Okay so I haven't personally ever noticed a difference but a friend of mine asked me if there's any noticeable scent difference between a neutered male and a female. Especially in terms of scent marking. Anyone have any ideas? I told her I couldn't tell a difference at all but maybe there's others out there that may have so I figured I'd ask.

my male is neutered so i dont smell him at all but my female if you make her mad she can smell like a skunk LOL :)

To me, neutered males and females smell mostly the same. Unneutered males, well...that's a whole other subject!

I'm with the others - I don't think neutered male and female smell much different at all. Neither is near as ripe as an unneutered male. LOL

Nothing is as great as having a house that smells of stinky man glider. ;)

My breeding pair both smell good .... i mean the only thing that smells is poop but i just clean it every day so my cage smells good

lol yeah I'm in the same boat I can't tell a difference but she's insisting there must be some kinda difference especially when scent marking. I told her I haven't noticed anything and she called me ignorant. Oh well. =p

I do notice a difference between my female and neutered male scents especially when marking. I can usually pinpoint which glider it is as well. lol Each of my gliders have their own scents.

Who's worse in your opinion your male or female? Because I can't tell a difference with mine but if you can tell I can at least give her an opinion she's waiting for!

In my opinion, the male scent is a tad stronger than the female and a lot more muskier if that makes sense. I do know of one time one of the gliders gave off the "skunky" scent, but I can honestly tell ya I don't know if it was the male or female.

Darn - I was hoping a good neutering would get rid of that skunky scent.

Neutering definitely gets rid of a ton of scent. I just notice a slight smell from my neutered males when they mark.

Neutering will get rid of the musky scent of the sternal and frontal glands, but not all of the odors that gliders produce...

There are nine specialized glands that produce scents in sugar gliders:

1. [males] A sternal (chest) gland (musky)
2. [males and females] A pair of anal glands producing a white emulsion (acid smell)
3. [males and females] A second pair of anal glands secrete a clear viscid fluid
4. [females] sebaceous gland in the pouch (post-oestrous attractant)
5. [males and females] saliva (pheromones)
6. [males] frontal gland (top of head)
7. [males] proctodaeal gland (posterior alimentary canal)
8. [males and females] gland behind the ears
9. [males and females] inner angle of the eye

In addition to these glands, there is of course urine that both males and females use to mark territory.

Besides the Sternal gland in fertile males, both saliva and urine are used copiously by both males and females to mark territory.

The dominant scents are shown on this chart, adapted from the oft-quoted Schultze-Westrum study of 1965:




References:

Smith, M. "Peraurus Breviceps," Mammalian Species, no. 30, pp. 1-5, The American Society of Mammalogists, June 13, 1973.

Kean, R., "Behaviour and Territorialism in Trichosurus Vulpecula (Marsupialia)," Forest Research Institute, N.S. Forest Service, Wellington, Proceedings of the New Zealand Ecological Society
Volume: 14; Pages: 71-78, 1967.

Schultze-Westrum, T.G.; "Innerartliche Verstandigungdurch Dufte beim Glietbeutler Petaurus breviceps papuanus (Marsupialia, Phalangeridae) Z. Vergleich. Physiol. 50:151-220; 1965.

Schultze-Westrum, T.G.; "Social communication by chemical signals in flying phalangers (Petaurus breviceps papuanus)"; Pp. 269-277, in Olfaction and taste (C. Pfaffman, ed.) Rockefeller University Press, New York; 1969.

Wilson, E.O.; "Sociobiology, The New Synthesis," p. 205, 206, Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-00089-7, (c) 1975.

Thank you so much Ed! You always come to the rescue with everything from diet, intro's to odd questions such as these! =)

Wow - good info :-)