A Big Thank You to Jazznzoeysmom!

She's been encouraging me to tuck my suggies in my shirt during the day for I don't know HOW long but I've been too chicken up til recently. I've always been afraid they'd "hop out" and then get into all sorts of trouble in and around our apartment. Well, I compromised: I put towels under the door to my bedroom and made sure it was tidy when I took their pouch and put them in my shirt.

It took Catwoman about an hour to settle down but every day since it's taken less & less time for her. The second day we did it, it took 5 minutes and today about less than one minute. (Batman is very mellow, so no problems there!)

ANYWAY, since "shirt tuck" trick, Catwoman is a totally different glider. She allows me to pet her for longer than usual and even comes to me. She still takes a few playful "tasting" nips at me but I feel like it's a "hey, how are you" sort of nip. Kinda like when you have a "tough guy" friend who playfully punches you on the shoulder? Yeah, sort of like that.

I am so delighted and so very grateful!!!

Lyndia, you are GREAT!!!! I <3 you!!!!

Hey, I started trying that too, since you told me about it. My girls, even Lulu are much more friendlier when I have the pouch out of the cage. They pretty much woke up right away the first few times and wouldn't settle down. But they're nice, even Lulu lets me pet her as they lick me like crazy. After a few times, they even settled down for a while, as long as I wasn't too mobile and it wasn't too close to feeding time. But since I've started that, they've been waking up way later and then don't want to come out & play with me or my hubby in the early morning, they act more skittish, even Skadoosh. Monday, the 1st or 2nd day, I had bought them lots of new toys, & they were really hyper & jumpy. Jumping very far from me, much more than usual, I could get them to climb back on, but only to jump again. They haven't wanted to hang out with us for days after. I gave them the day off on Tuesday. Just the past 2 days they started coming to me at the cage in the morning for their treats, and maybe partially climb on me, or all the way, but then quickly run away again.

I got them out this eve around 7ish, because they hadn't gotten up for feeding time, and I hadn't had them out all day (cleaning, shopping, working on stinky projects). They both smothered me with kisses, and let me pet then for a good length of time, before going in their cage for a little snack. They are sleeping now has I type.

Ahhhh, well you are more than welcome.

I know many people really disagree with my approach...they feel like I am forcing myself onto my gliders instead of letting them come to me in their own time. I respect that thought process but I would also argue the point that I have a wonderful relationship with every single one of my babies and it doesn't take me months to get it.

I will also fall back to the ladies above and simply ask..... do your gliders give you any impression whatsoever that this process is traumatizing for them?

I will totally concede that there are probably a few examples of gliders who would not benefit from this. Maybe those that have been mistreated by humans and have only learned to fear them, but the average glider that is brought into your home as a joey or even an older glider that just never bonded with its' previous owner, IMO can benefit from this.

They are colony animals, and while I realize we are not wonderful gliders, we are mere human beings, I truly think they can sense when we love them and want to comfort them and they respond to that, and it doesn't take them long to seek that comfort out. I truly cannot remove the pouch O' gliders from my cage without soon having several faces peeking out at me that are soon followed by scurrying little bodies all trying to dive into my shirt.... And I promise, getting them out is a true feat!

It's Sunday, cloudy & rainy here so it a vegging out watching movies kind of day.... prime time to let the babies snuggle in mamas sweatshirt, which they all readily did for several hours. It took me and my husband working very fast to get them out of my shirt and back into their pouch, all the while peeling them off my chest and arms as they tried scurrying back out and onto mama as I raced to the cage to get them tucked back in. They truly, and without ANY forcing, prefer to be on me and I really believe it's because I tuck them into my shirt the moment they come home.

Well, I didn't really start until 6 months later from bringing them home, after they had started warming up to me. I had tried using the bonding pouch a few times, a couple of weeks from bringing them home, but they didn't like it, especially Lulu, she hated it. Someone advised me to leave them alone to sleep during the day, so that I did. A few months later, I started pulling the bonding pouch out and held it on my lap for a little while, and had treats ready, keeping them in the sleeping pouch, and that seemed to go over ok. Then things got crazy around here for a while and I stopped doing that, until Rebecca encouraged me to try. I have been taking their sleeping pouch out on most days and just wear it between 2 shirts like suggested. This is only the 2nd week starting, so we'll see how it goes. They don't seem to mind at the time they're out anyway, but so far they sleep in later. They are calm when out in pouch, they wake up, but have begun to start settling down after the 1st few outings.

All in all, I don't see how this is stressing them, but I still won't take them out of the house unless they're safely zippered in pouch or carrier.

So thanks to JnZ's mom & RChurch

Oh no, no, no! Never ever take them out without the security of a zippered pouch. Too many unknowns that can frighten them and send them running.