Started bonding today.

At about 1 PM zipped up the bonding pouch they were sleeping in and brought them out. Dobby started crabbing. Fed them some small bits of apple to calm them down and both let me pet them while they ate. Elric made a few attempts to bite when he finished his piece but I am not sure whether that was annoyance or trying to get apple juice off my fingers. Need to get him into the support group: "Fingers are Friends, not Food."

Dobby crabbed a lot in the pouch at sounds and slight movements. Elric joined in on some of his crabbing but I am not sure if that was brotherly support or annoyance that Dobby kept waking him up.

Gave them each half a yogurt drop towards the end and they seemed to calm down and sleep. When it was time for me to head out to meet some friends for dinner at 5 I put the pouch back in the cage. Dobby started crabbing. I unzipped the pouch. Dobby popped his head out, saw that he was home, crawled back in, and went to sleep. Hoping to make some progress on Elric's biting and Dobby's crabbing going forward. Tried to feed Dobby some fruit out of my hand this evening but he pulled a fast one and tricked me into putting my hand too close so he could snatch it without having to get on my hand.

Small steps are good! There is some progress!

Do you have any small fleece blankies (4" ×4")? You can use those to put your scent on by tucking under your pillow, rubbing on your arms, or tossing in the laundry hamper. Then tuck one or two in their sleeping pouch every couple of days.

They are scent oriented and will get to know you by your smell while they sleep.

My first glider took about a month to trust us, the second glider took about 9 months. They have unique personalities.

Be sure to give fresh water dish daily. They have a tendency to like to wash their faces.

Keep you posted the good work!!!!

Elric seems to like biting. He seems to be okay with me and is hesitant at first but he will slowly come to my hand. He then sniffs it for a second or two and then starts biting. They are not panicked bites, more like exploration. I try not to move when he does it but he then does it three or four times on different parts of the hand like he is looking for something. I do not think I have any food smell on my hands. Any suggestions on ways to discourage this without scaring him off?

He is willing to eat food out of my hands. Is that bad training encouraging these kinds of bites?

Oh, and I am doing the fleece blanket idea. Thanks for the advice.

Biting is normal. They are tasting and learning their limits. They do eventually stop. They may become fixated on a smell, a freckle, a scab, hair, etc. And seem to go right back at it. Unscented soaps help. They may smell the treats on your hands or think there might be another treat under the skin if they dig far enough.

You can discourage them from biting by offering them something else to bite like a toy, or a blankie, or moving their nose from that area.

The last suggstion never worked for me. You can make a noise like "Ssst, sshht, Tsk" in glider talk it tells them you don't like what they are doing. It may take some repetition, because we're not pronouncing it correctly, but they figure it out. Also if it doesn't stop, you can follow the noise by a firm 'no'! What ever works for you and your glider.

Tried a new approach by offering them the back of my forearm and not my hand. Now when they explore and nip it does not hurt and I am not worried about the poor little guys teeth. When they start to get aggressive I hiss and they usually go back to gentle nipping and licking.

They seem happier. Mostly I think because I gave them their exercise wheel back now that I mounted it in a way to keep it stable. They are still working on it. They like to run together......in opposite directions,

My two other gliders are finally almost ready to join the first two so I get to start bonding all over again. I also need to remember to get another wheel.

And good news. Dobby did not crab today when I took his pouch out of the cage and not since I took it out. Every time previous he has crabbed when I zip it up and crabbed when I pick it up and crabbed regularly throughout. At first I thought he was in too deep a sleep but then he popped his head up to look around, saw all was well, and went back to sleep.

Good news!!!

Very good news indeed. Keep up the good work

We will see if it continues. Have a tent being delivered today and plan to try some tent time. Hoping to solidify the bond a little before the girls arrive on Friday and I get caught up in making sure introductions go well. I am hopeful there will not be any problems. They are all very young so it should not be too hard.

Welp, two steps forward, one step back. Got the tent and figured I would set it up and take their sleeping pouch in and see how it goes. Unfortunately it was a pop up and really wanted to pop up the second I got it out. It ballooned out and hit the side of the cage their pouch was on. They both shot out of the pouch to the top of the cage and froze. I tried to talk to them but they would not move. I decided to give them treats. Elric took his and calmed down. Dobby is, as always, more skittish and it took about a minute of coaxing to get him to eat his. Even afterwards he hesitated to move for about five minutes while Elric busily scouted the cage for more treats and to come say hi (or maybe this is his way of begging for treats).

I tried to coax them into another pouch by putting treats in it but Elric wanted to nip my fingers and crawl everywhere except inside including an escape attempt. Dobby monitored the situation but did not seem eager to do anything daring. I think I will wait until Thursday as tomorrow I have stupid non-glider responsibilities. Right now they are just taking a nap in their hammock until full dark.

Pop up tents are awesome! They help keep set up and tear down to a minimum time frame.

Just a freak surprise that the babies will over come with time.

In my mind, I can see the scene clearly...

From the sleepy glider's point of view:

THWACK!!!

Elric: " Oh jeez Dobby! Our human put us too close to the whomping tree!"

Dobby:" I dunno 'bout you, but I'm outta here!!!"

Elric:" Dobby, where are you? We gotta find the spot on the root to help our human to make it stop!"

Dobby: " Who cares about the human! "

(Harry Potter book three)

Your description made me laugh. Thank you. They had an interesting evening. I decided a few days ago to completely glider-proof the room they are in which mean moving my desk into the exercise room. So they got to watch me disassemble the desk, realize the pieces do not fit through the door, work out from scratch how I got them in a few years ago and scraped a little paint off the doorframe and taught them some language baby joeys should probably not here when I crushed my finger and finally get the desk pieces out. Then I had to move the cage (on wheels) which caused them to freeze up again. I also switched them over to Critterlove diet last night so they had an exciting evening and Elric tried to hog all the Complete by covering the dish with his while body. Dobby retaliated by eating the salad. Elric smelled the salad and gave up his defense strategy and tried to grab the salad pieces. I may need more dishes when the girls arrive.

To top off the evening Elric got out when I was putting foraging toys back in with new treats. I let him explore a little but then he was trying to get back to the cage and could not. I had to carry him back. If I am going to let them play in the room I need to set up some method for them to get in and out.

Sorry for turning this into a LiveJournal. Tent time was a bit of a bust. Elric came out but Dobby refused to come out of the pouch and crabbed when I tried to entice him out, Elric played in the ball pit and chased a feather around for a bit. He climbed on me a little but was very hesitant. I did accidentally come up with a partial solution to his biting. I hid some yogurt drops in my hand as rewards and then realized they melted. I offered the hand to Elric and instead of biting he licked my hand clean. May do this some more to try to make it a habit,

He got bored after that and crawled back into the pouch. I put them back in the cage and was trying to feed cranky Dobby a treat when Elric leaped from the far side of the cage onto my arm. He then started grooming it and sauntered up to my shoulder and crossed over to my other shoulder and started licking my ear lobe. It was the sweetest thing.

I just got confirmation that the girls are coming home tomorrow so time to start setting up introductions and starting the bonding process all over. I think I am hooked now though.