In Reply to: Sad, lonely depressed glider needs a friend posted by Stephen on December 19, 1999 at 16:50:54:

: I've got a single male sugar glider that has become depressed. I blame it on the fact that i am usually too busy to play with him and stuff but he is somewhat tame. I've build him a bigger cage and started playing with him more and handling him more but i've been thinking about getting him a companion sugar glider and I am confused on what sex to get for my male. I've come up with three senarios

: get another male
: pros: no babies to worry about
: cons: Don't want to have two males in the evening and wake up with only one male left. I'm not sure how rough they would play with each other

: get a female
: pros: make mine really happy
: cons: I'm not ready for breeding them yet and i don't know what to do with the babies

: get a female and nueter my male
: pros: no babies, and they won't tear each other apart
: cons: pretty sure that it would expensive to get him nuetered and as a fellow male, i can't do that to him.

: If anyone has any other ideas on what i should do, i'm open to suggestions and comments

: thanks
: Stephen

i had the same problem. I finally decided on a female cos that is what god brought along. she is 4 months and it took a week to get her and my male (1 year old) together. when you add to the family it takes two cages and alot of pouch switching, to get them used to the others scents. my male was eager from the get go to mix but the female was a little "shy" I plan on nuetering in the future after a litter or two. Terry of sugarglider.com told me a young male that hasn't developed dominance yet would have worked also. If you get a young male he will be "submissive" to the older one and the older one will nuture him (per terry,) I have no experience with this sort of thing. I do know that my male is much happier to have a friend in his empty cage. it changed his out look on life!!! good luck

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