Hello there, new here! :)

Hello, new here from West Virginia!

My name is Sarah. As you can tell with my username {which I don't know how to change} lol. I found this forum through Facebook, looking for sugar glider pages to 'like' and after reading a few posts this place seemed to have very friendly users so I decided to join. I mistakenly registered using the 'log-in through Facebook' feature thinking it was a nice little short cut until I realized it gave me a weird username, I can't remember if it gave me the option to make a more creative one or not, I'd rather not use my full name, lol but if I'm stuck with it I guess it will have to do! (PLEASE, if someone knows a way to change it without re-registering, that would be nice if they'd share the secret.. )

I might be the youngest user here, not sure if I am or not, I will be 22 next month

I have a breeding pair of sugar gliders. Cuppy (F) and Poppy (M). They have two 7 week OOP joeys as we speak, a boy and girl, and everything has went so well I plan to continue breeding. The twins have been my first joeys ever, so this has been a very exciting experience. My gliders have become such a passion in my life, or should I say obsession? I hope to make some new friends here, as where I live sugar gliders are often times unheard of, which is one of the reasons I chose to breed. Another reason is that I hope other people in my area will become more aware of the appropriate care they need and dedication along with the added benefits of having the extraordinary chance to love these wonderful animals and get to know them the way I have, so to be here with many people alike, its quite comforting!
I also have 2 cats Twiley & George, My fancy hooded rat- Piper, hairless rat- Freak, and my minpin [& faithful companion of 6 years] Sadie all whom I love dearly!
I have a whole facebook page dedicated to my gliders, if anyone would like to check them out!
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Glad to be here!

Hello! Welcome to the forum! This is a great forum! lots of very nice people. No your not the youngest I am pretty sure there are a few kids on here.

Just out of curoisty do your gliders have lineage?? If not, are to very sure they are not relatated? These are a few things you will be asked on any of the forum just because there is to high a change of inbreeding gliders that don't have lineage because most of them come from mill breeders.

Love the names by the way!

No, I don't have linage or any kind of papers on either of them. I bought my first glider, my female, at a pet store in VA when she was 4 months OOP at the time and they didn't have any information on her from the breeder she came from southern VA. And about three weeks later, I got my Male who was two years old at the time when I bought him from a lady in West Virginia who said he had another previous owner before her from someone from Critter Love. Don't know if you hear of them? But the lady I got him from didn't have papers on linage for him either, because she just bought him as a pet with no intentions to breed him. She didn't think she'd have to get rid of him but ended up moving to a smaller apartment than didn't allow pets. I thought about that for a while, while I kept them separated until appropriate breeding age, and considered the downfall of not having any information on them... But, I thought that I'd give it a first try and see if their babies had something wrong with them and if they did, I'd keep them and then get my male fixed. But both of the joeys appear to be healthy without abnormalities/defects and are growing. I'm not sure how I'd ever track down their information, But I thought since there was an age difference they wouldn't have a connection.. Maybe I was wrong for going through with it, But coming in contact with a personal breeder around my area was hard to find. :/

lol don't feel bad! None near me either!

All of mine are rescues too. My first pair are unaltered but have never had babies. I rescued another pair same thing intact male but they were breeding. THye came with a 4 week oop female joey. Daddy will be fixed on the 9th and they just had a little boy come ooop about 2 weeks ago. They make very cute babies but they breed fast! lol

I plan on breeding one day but not yet. I already have a couple of breeders on my list that i will contact when I am ready.

Also wanted to let you know that they may look ok on the outside but that doesn't mean there isn't something wrong on the inside. I don't think I could have been as brave as you and done the lets see what happens. I have 1 sick maybe end up special needs glider and it is heartbreaking to see him like this. He is a rescue that wasjust dumped on me.

I am not trying to be mean or degradeing ar anything like that. Just try to help. It is extreamly frowned upon to breed unknowed gliders and sell them. But you also have access to all kids of good breeders on the site that can give you info on breeding and lineage!

i dont know much about the FB log in thing but it would explain why a lot of people register with their real names lol. there is a way to change your name i think. ill have to ask kozi about it.
if you go to the general chat section we have an age thread. if you have any questions or suggestions or anything just ask/post.

Skyfire,

Thats very heart warming that they all were rescues! I think rescue/adopted gliders are wonderful; even though I didn't get to start bonding with Cuppy at the initial bonding age, she still has grown up to be such a sweet glider. Poppy was pretty chill when I got him, and that hasn't changed about him; he likes anyone! (especially people who offer him food). I am planning on getting another breeding female eventually, maybe in a year or two, from a breeder that I met through facebook after I had joeys, that happens to live not too far from me that does have linage on her gliders. I had a higher demand for joeys than expected, I guess since my area does not ever have any breeders in the paper advertising joeys.
I know breeding without lineage is a downfall, and terribly misused. It's sad that puppy mill breeding isn't the only mill breeding that I've heard of; its even more disgusting how the people working for pocket pets [with their well rehearsed lines] could even have the heart to sell their gliders with misinformation on their cage and diet!!! I do have to admit, that I didn't know what a glider was until they showed up at the mall; but more than most people I decided to go home and do some homework on them, so glad I did because I would have ended up with a very ill glider soon afterwards. But that still doesn't save those unfortunate gliders that do end up going home with people who trust pocket pets; If it wasn't possible for a human to fall in love with a sugar glider at first sight, maybe we'd be able save them all from company's like that!!
Taking a chance wasn't my best choice, I admit, and I understand that you are not trying to mean! It's very important to voice your opinion on a matter that needs to be addressed. Sugar gliders deserve to have a normal life; a long-lived healthy one, at that! But even more so, they deserve owners like you to protect & love them, and also guide other suggie owners in the right direction. I guess it was a more hopeful moment; hoping I could have joeys and one day tell their owners the true information on their care and steer them in the right direction as well.

Well thats another good thing about gliders there is no actual "bonding" age! I think it is easier to bond with an adult that has been handled then to bond with a joey who just got taking away from their parents and put in a new cage now home all new smells and may not have been handled at all. All af mine are bonding quite nicely. My second set of adults are bonding faster then my first set. I am glad you did find a breeder near you. I am confused on how to breed lineage glider right now. You would suggest buddying up with a experianced breeder to show you the ropes and how to pair your breeder. I am only just researching into that area.

I agree that all mill breeder are discusting. But I cant blame their employees for doing their job. Gliders are not common and they may just now know that what they were taught was wrong info and nothing madethem think otherwise so they didn't do any research about it or they just don't care!

Lol dont feel to bad about it just wanted to make sure that you knew what might happen on other glider forums if you told them you were breeding a selling rescue glider. Most are pretty hardcore and expect you to get the male fixed asap. To tell you the truth I didn't get darvin fixed when I got him. 1. I was very very sick at the time but had to rescue them first before I took care of myself. Drove for over 5 hours to pick them up and another 5 hours home. 2. They had a joey 4 weeks oop at the time and I had no idea if it was safe to get him fixed. 3. I wanted to fill up their colony without having to do intros and I wanted to see a joey other then pictures! I know it was a bit selfish on my part but I also am not selling the babies. They are staying here.

I also had to put that I was not being mean because its hard to put tone into your typeing.

I started a local glider group here in Tucson to help with info and to meet other glider owners. I heard one of the millbreeders was at our fair this year and figured I wanted to try and prevent the owners from dumping them on Cl in a couple of months. We are about to have our 2nd meet in a few days. Some experianced owners and some newbes. Its been fun so far and had a blast at our first meet! Might be something you can do in your area! Might findout there are more owners near then you think.

sarah.brown.3304673 wrote:

Skyfire,

Thats very heart warming that they all were rescues! I think rescue/adopted gliders are wonderful; even though I didn't get to start bonding with Cuppy at the initial bonding age, she still has grown up to be such a sweet glider. Poppy was pretty chill when I got him, and that hasn't changed about him; he likes anyone! (especially people who offer him food). I am planning on getting another breeding female eventually, maybe in a year or two, from a breeder that I met through facebook after I had joeys, that happens to live not too far from me that does have linage on her gliders. I had a higher demand for joeys than expected, I guess since my area does not ever have any breeders in the paper advertising joeys.
I know breeding without lineage is a downfall, and terribly misused. It's sad that puppy mill breeding isn't the only mill breeding that I've heard of; its even more disgusting how the people working for pocket pets [with their well rehearsed lines] could even have the heart to sell their gliders with misinformation on their cage and diet!!! I do have to admit, that I didn't know what a glider was until they showed up at the mall; but more than most people I decided to go home and do some homework on them, so glad I did because I would have ended up with a very ill glider soon afterwards. But that still doesn't save those unfortunate gliders that do end up going home with people who trust pocket pets; If it wasn't possible for a human to fall in love with a sugar glider at first sight, maybe we'd be able save them all from company's like that!!
Taking a chance wasn't my best choice, I admit, and I understand that you are not trying to mean! It's very important to voice your opinion on a matter that needs to be addressed. Sugar gliders deserve to have a normal life; a long-lived healthy one, at that! But even more so, they deserve owners like you to protect & love them, and also guide other suggie owners in the right direction. I guess it was a more hopeful moment; hoping I could have joeys and one day tell their owners the true information on their care and steer them in the right direction as well.

It is so nice to see a fresh face and I love that your heart is full of goodness.


Critter Love is Peggy Brewer's breeding co., also the infamous HPW Complete and Plus curator. She would likely have papers on him but since he was not sold with papers I bet he was sold as a pet only, meaning he probably wasn't suppose to breed or shouldn't. You may contact her but there is probably no info on the female. Either way if you like breeding and you wanna start off on the right foot keep this small quad for yourself and invest in a breeding pair with papers, then you can do contracts to ensure the joey's led happy lives and then those joey's will have less of a likelihood to be breed with relatives.

My Luna was hard to find. In NM there are literally no owners. The pet shop she was bought from closed down and 4 years later I just met a lady who finally found a glider here in NM. Now if I were looking for a glider to breed with Luna this would have been perfect! He is a little boy and 4 years younger than her, no chance of relation right?!? WRONG. Someone bought the breeding pair from the pet shop and is still breeding out that same line, those poor breeders are probably old as piss :[ but the point is age is not a good indicator of how related they are. And since they are hard to come by in your area makes it that much more likely they are all from the same parents.

Sorry to welcome you like this, I mean I hope we aren't scaring you off, it just seems like you are a person who wants to do everything with the good of the glider in mind and I think Sky and I are just showing you something you may have not noticed on your own before.

Thanks to all for the wonderful welcomes!

And no, vicious and sky- you're not scaring me off. I would rather have someone be serious with me. I had joined glider central a while back, and they advised that I wasn't doing the right thing and should get my male fixed right away, which is what any glider owner/breeder would tell me to do and I appreciate everyone's opinions. At the time, I really did consider not going through with it for the sake of the joeys-if something would have been wrong with them it would be my fault for letting it happen. At the time, I was keeping my female and my male in separate cages in the same room for a while. For one, Cuppy was way too young and for two I was quarantining Poppy to make sure he didn't show any signs of illnesses. They communicated through barking at each other often, so I knew they wanted to meet each other. It was hard for me hearing them talk and also watching them observe each other through cage bars knowing that neither of them could be together and have a companion to sleep and play so when Cuppy was 11 months OOP, I started to let them play in the tent together. I was scared, I wasn't sure how they'd react to each other but then they first touched noses and greeted each other, they started grooming one another and I couldn't bare keeping them apart for long. I literally had tears in my eyes watching them just be together like that. I did this often afterwards, letting them play together in the tent and then putting them back in separate cages after the play date.

I wasn't sure if this was the wrong or right thing to do at the time for them since they didn't have a companion- letting them meet and play on a daily basis led to them bonding, and also crying at night for one another. One day about a month or so later after playing with them both together, I let both gliders out of their pouches and into the tent with me and Cuppy started making a weird noise as soon as she saw Poppy- it was sort of like a hiss and elongated bark and Poppy came over to her and climbed on her back like a joey would. I knew then that she must have been in heat.. I wanted them to have joeys so bad because of their personalities, I knew they'd make sweet joeys, and I know acting out selfishly was the wrong thing to do, but afterwards I put them both in her cage and after her second heat cycle with him she got pregnant. I was scared, mostly because it was my first time breeding, secondly because I didn't know what their lineage was. I made the decision to accept the responsibility to keep the joey(s) if something appeared to be wrong with them physically or mentally, and if something was wrong, I would have took my male to get fixed. By looking at them, they appear to be healthy and growing normally, and have developed their personalities uniquely like their parents which I was hoping for. The female joey is exactly like her dad, and the male joey like his mom. I also know that the joeys may still have something genetically incorrect on the inside if for some chance the mom and dad was related somehow but no obvious signs are apparent at this time.

I know this is probably a hard question, and I'd research it on the internet if research on gliders hadn't already proved to me several times with information being false, opinionated and uneducated answers most of the time so I'd like to get an opinion that I could trust if anyone so happens to know the answer. I thought a sugar glider forum would be my best example as posters on here believe in nothing but the very best care for their gliders, and nothing on here is said to be "sugar coated!" But, I have wondered out of curiosity many of times just how breeders first started their linage without papers back when gliders were first introduced into captivity- because every single sugar gliders' family tree must of had to start some where way at the top, I'm talking about the VERY beginning. Is there some sort of blood/DNA test or something under the same concept that a vet could preform to prove whether my male and female have relation or not? How does a breeder go about getting papers for a pair they are FIRST starting with that didn't have papers already? I was just wondering if testing really is the only proven way [if I couldn't track down their lineage] I could have them approved of to breed to guarantee no possible relation between them. I know lineage may have something to do with parents, grandparents, great grandparents and so on, but any one untrustworthy could make that up so if blood testing isn't applicable, are there any documents that could be legalized by someone for assurance? Would it be the same way they do for registering dogs? I have an animal hospital in line that I'm able to have testing done, and I guess it wouldn't hurt to call and ask but they might not really know about papers and such; Ive never seen papers on gliders so I don't know what to look for, this is definitely something I want to look into, as I would like to be more professional about this.
Thanks in advance for any advice/suggestions!! Sorry this has gotten to be such a long post.

Hi Sarah, WELCOME aboard. It looks like you are getting some great advice here. As for obtaining lineage, you can research through The Pet Glider Data Base. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

It really is difficult to determine the lineage's, especially if they have been rescues, or sold at pet store, or flea markets.

The main reason for encouraging neutering on babies that have come from the above, is due to the unknown. Sugar Gliders in the wild are inbreed, such as the case their life expectancy is short lived, due to major health issues stemmed from inbreeding.

Captive Gliders on the other hand, being as that we are their primary care takers, it's our responsibility to take measures to protect the innocent. There are far to many babies with major health issues, the expense is high, and the pain and suffering they endure due to the lack of understanding is horrible.

This is why it is encouraged to NOT breed if the lineage or background is unknown.

Hope this helps.