Hi all! So our family had been looking at adding a pair of sugar gliders to our furry-loving family...doing our research, talking with owners in our area, and POURING over this site as it gives so much great info from experienced owners. I feel like I have learned as much as a person can thru only reading/talking but no actual experience, and felt like we might be ready to adopt a bonded pair into our family. And then comes a post on our local SG FB group posted by a member-she is posting for a girl looking to re-home her male non-neutered sugar glider....but must be willing to pay to adopt him and drive to her to pick up. She went to college and left him to her dad to take care of...who more than likely wasn't feeding him a proper diet (mostly apples it sounds like) AND he had just lost his mate. She thought he was 2-3 years old, and she had no lineage/breeder info. Anyway, I kept watch on the post to see how the poor guy faired, and it seemed no one was willing/or was just not able to drive to get him along with paying his re-homing fee. I messaged the poster and find out that the girl is talking about having him put to sleep! So being the animal softie that I am, we jumped in headfirst...and drove to get him yesterday afternoon. I purchased her large cage from her and what little accessories she had and we got him home and settled in. Yesterday afternoon before I picked him up, I purchased all the stuff for BML diet and had my husband get it prepared while we took off to bring him home. Got his home set up in my room so I can monitor him/restrict access of our other fur-babies....when I put him in he set off exploring right away. I put out his food/water for him and after a bit we left him alone to acclimate and all went to bed (it was 11:30 at night). By morning EVERY bit of the food was gone and he was awake and kept coming over to the side of the cage looking at me like he was hoping I would bring him more food. So I gave him a couple of mealworms, and when he still kept coming over to me, a couple blueberries, a cherry and a bit of banana. Being new to this, I can't tell if he has been underfed and is really hungry, or if he is just a glutton, so thought I would post on here to get some advice. His temperament seems good...so far he has only crabbed at me once for just a little bit when I first got him from the girl and peeked at him in his bonding pouch. From what I learned from the girl when I picked him up, he was not really handled by her very much so I'm sure it will take a lot of time, patience and work on my part to get him bonded to that point, but as of right now he will take food from me without being startled and a couple of times has let me touch him for just a sec, only giving me this look like "what the heck are you doing?" before wandering away to explore/look for more food. I know we will need to get him a new friend sooner rather than later, and have poured over the forum that gives the details on the how's/where's/why's, but as I had originally intended to get an already bonded pair and have not owned any previously we only have the one cage so will have to get another one along with cage set/toys etc so we can keep them separate and introduce them properly. Anyway this is our story up till now...I would love any advice/experience anyone has to share and want to thank everyone in advance...this site is amazing and I'm so glad it's here to help!

Welcome to GliderCENTRAL!

It sounds like your little guy is eating everything in sight because he isn't sure when his next meal will be or how much it will be.

I have had rescues come inline that, it takes them a few weeks to months before they realize that dinner will be in their cage every night and it will be enough to fill them up.

I have had them belly up to the dish and just eat until it was empty. They they are so full that they just lay there trying to digest it.

Give him his regular dinner, by the way which diet are you planning on feeding? and give him nutritious snacks in the morning and early afternoon. Don't give him so many during the day that he doesn't want to eat his dinner.

When you feed him at night, make sure to have his dish in his cage before he wakes up. This will reassure him that food will always be there.

Do you know how much he weighs in grams? He could be underweight.

It could also be that he's really enjoying the variety of food he's getting!

Glad you're here!

Thanks for the replies everyone....I don't know how much he weighs...and don't know that I could get him on a scale yet to figure it out. I think he's beginning to trust me more, but definitely not to the point where he will let me pick him up. I will try weighing him in his bonding pouch and then subtracting the weight of the pouch when we get to that point, but I am letting him have some time getting acclimated to his new home and me before I start with the bonding pouch. I gave him a couple of "treats" yesterday (bits of banana and a couple blueberries) during the day and then gave him a bit more food last night, and there was still a bit left this morning, so I see that as a good sign. He ate a couple mealworms and a blueberry for breakfast (he seems partial to them) so I think he is just happy to be getting some variety again. I have him on the BML diet and so far he seems to enjoy it. He was really having fun in his cage yesterday exploring and jumping from place to place so I have hope that he is enjoying his new home and all the attention he's getting. I'll keep everyone posted. Thanks!

Ugh...forgot to log in for that last post, so it says anonymous but it was me LOL

sounds similar to my story. Mines a two plus year old male who's companion died three months ago. His prior owner was feeding him just pellets and apples and had no time for him. He weighed 60 grams when I got him. I put him on TPG fresh diet supplemented with some fresh superworms and dubia. He's put on six grams in less than a week.

His cage was bare. No toys, just one pouch, the wrong kind of wheel, a wooden bird ladder...etc. cage is too small too. HQ flight cage on the way. New proper wheel installed today. After he's neutered next week, he'll get a new friend.

I'm glad to be able to provide this little guy with the proper home, diet and lots of love and affection.