"Wet Method" is reference to a way of merging unrelated sugar gliders. The method was designed to offer an immediate and safer merging by bypassing their natural instinct to attack or dominate the unknown invader and instead cause them to fixate on their own self. Traditional methods of merging often fail with fighting, drawing blood, amputating tails, animals chasing each other around a cage...
Method
In short, the animal(s) are all heavily wetted with warm water, the introduction is made amidst the chaos while everyone is wet, and the wet smell and discomfort of being wet overloads their senses and essentially forces all of the animals to fixate on themselves and not each other. The animals simply go to grooming and try to seek safety from getting further wet. One can choose to keep them smelling of wet for an extended amount of time to increase the odds of a successful merging.
The way I have done this in the past is to keep the introduced animals in a small cage while wet, give them no place to hide or to protect, let them get familiar with the extra body(s) in the cage, give time for them to tire over the fussing of being wet and then eventually present a pouch where they will all very happily scamper into and come together. In the pouch while they are all still wet, their scents will merge, they will begin to groom each other, and by the time they all dry out, you have gotten past the immense hurdle of scent and the merging has a high possibility of becoming a success.
A wet sugar glider is fine. There is absolutely nothing wrong with getting an animal wet. It actually appears to happen in nature on occasion. The impulse to seek safety and to groom are much stronger than the impulse to attack a new scent sugar glider.
When I posted on this method, it was after a successful merging of 7 misfit rescue boys. Others have used this method as well either with animals they could not previously merge or just to be able to do it quickly or safely.
Traditional merging techniques will take a very long time and can easily result in vicious attacks immediately, during or even later. During traditional mergings, a single bite on a tail bone can destroy it and force an amputation. A single tear in the skin can lead to death and minimally force the animal to be pulled into a hospital cage with ecollar or ejacket for a month.
The wet concept simply allows them to be fixated on something other than the new smell, and the wetness allows their scents to merge to where they cannot even tell who the new arrival is.
SEE ALSO:
And then there were seven - The original wet method primer
Scent Mask
Merging the boys
Wet intro video
Wet Method Works on Darla and Dizzy
Ginger and Clyde come together
Musings on the infamous wet method
Vet feedback on the wet method
Traditional introduction techniques
Introduction observations
Implementing a scent mask
Wet method flame
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