Hey everyone!

My husband and I got an adolecsent male glider about 3 months ago and he still hasn't bonded to us. Also, we are quite worried about him because he is losing hair both on his tail and around his eyes. I am assuming it is because of stress and loneliness seeing as he hasn't bonded to us yet and doesn't have a cage mate. My question would be that is it possible to have success keeping a single glider if we can bond with him effectively? Also, could he have other things affecting his hair loss besides stress? and thirdly, if someone has been in a similar situation and had success bonding, what tactics did you use? we don't want to give up and give him away to another glider owner, but we are not sure what to do for him! His name is Sebastian by the way and we absolutely love him, it just seems that he is still quite scared of us. Now I can get him to take treats from my hand, and sometimes he will sit on my hand while he eats the treat, but if I move my hand at all he jumps right off. he will reluctantly let me pet him if he is in his pouch (and especially if I give him a treat). And once in a while he will climb out onto my lap for a couple minutes... But most of the time he just runs away and starts playing in the room and ignores us unless we have food... His diet is mainly a mix of fruits and vegetables with honey and plain yogurt as treats. We try to buy him meal worms but haven't been consistent with this and sometimes he doesn't have bugs in his diet for a couple weeks...

You should probably post this on the actual Glider gossip forum. I don't think many people look at the gliderpedia these days.

If you haven't fixed your problem by now, I'd advise you to get him a companion - you must have heard sugar gliders are sociable animals, and although it isn't always absolutely necessary, it's probably easier to get him a companion. You should try to get him some more protein and a bit more of a balanced diet as well. We only got our ones around 1 or 2 days ago, but they seem to like being fed bits of chicken and egg, and they stop crabbing if I waft food or treats in front of them. They just grab them and calm down. If you've got a safe, small room where he can't escape, run away or hide from you easily, you can let him crawl around there with your supervision, and feed him treats by hand so he associates you with good things. Talk to him in a low, calm and soft voice and gently stroke him when possible. I wish you the best of luck with Sebastian!

If you haven't found an answer to this yet--

He definitely needs a balanced diet. Try to get him on HPW (CritterLove) or BML. These are commonly recommended in this forum. It could definitely be food causing hair loss, but I recommend a trip to the vets to see if he has anything else -- parasites can cause hair loss too, so be sure to do two or three fecal exams (some exams will be negative even if there's parasites, so multiple exams are needed).

I have a single glider but he's been single all his life with no problems. He bonded with me in 6-7 months and all I did was keep him in his pouch a lot, pet him a lot, talk to him keep my hand in the pouch while he slept, and hand fed him. He doesn't like toys so I never did out of cage play time. He's food motivated so hand feeding him helped a lot.

That being said, a second glider absolutely helps and is usually better than a lone glider. Some gliders need a buddy, some don't, but they're always happier with a friend.

If you haven't found an answer to this yet--

He definitely needs a balanced diet. Try to get him on HPW (CritterLove) or BML. These are commonly recommended in this forum. It could definitely be food causing hair loss, but I recommend a trip to the vets to see if he has anything else -- parasites can cause hair loss too, so be sure to do two or three fecal exams (some exams will be negative even if there's parasites, so multiple exams are needed).

I have a single glider but he's been single all his life with no problems. He bonded with me in 6-7 months and all I did was keep him in his pouch a lot, pet him a lot, talk to him keep my hand in the pouch while he slept, and hand fed him. He doesn't like toys so I never did out of cage play time. He's food motivated so hand feeding him helped a lot.

That being said, a second glider absolutely helps and is usually better than a lone glider. Some gliders need a buddy, some don't, but they're always happier with a friend.

I just saw this and I'm not sure how things are going but I have a single male glider as well and we are pretty bonded.... but had a bit of trouble with him pulling the hair out of his tail as well my vet suggested these pheromones (we didn't end up using them) so if you Can talk to your vet about it. What we did was got him a lot of new toys, a small hanging pouch for sleeping.... but I just started taking him in his bonding pouch everywhere I could. I would just put it under my sweatshirt I take him to school,work the store everywhere no one knows he is there. When I don't have him my husband does we just make sure he has an Apple slice or something so if he get thirsty or hungry. The best is to have another glider for sure, but if you don't just make sure you spend as much time with him as you can. Also is your little guy neutered? Cause I think that will calm him as well. Good luck I hope all is well!