I have had my Gliders (male & female) for a little over 1 year now so I gues their age to be 1 1/2. They are always excited to see me and love to kiss and groom me sometimes to the extreme and love to be on me for most of our playtime but for the last month now my female(Mousey) wants to rip my skin off with her teeth. At first thought it was aggressive grooming but I'm pretty sure that's not the case here.
She loved holding my ears and licking me like I was something tasty and couldn't get enough lol but now she is rough and goes straight to biting. She comes when called and jumps on me on command so I am not rewarding bad behavior. I make the vocal TSSTTT sound every time she gets too rough or bites and also give her time outs by placing her back their cage, so far it's not working.
I am feeling lost and heartbroken because I don't know what is happening to our beautiful bond we had. My Mousey is just a tiny girl, half the size and weight of her mate Nibbles(never bites or is rough, but use to) even tho they are the same age give or take a few weeks. My male is neutered and I don't know if it is a cycle she is going through but I am at a loss.
All info, opinions and experiences are welcomed. This is my first time posting but I read many topics here all the time

My first thought is, have you changed your soap, deodorant, body products or household products? Have you changed anything that could effect your scent? Perhaps you are smelling different to her and she doesn't recognize you?

Deseree has asked some great questions, think carefully about any changes that you have made. Scent is a strong factor with gliders, they may like or dislike particular scents or simply not like any change. Also, it could be a phase. Gliders are not domesticated, while although they can develop a trusting relationship with their human(s) (bonding), they are still more prone to their natural behaviors over their learned behaviors (demonstrating trust and closeness with their human(s).)

Also, gliders bond differently and to various capacities depending on various factors s/a personality/disposition, experiences with humans, and the time devoted to building this relationship. It's really not that strange considering the various reasons mentioned for there to be a change in behavior, besides health, in which you most likely would notice more changes than in their mere interactions.

That being said, my gliders go through cycles on how they interact with me. Now in my specific case, I've had many changes in environment, routines, and even interactions with them over the past few years (due to changes in living arrangements, moving twice within one year, and changing work schedules.) So, even more particularly most of the time I've had my boy Ollie, since I got him more than a year after my first pair, there's been lots of changes. I also, in my particular case I homed all my gliders as adults, girls being about 1yr old and my boy approx. 4yrs old. I've had them since: girls 2/2012, boy 11/2013. Despite the many changes though, my gliders have easily adapted, as in not showing any signs of stress (other than Lulu, who has always been an "over-grooming" glider). They've all traveled well on short vacations and in cross-country moves (the two within that one year), they mainly care about having their food and wheel, so other than changes with me, no other changes have been observed.

Thank you so much for your input and I agree you do bring up great questions and scenarios. I sopose there has been some subtle changes between products scents but not brands. I always wash and rinse my hands well before hands on with my Gliders, could I be washing too much? I will definitely be making changes back to all that I may have changed regarding products recently.

Is your male glider neutered? If not your female could be pregnant and this is how she is protecting her joeys.

If you can rule out change in anything scent oriented and your boy is neutered, then I would say a wellness visit to the vet is in order to rule out any health problems.

Please keep us posted on your progress and any changes.

Hi Terry, I appreciate all of your input and experiences. I am so hoping it is the minor changes I may have made or just a personaitly phase my Mousey is going through. It truly did break my heart to think my sweet girl did not like/love me as she did anymore but I Love her so so much that I just had to reach out for some guidance and an outside opinion source. I always want to do right by them as you know how speacial our fluffy little gliders are to us parents.
What would you consider aggressive grooming? Sometimes I get rough scrape like bites on my scalp like they want to pull my roots out but I just lift them away (but it's minor compared to this new aggressive behavior)and for some reason they are in love with my ears, I make it a point to have my ears extra clean because of how much they love them lol
I haven't really come across info regarding different behaviours or reasons/meanings to them or what is their natural behaviours and why.
I would also like your opinion on the size differences between male vs female when the same age.

When we bought them and I'm sorry to say from Pocket Pets ( it was all new to me and I had not known of the rep they had) the male is neutered and considering how petite my female is she is definitely not pregnant. I agree with a wellness visit to the vet if things stay as they are for much longer plus I am concerned about the size difference between my male vs female.
So I will be setting up an appt with the vet and reversing the minor changes I have made In my shampoo and soap.

My gliders sometimes, well often groom aggressively, scrapings their teeth on my scalp and it does hurt, sometimes they seem to do it more than others. I prefer the sweet, gentle kind of grooming, lol. I believe it was last year when one, at least I think it was just one of them, I'm thinking Ollie, began attacking my ear, whichever side. It was biting or clawing, can't say which for sure because I can't see them do it, only feel it, it dos feel more like biting though. I used to pull my hair up during out of cage play, but have since stopped to hide my ears, and this mostly stops that.

As for general size difference I'll do my best to fund it now, but I'm in my stupid iPad, my PC is shut down for the night, anyway,Mathis stupid thing isn't always easy for me to research and share information. I'm going to post this as is, then come back if I can get what I'm looking for. I can tell you this, gliders can vary in size, somewhat by reason of frame. My boy, is smaller than my girls, he's not underweight, but he's smaller (they are also a bit more fluffy), but I think it's bone structure/frame more so. Other than than frame size, I do believe males are usually larger than females. My girls are from a different source than my boy, my girls were originally adopted from a reputable breeder, then re homed about a year later when I got them. I do not know where my boy had come from originally, only that he had at the least 3 homes prior to mine, and the poor little guy was only around 4 yrs old (as far as previous mom before me knew).

here is the best I can find. Click on blue word "here" above.

Gliders come in all sizes and your boy might just be petite. How many feeding stations do you have in the cage? Having at least two stations will ensure he is getting his share.

You can also add avocado to their diet to beef him up a little.

My two have always been different in size.

We got doing who seemed to be very small for her age. 4 weeks later, we got Dot. She was huge in comparison. They were the same age.

Fiona eats slow, she actually tastes her food. Dot on the other hand eats or enhails her food. She always done this. There is a 25% difference in their weight. Fiona 107grams, Dot 137 grams. They are 3 years old.

It is my female whom I find to be quite petite, they are on the HPW Wombaroo diet with bee pollen plus they get lots of variety of fresh fruits and veggies daily. I did start giving them avacodo and they love it but I need to cut back on how often I have given because my male who I large as it is now has him some cleavage lol.
They have the Congo cage, they sleep on the top part and I keep apple slices and water bottle up there. Trampoline is in the middle and their 2wheels and main meal with another water bottle is at the bottom. The setup seems to work great for them, lots of open area up top for leaping and I always wake here when it is supper time so the male don't gobble up all the good stuff before she gets to it. Other than her size I say they are healthy and looking good But I am still going to take her for a wellness check like advised just to be sure her new agresiveness isn't from an underlying issue.
Thank you for the advise

Moobs are cute!

Hahaha It's a shame we can't upload and post our personal pictures or videos

I have to wait till the end of the month for payday but for sure taking her to the vet. I have noticed for a long time now that yeah her bone frame is much smaller and lighter than my male. When she(Mousey) lands on me you barely notice but when my male(Nibbles) lands on me he is like a beast lol
She seems to be dead set on biting me to break the skin which is just so shocking from my sweet little one. She drew blood lastnight so it was back into the cage for a time out but just out of curiousity I wiped my blood on my hand and pressed up against the cage and she was trying to stretch her darling tongue as far as she could to lap it up, I didn't allow her ofcourse. I have never given nor have they ever had live insects or foods of any sorts, that behavior made me nervous for the safety of my male even tho they have an awesome friendship. Think I am going to stop using their housing cage for the time outs and use the small starter cage I bought them with, maybe just have only a pouch and water bottle but nothing else- timeouts are only about 5 minutes.
I am so happy and pleased there is this community to talk to and hear from, it means so much to me.

You can post videos, they have to from youtube. and you just embed them, http://www.glidercentral.net/ubbthreads/...eos#Post1350572

Thank you for the info on approximate weights per sex.

These are my results and first time weighed.
Mousey 84 grams (Female) small frame
Nibbles 137 grams (Male) solid large frame