honey or yogurt from my fingers.

The ONLY time he bit was the lady who trimmed his nails Saturday and personally the way she went about it, I would have taken a chunk as well. I am sure if I shared THAT story you would all be on Stuarts side.

As for toys he chews on the barrel of elephants he has and a few others leaves tiny marks but has never chewed one up or anything apart yet. Good Boy!

Anyway just wanted to share my two bits.

sugiemom to Stuart

I certainly couldn't blame Stuart!

I've read many times teaching the glider when they are younger not to bite is critical. From my own experience I would say this is probably key. My first two never really bit at all except the first two weeks because they didn't trust me. After that the only time i've ever been bitten by them is during nail trims. Boots, who is 8 weeks oop now bit me A LOT during the first few weeks. In the back of my mind I knew I had to do everything possible to get her to stop. It went from terrified the first two weeks, to learning what hands were. After week two she hasn't bitten me since. So long story short I suppose if they don't learn when they are young, they will always bite? I have another example of early key training, Lina and Luna will just never sit still on me at night, no matter what I do. Now that they are a year old I realize I didn't train them hard enough on this particular behavior. I'm making this a key point with boots, I can get her to slow down by placing her on an arm. As soon as I start petting her she will stop everything and let me pet her for a good 10-15 minutes because I keep working at it while she is young. Hope this helps in the future!

I agree and had a similar experience. I actually put some fresh organic yogurt on my hands to teach them to lick and not bite my hands.