In Reply to: New owner needs help! posted by Kent Officer on May 25, 1999 at 19:54:46:

: Hi,
: We just adopted a female sugar glider from a young couple that was moving and had to sell her. They bought her at a pet shop a couple of months ago and I don't believe spent much time taming her.

~~Welcome to my world:) My SG was being kept by a pet store that might as well have been "The Three Billy Goats Gruff!"

I know very little about gliders,however,have learned some already throught this forum. I have never seen one of these pets except at the store in a cage, so I am unsure of how tame they become.

~~Please do your best to research them, they are an animal that requires a lot of knowledge about the species...(diet/handling...etc.) Caroline MacPherson is not a Glider Goddess or anything, she is human, but she has a pretty comprehensive book and web page.
www.pygmypets.com

When I take her out of the cage she will jump away and run off and hide. Do they ever become tame enough that they will come to you and not run away?

~~Yes they do, some people have taught their's to glide to them on command..you will find different stories on different web pages. Some People train their Gliders to be "AE Gliders," (American Express) because they "don't leave home without them" To do this though you need to have them truly bonded to you, and that requires an incredible amount of patience! Bourbon has a great site on this-
www.angelfire.com/nb/sugarglider/bonding.aspl
The page is especially good if the glider that you are trying to "pouch tame" etc. is an older glider. (Young works very well too) Once they are tamed/bonded to you they are very affectionate. Unless they have a shy personality, they are not very skittish either, positive reinforcement is key, always be nice to him/her.

What does pouch taming mean?

"Pouch taming" is the act of training your glider to ride in your pouch of choice or pocket (please be very careful and do not take your pet outside until you have researched and trained your SG to the furthest extent, they may get frightened, run off into the trees...get eaten..anything)
Betsy has a great site on pouches you can order, or you can make your own.. she is at www.betsycc.com

Since I am not nocturnal(ha), is it alright to wake her up during the day to play with her and "tame" her?

~~Waking them up during the day is fine for play time, but please do allow them to sleep, they need their rest. When you are just beginning it can be nice to simply wake them up gently throughout the day and feed them (baby food/honey) from your fingers. Letting them lick it off can help them to better get to know your scent. Talking to them so that they associate your scent and voice with treats is very helpful! Again, Bourbon has a really nice site on this sort of thing:)

I seemed to have gone off on a tangent answering questions..it was fun though, I think I like to because it makes me feel I am getting somewhere..lol:)
hope I didn't get too out of control....
Mandy and Pele:)

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