any idea why they do that? ive never heard of an animal doing that before.

I'm sure it's some kind of protection against predators. I don't know if other gliders come out of the pouch and then go all still the second they hear even the slightest noise, but mine do. They don't do it once they're awake and active, once their blood is pumping and they're awake. Mine act like I do when I first get up and am on my way to get coffee... they wake up, they come out, but they go into open-eyed hibernation for a bit, particularly if there's any noise. They do the "stand totally still and don't move" thing. I just assumed it was a prey animal response. I try to be very quiet and careful when they're first waking up so that I don't startle or scare them, but sometimes they come out all on their own and hang out like little statues for 15-20 minutes even if it's totally silent in my office!

I hard you need some kind of license or training to have Sugar Gliders, they look cute as all hell though. You made me think back to when the Cat I had was a kitten. I miss Tigger for those moments, I'd come home from work and no sooner then I was in the door he'd come out of wherever meowing all " I love you! " and " Kitty missed you! ".

God, I miss having a cat. :D My husband is violently allergic. My cat, Crowley, is a Maine Coon. He's HUGE. He's with my parents and pretty much roams the countryside and a huge garden with a goldfish pond. He's the king of the fake jungle out there. I wouldn't dare take him away from that, but I do miss having a cat.

No license required to own in the US, but a small, easily-paid for license (like $50 and a sloppy visit from a lazy inspector) is required to be a hobby breeder. But in some states, it's illegal. The states change all the time... some idiots think the glider could be an "invasive breed" like a snake, but like with ferrets, they are just not equipped to survive outside of domesticity in the US. They are wild in Australia, but here, the minute the escape your home, it's sadly a death sentence. Same with ferrets.

Sad. I've seen pictures and all, someone I know on Second Live is Welsh but over there it's illegal to own them and she wants one so bad. With how small they are and the kind of food you mentioned I assumed they wouldn't live too long if they managed to get outside on their own. I think if I ever got one I'd have a small leash and collar custom made, maybe attachable to a collar for myself that way I don't have to be scared I'd ever drop the leash by accident. I did it in my teen years when I had a mexican red knee. I'd stroll around town or the store with Lillith on my shoulder, freaked the hell out of the girls but most people didn't really know she was there until she moved. Oh man, let me tell you people really jump and run over things like that. Buddy of mine isn't scared of spiders but he ran flat into tree once because he didn't know what the hell it was, all he saw was movement and bolted. Broke his nose and got a fat lip too. I cried until I couldn't breathe no more.

A leash/harness doesn't work with gliders the way it does with ferrets or rodents, because of their patagium (the gliding membrane). They're too small for a collar and leash, and a harness suppresses their ability to glide, so they may try to jump and it's pretty much like if we tried to jump off a 20 foot cliff. It's not safe to tempt them to jump like that. It's in their nature, so they'll do it, but with a harness they can't open their membrane and they'll fall like a stone. So most take their gliders out without any restraints, if they take them out at all.

They're designed to fly and glide. What most glider owners do is spend a year or two bonding with the glider so that, if they want to take them outside, the glider will not want to venture far from their human/tree. It's weird, but it's just how they work. If you bond with a glider for several years, you can take them out and not worry about them bailing on you. But you still have to account for a weird situation in which they might become frightened and fly away, but I mean, would you take a bird with unclipped wings into public, even if it loved you? Many do, but there's always that small chance that they may get scared and fly away, and that's not a situation I'd want to subject my babies to.

I hear you on that. I'd rather just keep them indoors where I know it's safe, and where I can make sure nothing can hurt them. They're too cute to loose especially since it'd mean they'll wind up dead. I don't really have the heart to be mean to animals, unless bitten of course. Friend's dog bit me on the arm one time when I reached out to pet him and I punched him dead in the nose. It was reflex mostly, I as scared to death he'd lock on or break it in half. Needless to say I avoid Scooter now. Like the plaaaaague.

Echo has nipped me a little bit hard on my forearm, but I knew she was just testing me -- trying to see how much I'd let her pull before I punished her. My only punishments are blowing lightly on her face and shaking her off. I wouldn't dare try to harm her or scare her, because it'd only set me back. Of course, her bites aren't like dog bites. Her bites are "this is my human tree, and I'm not sure how high above her I am. Let's see how much she'll let me do before I get punished." Some dogs are like this, some aren't.

A dog that bites in response to gentle petting has serious issues and shouldn't just be met with aggressive violence (of course it isn't your fault if it's reflex... I'd react the same way, though I'd follow it up with reinforcement)... something tells me your friend wasn't caring for that dog properly.

Hopefully you can patch it up with Scooter... hopefully he was just having a bad day. A good dog doesn't just bite a kind person for no reason.

Hopefully I'm not stepping out of line here, but... when I was visiting my breeder to pick up Echo and Topher, her neighbor had a big-ass dog that broke free of her leash just as we were walking up the walkway. I know that dogs will chase you and attack you if you run, but will react with curiosity and kindness if you don't. She charged at us full-throttle out of nowhere, and I froze and didn't look her in the eyes. I spoke in a kind voice, "Hey, there! Are you okay? You're barking really loudly! Are you scared?" She went from "ready to bite our faces off" to bowing at our feet and waiting for a tummy-pet just from that... if I'd freaked out and ran I probably would have ended up in the hospital. If only other animals were so easy to understand!

The pooch is a rescued one. His mother will hit the shelters now and then to pick up whatever she wants and care for it until a permanent home is found, more or less help the shelters so they have more room when there's animals in there who really don't need too much help medically. So if there was any mistreatment it had to come from whoever used to own it. I should of known better then to pet an animal like that, rescued, but like I said I love animals. That and it didn't look all mean and snarly when it got close. I'm too used to animals getting close to humans when they want attention, it was the first time i've ever really been scared or attacked like that.

Trust me I'd never intionally punch or kick at a dog. To hell with that, it triggers a feral response and makes the situation worse depending on the breed and how it's been treated. Granted it does make some back down but overall it's a bad decision to make. I guess it was my " oh shit " button and rather than climb up the back of the couch I did what I thought would work. I bought him a sirloin from Outback, was there a few days later for another friend's birthday, to make it up. This time I didn't get too close. Put the steak in it's dish and walked on out the house. Yes I was smart and told them no seasonings or anything. But I felt really bad and had to do something, I know animals can't appreciate steaks or property like we can but I figured no one had done it before so maybe it'd earn me some forgiveness.

that was incredibly, incredibly sweet of you. hopefully that puppy will find some peace in this life. rescues are an incredibly tough undertaking, but the reward in helping one find peace is one of the few things that i find truly rewarding about living life on this planet. we're all in this together, y'know? sounds hippie of me, but the reality is, we're all animals here, and our lives are all very short, and even though i'm actually NOT a furry, i'm an atheist, and i see animals like dogs and cats as very very similar to the human race, so i respect their trip on earth as much as i respect my own. it can't be easy being a dog or cat. not at all. i hope scooter finds his peace here.

Ditto here on beliefs. I think animals have as much as right to live and be treated well as we do, I don't know what happens when we die but I pretty much always assumed we all end up in the same place. In some ways I think along the lines of an Earth Spirit or some kind of in between world, no offense to you people out there who are religious but it takes more then a book to convince me anything exists. Rescued animals are the ones I cry over. I don't see how people could be so cruel and heartless, the dog I have now ( and have had since I was 15 or 16 ) was a stray we took in. More or less even after returning him to his home he'd wander back to us, when the owners moved they left him there. He wound up on our porch one rainy night and voila ... Rags has had love, warmth, and food ever since. If anyone so much as walks by my room the little thing goes ballistic, back when I had a bed that sat off the floor he'd grab a sock or whatever clothes I had on the floor and drag it under the bed growling to hell and back. I think he loves me. xD

I'm an atheist, again, so I believe, honestly, that my life on earth is just as important as the life of my sugar gliders or my dog. I don't have to have an "all dogs go to heaven" mentality to feel that, if I have any right to be here, so do they.

It honestly destroys me to see that so many people are so cruel to animals. And I don't want to get into religious griping here, but I honestly wonder sometimes -- I mean I wold argue that .... well maybe I wouldn't... but I know a lot of Christians who think animals don't have souls, that they were put on this earth to be tools and food. So I can't help but think that maybe there are those of us who are either pagan or agnostic or atheist who respect animals even more than those who are strongly religious do.

All I know is that I have empathy, and animals like dogs and cats have the ability to feel terror, sadness, happiness. That's enough for me.

Dogs are amazing. We may not be able to understand them 100%, and I may not believe in souls for either humans or dogs, but what I do know is that animals of all kinds (us included) have feelings and ideas and thoughts, and I would never, NEVER want to let a dog suffer, just as I would never let a child suffer. It's so hard to turn away from an animal in pain. I really don't see any difference between animals and humans, and I guess that's why I find it so funny that I'm not really a furry. I am very happy being a human. I love my shape, my form, my spirit, but it's really a strange turnabout that I'm not taking in animals left and right, because I would if I could. I think they have every right to happiness and peace as we do. I'd be an animal hoarder if I had even a fraction less sense than I have now.

Bawh reading this is only testament to why I'm going to miss my own gliders when I have to rehome them next week. :< They do the exact same things. What silly little creatures.

I feel for you! I hope you're able to communicate with the person who is going to take them in. You are a very brave, sweet person for finding them a loving home. Some people are not that kind. I am sure you're doing the right thing, and I'm sorry that you'll have to give them up. I had to re-home my ferrets, but they are SO happy that I am really glad I did it.

I have found them a great home I believe! She has a colony of 5 herself and has plans to make an entire glider play room so I know my fuzzies will be very happy and safe with her. It makes me feel better but at the same time, nothing could really ease having to part with my "kids". She promises to send pictures and updates though! Believe you me, before I found her, I was literally waking up in panic attacks about not having found a good home for them. I only wish the "perfect" place we found would have allowed pets. :<

I understand what you're going through.. I've unfortunately always been the type who would rather try to hide her babies and commit some serious deceit rather than foist her kids off onto other people.... maybe wrong, but it's never set me the wrong way before. I lived in a place that didn't even allow hamsters, but I was like, fuck that. I kept my hamster, and even had maintenance guys come in who never started any crap. They don't care. They just show up and do what they have to do.

But the fact that you don't want to risk putting them in harm's way is admirable. Your surrogate parent has a colony and with any luck she'll be able to put them into quarantine and introduce your babies into a big, happy family if all goes well. That's something even I couldn't manage in my own situation! I hope everything works out for you. I'd honestly love a colony for Topher and Echo if I could manage it, but it's just not in the cards right now. MAybe in 10 years. :D I don't have the funds for that kind of emergency vet funding right now.

Oh believe me I'm tempted to smuggle them... but the thing is if they find out and kick us out, we will have nowhere to go. We were SO lucky to even snag this townhouse as rentable housing where I'm moving is hard to come by. It is a military town and as such, everything of decent size is taken. After my boy snagged the first viewing and immediately took the place, the receptionist for the property managers literally had to call and cancel 14 viewings on the townhouse that day. The town refuses to allow more rentable housing to be built and yet we were almost forced to live in two separate shitty one bedroom apartments. Because of that, I honestly cannot risk us not having a home and consequently, them not having a home.

It is much better to take your time to find a loving, trustworthy home now... than to get kicked out and scramble to either find a new home for you and your pets... or have to quickly rehome to someone who may not be so good towards them out of desperation.


Blargh! At least I know they will be happy and I know once I stop being sad about having to rehome them, I will be happy too. So I guess it works out for all of us in the end anyway.

I understand. Strict housing, and you want to be sure your babies are safe and warm. It's really admirable, and I applaud you. Hopefully you can still come and visit, and I'm sure the person who is rehoming them for you understands the pain you're going through. *hugs*

That's great to hear. Have you tried spending time with them in your tent like you said you might to help you with your anxiousness?

<3 I am buying a new set of "tent clothes" and thick cotton gloves so that I can handle them and get over my own fears while they get over whatever reservations they may have of me. I think they know I'm the provider but I scare them a little; likewise, I adore them but am afraid of the damage they can do if they don't trust me. We're still in that wobbly stage. Once I have my gear I'll take them into the tent. Now that I've abandoned my lovely window coverings and they're getting natural sunlight (my own fault for not realizing how important that was), they're moving towards a normal sleeping schedule, so I can grab them for the tent during their sleep when they won't protest too much.

That is great progress! Congrats!

I also have "bonding potion" which I spray on my hands, their pouches, and will spray on my gloves when I handle them. it's just herbal stuff, but it makes them very calm and happy. it's a godsend.

I'm glad you found other ways to help get closer to them.

ugguu! <3 gliders! <3