I had a glider kind of pushed upon me, but the history of her is in question. The person who owned her before kept changing her story how old she is, so I don't even know her age. Last time I asked her, she said around 5 months. She does look fully grown to me. Supposedly she was super sweet, gave kisses, held hands, was even held by other friends and they found her sweet, etcetera etcetera... When I got her home, she never crabbed at me, is that normal? But she, of course, was hiding all the time, which I consider normal. It's been 2 weeks since I got her, and she still hides (either in the pouch or behind the wheel), and she can't figure out how to run in the wheel. My other glider, who is 13 weeks oop, got used to the cage within 3-4 days, and was happily running in the wheel and bouncing off the walls. This new glider also seems to sleep a lot. My first one would be up between 9-10 pm, and the new one just sleep away, I am not even sure what time she wakes up. I know she is up at night, as I get up to check on them when I hear them barking (which has been every night since I got her). And she might still be up around 6 am (when I get up) having a bite to eat, but as soon as she sees humans, she crawls in to the pouch and falls asleep. I never see her very active like my first glider. So I am wondering if she is super shy and scared still? Is she possibly sick? Has she been abused in the past? I do spend time with her daily, I just have both my gliders in the pouch on me while I watch some movies and catch up on my emails. I tried taking her out of the pouch a couple of times, but she gets so scared, she grasps with her claws really hard (I have trimmed them, but she still leaves marks because she just clasps down so hard), and she tries to climb out my hand and heads for the pouch. Would the vet be able to tell how old she is? Would they be able to tell if she's been abused or mistreated in any way? I know gliders can hide their sickness, so would the vet be able to tell if she is sick by just examining her, or are there specific tests I would need to request?

Yes, she should see a vet. Tests I would have done would be a fecal (check for Giardia also) and check for a UTI.

As far as her behavior, she could just be shy. Take your time, let her set the pace.

Are you going to introduce her to your other glider? She may learn from her also.

Please keep us posted on your progress.

They are already introduced, and even sleep in the same pouch. And they aren't afraid to try to grab treats out of each other's mouths.

I also forgot to mention that she is kind of smelly. And the pouch that she was handed to me in just stunk quite horribly. I washed it when I got home, but it still smelled bad, so I soaked it with oxyclean overnight and then rewashed it again, and finally got rid of the smell.

You may be dealing with several issues all at once.

First I would take to the vet and have her tested for everything Kim suggested. I would also take both gliders in case your new one tests positive for something.

If she was sweet before, she may be trying to understand her new environment and humans. Gliders are very cautious of new environments. Especially if her human she is used to is no longer present. New sights and smells can be very overwhelming to young gliders.


What I base this on:
We have experienced this in a different way. We travel with our job. We travel with a 5th wheel. We have been gone for up 6 months consecutively without going home. We have had our gliders for only 2.5 years. In that length of time, we have lived on the road almost 1.75 years total. Our RV has been their home more than our permanent home. They consider the RV as their home. We just visit the "other place". The only constant is me and hubby. The gliders know both homes, but are shy when we are home, and quite busy and active in the camper.

It will take time with your new glider. And a lot of patience. Have her checked out and go from there.

Please keep us posted.

sounds to me like she was neglected and probably kept in a small cage with no toys and nothing to do. So she's learned to sleep most of the time and never learned how to play. There was nothing for her to do and nobody for her to interact with. The new cage is probably huge and overwhelming, which may be why she's hiding. She's not playing in the wheel because she honestly does not know how. She probably sleeps, because in her life there was nothing else to keep her busy and it was the only way to pass time.

That's just my thoughts on it, anyway. She probably just needs time to get used to things. Patience. Love. See if you can get her to go on the wheel and slowly turn it a little to see if she figures it out. And she'll probably start picking up cues from your other glider when she's feeling a little less intimidated

One glider can be more dominant than another as well and let the other glider know it's "their" wheel time. Maybe your babies are trying to work out how to share the wheel. Gliders have different personalities and some need more time to adjust and build confidence. We had a very gregarious female who would hiss at our male whenever he tried to play on the wheel with her. He was a gentleman and let her have it most of the time...same thing happened during food time. Our little girl was dominant and wanted first dibs on all the peas and corn. She would hiss at our little boy, so, to keep the peace, he began to wait about an hour before emerging to eat. It also took several months for him to warm up to us, whereas our female warmed up instantly and felt right at home. I considered putting 2 wheels in the cage, at one point, to spread the fun. Also, gliders sometimes hide behind the wheel if they want to be up and active, but there's too much light in the room, so dimming the lights might help if that's the case. Just a few additional thoughts...