I've had Milk Dud for over a year now. She was relinquished to me by her owner who no longer wanted her. I only spoke to the woman on the phone and never met her. She wasn't even there when I drove all the way to Maryland to get Milk Dud.
What I do know is that Milk Dud was 4 years old and had never, ever seen another glider. She had never had tent time, play time or ever bonded with any person. There was no effort ever put into teaching her to trust any human being.
She was fed cat food and had only some chew toys and a nesting box and a very small silent spinner in her cage. She was missing part of her ear but had never seen a Vet.
This glider was and still is one of my challenges here. After I got her, took her to the Vet, changed her diet and went through the 30 day quarantine I introduced her to Luna whom I had literally SAVED from a pet store. (her story is in my journal)
Luna is still no luck with bonding as of yet but I've worked with both her and Milk Dud daily to gain their trust.
As I said before sometimes it just takes baby steps and they have been glider size baby steps. I need to get Milk Dud to trust my hand which literally took months. I could not put my hand in her pouch at all. I would get attacked and she stood her ground.
Over these past 18 months I have used a soft tone in talking to her everyday in her cage, tent and bathroom time in small time limits, and treats to gain her trust. Taking her and Luna and Jack in the pouch out of the cage and rubbing the outside of it and then putting my hand in the pouch to get a soft pet and touch and using treats fed in the pouch.
My ultimate goal was that I wanted her to come to me and have worked daily on trying to accomplish this task. This to me is the true voice of trust.
She would never come to the front of the cage to take a treat and sometimes I just had to leave it somewhere for her. Then she would take it from my fingers in the cage once I showed her I no longer was just going to leave it for her. Finally I could get her to come to the front of the cage door looking for a treat. When she would be awake at night she finally got to the point where she would come to the front of the cage just if I walked by looking for her treat but she would never venture out the cage door.
Over the last few months I've not allowed her to have a treat unless she would, on her own using the treat as bait climb on my hand to get it. She began doing this just at the cage door. Then I would use the treat to get her to climb up my arm almost to my shoulder in front of the cage door before I gave her the treat. She would take it and immediately turn around and head back for the cage but I was so proud of the fact that she would even venture out.
Finally tonight for the very first time she climbed out the door, onto my arm and sat on my arm in the kitchen, no where near her cage and ate her treat being ever so cautious and curious about her surroundings. She did not run but she was quite nervous. After she was done I calmly walked her back to her cage and let her calmly get back in. Then I did it again and after she was done with her treat this time she climbed on my shoulder and just sat there looking around.
I am so very proud of my little Milk Dud and can hardly believe how far we've come. I know 18 months seems like an awful long time to gain so little trust when some have gliders that will sleep in there hands but to me and Milk Dud this is a miracle of baby steps and patience and I am so very proud of my sweet little girl.
Forced trust at play time is wonderful in a tent or bathroom but to actually have my sweet girl come to me is something I can hardly describe after so many months of working with her to show her I mean her no harm.
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