I sat squished between my two brothers as a cold wind whipped the trees outside of our van. I was a bundle of nerves and excitement. The day had finally arrived when I would bring home my two new babies!
A couple months earlier, I had stumbled across an ad for two sugar gliders who needed a new home. On impulse, I sent the young woman an email asking for more information about them. She sent some pictures and I fell in love instantly.
I hadn’t been planning on getting more sugar gliders. I was happy with Ink and Dreamer. We had formed a tight bond and I didn’t want to interrupt that by adding more gliders. However, at the time, Dreamer was really struggling with illness and in the back of my mind, I was wondered, “If she dies, what will Ink do? He’ll be completely alone and I’ll be scrambling to find him a friend.”
So as I asked for more information on the glider ad, I was half thinking that it would be a good idea to have at least one more glider just in case either Ink or Dreamer died young. That way the other wouldn’t be left alone.
Before I knew it, we were making plans to meet and pick up my gliders. I was nervous about how they would bond with me, but not overly concerned. After all, how hard could it be?
Alas, I was young and oblivious to the ways of gliders. XD
When I first took the bonding pouch from their previous owner, I felt their warm little bodies snuggled inside. They didn’t crab. I was thrilled! This would be far easier than I thought. They’d bond instantly and it would only be a couple months before all four gliders would live happily together.
Well.
When I got them home, I quickly realized that they had some serious trust issues. Ilona loved people. Very much. The night after I brought them home, I opened the cage and she came right to me and jumped on my arm. I was elated! Until the biting started.
Some gliders bite because they’re bored or because you taste good or for no reason at all. Ilona, however, was biting mainly out of fear. Her constant chewing on toys ceased after getting a wheel, but the attacks on my fingers didn’t.
She was an incredibly sweet glider, but any time I moved faster than a snail, she would fly into a panic and bite hard. This went on for months and months and I got more and more frustrated.
Yiska, on the other hand, was not aggressive in the least. No, he was petrified of humans. We don’t know if this was because he wasn’t socialized enough as a joey or if there was abuse or other such things. However, for the first few months, he stayed as far away from me as he possibly could.
His cage was his safe place and he refused to leave it. Night after night, I would stand with my arm in the cage and wait for him to come and investigate me. It took two weeks before he got up enough courage to touch my arm with his little paws – and only for a moment before dashing off again.
So there I was, wondering if I had made a great mistake in taking in two rehome gliders who were so unlike my sweet, gentle, trusting Ink and Dreamer.
That’s when the gardening gloves arrived.
Mama bought me a pair of gardening gloves to protect my fingers from Ilona’s biting. I didn’t think that they’d do much good, but I tried them anyway and was amazed by the results.
Ilona still bit my fingers through the gloves, but because it didn’t hurt, I wasn’t constantly on edge or stressed. That set her more at ease and she stopped biting as much. We learned to respect each other’s boundaries and to learn to trust that we weren’t out to hurt each other. She’s come a long, long way in the past few months. She’ll never be as tightly bonded to me as Ink is or Dreamer was, but she’s learning to trust people and we’re making progress.
She loves to jump onto my arm and then press her back hard into my stomach and rub herself all over me. XD It’s so adorable. And while she’s still very quick to bite when she feels threatened in any way (it doesn’t take much), she is becoming more tolerant of movement on my part.
Yiska also responded very well to the gardening loves. I was really surprised. He was scared of my bare hands, but for some reason when they are covered by the gloves, he was okay. He has come so far since I first got him. It’s been incredibly slow progress, but any progress is better than none. I’m really proud of him for learning to trust me and for being brave.
As I mentioned earlier, the first months were spent trying to get him comfortable enough to leave the safety of the cage to step onto my arm. This was excruciatingly slow. If I stood perfectly still, he would venture out onto my forearm. But if I moved at all he would jerk back and flee to his cage. He never ventured closer to my shoulders and never wanted to explore the room.
However, in January 2022, it was like something clicked in his mind and he realized that I was a safe friend. He started venturing up my shoulder and would even let me move slowly while he was on me. Instead of hiding in the cage during play time, he spent most of that time on my shoulder or arm. In the next couple months, his confidence in me grew. Now he comes out of his pouch every night during play time and comes right to my arm. He is still uneasy when it comes to people in general, but he’s learning.
He is so much more confident and so much less jumpy in his own cage. When I first got him, he’d run down to the food bowl, grab a piece of vegetable and then dart back to the darkest part of the cage. But now he sits and eats at the bowl even when other people are in the room. He still doesn’t like to leave the cage unless it is to come to me, but he’s gaining a little more confidence and has explored the floor around his cage a few times.
In March, I introduced Yiska and Ilona to Ink. I’m so thankful that I had them and that after Dreamer died, Ink didn’t have to be alone. The introductions went fairly well and seemed to have benefited everyone. Yiska continues to become less and less shy. Ilona’s biting has gone down. And, wonder of wonders, we’ve been able to say farewell to the gloves!
After they got with Ink, I decided to try again to play with them barehanded. I was really nervous about it, but it went so well. Ilona has stopped (mostly) biting my fingers and while Yiska still doesn’t like my hand, he will tolerate stepping over it to get to my arm. XD
So here I am, one year later. Taking in these gliders has not been what I expected at all. However, I am so glad that I got them. We’ve got a long way to go in trust building, but we’ve made a lot of progress. They are sweet little gliders and it is such a blessing to have them. ❤
~Hattush
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