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We'd been discussing getting a new pet for a while. I wanted a dog for the kids, but my wife grew up in the country, and she just doesn't believe in the whole 100% indoor dog thing (the dog being inside some of the time is okay, but we don't even have a yard the dog could run around in. Not to mention she's worried that our sons would torture the poor thing by chasing it around. She's too allergic of cats to get a cat. We already have a bunny, but he's TOTALLY anti-social (have you ever heard of a bunny that growls, bites, and scratches?). He's like this little, curmudgeony old hermit that gets mad anytime you try to love on him. We got him REALLY small, and we think an unethical breeder separated him from his mommy to early. He clearly has issues, but he's over 8 years old and still healthy as a tiny horse, so he must like it that way.

So, anyway, this group of people came to the local mall. They're a traveling troupe of sugar bear breeders from Florida. They have a great presentation. We went home and did a bunch of internet research, and decided that one would be a good "starter" pet for particularly our six year old. They're as smart as some dogs (they learn their name, they can come when called, you can teach them tricks). They're very sweet. They're NOT rodents, they're marsupials, so their teeth don't grow and they don't need to chew on stuff. They have oposable thumbs on all four "hands". They eat these little pellets and apples 'til they're full grown, which takes about a year. They never get any bigger than the palm of your hand. Then they're omnivorous and can eat whatever, but the staple of their diet is still the pellets and apples. Their food and vitamins cost about $40 per YEAR, and they don't get any diseases native to the US, so they don't have to get shots (they're from Australia). They're also VERY clean. One of their defenses in the wild is that they don't smell so predators have trouble tracking them. They have a white fluid that comes out of their eyeballs that they use to bathe themselves. They have skin flaps like flying squirrels and can glide up to 150 ft. between trees in the wild. Also, because they aren't rodents and don't smell like rodents and don't have any natural predators in the US, they'll bond to your other pets just like to humans (the website has some great pictures of them riding around on dogs' heads, hangin' with cats, gerbils, hamsters, and rabbits). There are instructions on how to help them bond with your pets. They live in packs of about 10-15 in the wild, and are VERY social animals, so they'll bond to whole families of humans. Then they'll just happily ride around in your pocket all day (that's why they're called pocket pets), coming out to play whenever you want them to. They've been in the US for 15 years now, and MOST of states have re-classified them from exotic pets. They KIND of look like little lemurs, with really long tails that can carry stuff around (can't supports their weight by hanging from them, but they use them to steer when they glide). Anyway, we've had ours for a couple weeks now, and he's just the coolest little thing ever. The kids LOVE him and play with him all the time. I can't get him to hold still enough yet to get a good pic, but here's a pic of an adult from the website:



www.perfectpocketpets.com

Anyway, just thought I'd spread the word a little. They're actually pretty cool little guys, and VERY few people are allergic to them. My wife, who's allergic to some dogs, MOST cats, even some bunnies and other little pets, hasn't had any trouble with him at all. They're great first pets for kids, I think, cause they love to hang out with you all day once they're bonded with you. My three year old is even great with him. The little fellas love to play, and they don't bite. Anyway, enjoy the pic. The website has some hysterical pics of the little guys riding around on toy cars and motorcycles and riding around on dogs and cats and stuff.

Congratulations!

Now, I want a marsupial.

Viewed the pictures. Interesting picture of the sugar glider coming out the woman's shirt on page 1. Shamm will surely have a hilarious comment about that!

Does your sugar glider hang out in a cage or does it have free reign of the house? Have you seen it glide, what was it like?

TillyGalore wrote:Congratulations!

Now, I want a marsupial.

Viewed the pictures. Interesting picture of the sugar glider coming out the woman's shirt on page 1. Shamm will surely have a hilarious comment about that!

Does your sugar glider hang out in a cage or does it have free reign of the house? Have you seen it glide, what was it like?

Funny - I thought of Shamm when I saw that picture also. Is he getting a reputation?

DukieInKansas wrote:

TillyGalore wrote:Congratulations!

Now, I want a marsupial.

Viewed the pictures. Interesting picture of the sugar glider coming out the woman's shirt on page 1. Shamm will surely have a hilarious comment about that!

Does your sugar glider hang out in a cage or does it have free reign of the house? Have you seen it glide, what was it like?

Funny - I thought of Shamm when I saw that picture also. Is he getting a reputation?

It isn't an undeserved reputation. ;) ;)

Tilly (am I supposed to call you Tilly or Honor?)-

Since he's a baby, he spends about 50% of the time in his cage. He has a big cage with a wheel. He crawls on the ceiling of the cage all the time. It's a two story, lot's of space to stretch out for a little guy. It even has a dining room (they tell you to take a large clear gladware container, cut a hole in it, then turn it upside down and put his food in his little bowl inside it. That way his eating mess is contained, and he gets an extra play space...he likes to dance on top of it). The rest of the time, he rides around in a special zippered "bonding" pouch around one of our necks. Once he's fully bonded, you can just pop him in your shirt pocket and carry him around. I've started carrying him around the house in my pocket, but I'm not brave enough to go out yet like that. The people selling them wore these cool fishing shirts that had expandable front pockets with flaps that are perfect for the little guys. Biminy Bay Outlet and Bass Pro Shops both sell these shirts.

As far as where we keep him, they're VERY social. You can give them the run of the house, but once they're bonded, they'll probably just follow you around and climb up on you as soon as you stop moving. Or go hitch a ride on one of your other pets. ;)

http://www.sugargliderinfo.org/SpecialR ... omy101.pdf if you go to the glider anatomy 101 link at the page and go down to page 9, you'll see a glider in full flight.

Oh, and yes, I've seen him glide. It's pretty cool. He crouches and starts bobbing his head side to side. He's looking at his target from two different angles, triangulating his landing. Then they just go. He jumped from my head to a roll of paper towels on my kitchen counter this morning from about four feet away (I was standing four feet from the counter...by the pythagorean theorum, it was more like a little under 5'). This roll of paper towels is about 2/3 gone, and he landed right on the hole in the center. I had to catch the roll before it fell over, but he STUCK the landing. Not bad for a two month old baby still figuring things out. ;)

bjornolf wrote:As far as where we keep him, they're VERY social. You can give them the run of the house, but once they're bonded, they'll probably just follow you around and climb up on you as soon as you stop moving. Or go hitch a ride on one of your other pets. ;)

I saw the pictures of them sitting on the dogs and cats...I'd be afraid that one of my guys would literally swallow him whole OR crush him flat. A little sugar glider vs. 90+ lbs of lab is no contest. Wizard the Terv alerts on anything that moves. I've seen him take squirrels out of the air when they tried to make the jump to my fence to get away. Poor little glider wouldn't stand a chance in my house.

My ex had a pair of sugar gliders when we lived in the mountains. They were entertaining, but not my style of pet. She had her room full of gerbils, the gliders, and a hedgehog. I had lots of snakes. For good reasons, they were all kept in separate parts of the house.

Well, like I said, I'd rather have a dog, or even a cat, but there were "issues". And we figured that the glider might be a good "starter" pet for the boys, specifically our eldest.

windsor wrote:I saw the pictures of them sitting on the dogs and cats...I'd be afraid that one of my guys would literally swallow him whole OR crush him flat. A little sugar glider vs. 90+ lbs of lab is no contest. Wizard the Terv alerts on anything that moves. I've seen him take squirrels out of the air when they tried to make the jump to my fence to get away. Poor little glider wouldn't stand a chance in my house.

They have special methods for bonding bigger pets with gliders. Basically, you stick the glider in his cage on the floor near the other pet(s). Let them do whatever with him safely in the cage. After a while, the dog/cat/whatever get used to the little fella. Then you move on to introducing it on your hand (this is after you're fully bonded and the glider won't try to jump off and run away). There are other steps, but these are the first couple. Like I said, ONCE the dogs/cats get used to the little fella, they won't try to eat him anymore. At least that's the theory. Since they don't smell like rodents, once the animals' are used to them, they won't instinctively see them as food. Your squirrel you're talking about is a rodent, so it smells like a rodent, so it automatically triggered the dogs "eat prey" instinct. And I doubt he'd accidentally crush the little guy. They're used to being squished in their mommy's pouch. To calm them when they're scared, you're supposed to SMASH them between your hands pretty hard. They're 90% cartilege (other than their bony little heads), so they don't crush easily. I'm not saying your dog wouldn't be different, but THOUSANDS of people have bonded they're sugar bears to their other carnivorous pets without incident.

The only pet they tell us is unbondable to a glider is a snake, which kind of makes sense when you consider that snakes eat them in the wild. Birds are difficult, because gliders eat baby birds and bird eggs in the wild and some birds eat gliders in the wild, but it can be done, as is obvious from some of the pictures.

Also, our little fella is named Dex, short for Dextrose. Get it? ;)

bjornolf wrote:The only pet they tell us is unbondable to a glider is a snake.-

My ex would never let me try. PS...the prey snakes eat are usually much smarter than the snake. Go figure.

My dad has only one phobia. It's snakes. He FREAKS out when he sees a snake. Even lizards scare him 'til he sees their legs. As a kid, I once heard him yell at a lizard, "Show me your legs or die!" as he held a shovel poised above it. When I was a young kid and dad was working in the garden, I'd catch snakes in a bucket and take them over to show him, knowing the reaction I'd get. I guess I was young enough that I just thought it was funny, I didn't realize just how much they scared him. I was a devil even then.

When my dad went off to Asia for his tour during the Vietnam War, they had jungle survival training. Part of that was learning about the flora and fauna of the jungle. There was this giant snake in an aquarium. The odd thing was that there was a little white mouse riding around on the snake's head. My dad was puzzled, "What's up with that?" he asked the trainer, "they're friends?" "Oh yeah," the trainer responded, "great friends. 'Til the snake gets hungry." My dad had nightmares for weeks that he was a little mouse riding around on a snake's back, just waiting for it to eat him. Poor guy. That moment went in his top ten worst of his tour, and during that one, he was perfectly safe and hadn't even seen a combat zone yet.

I want one now!

Here's a picture or two of our little Dex:

He is so cute! Has your oldest started taking care of him?

I have a photo somewhere in my lectures about early primate origins comparing sugar gliders to fork-crowned lemurs, Phaner furcifer.

That's so cool. I was saying on here somewhere that I thought they kind of looked a little like certain lemurs I'd seen. BTW, I asked this in another thread, but you were the one guy that DIDN'T answer, Lavabe. Have you seen Zaboomafoo? It's a kid show about a lemur. What do you think of it?

To answer Tilly, both my sons play with him on a daily basis. My three year old is especially good at "treadmilling" him (putting him in one hand then moving the other hand in front of him so he can hop onto it. Rinse. Repeat.) He's almost as good as I am at that, but then, he's the athletic one. The cage is in my older son's room, and he gives me reports about what the "little fella", as they call him, did all night while he was alone with him, and if he runs out of food or knocks his water bottle off, I'm notified immediately. So, while Sean doesn't "take care of him" per se, he'd definitely doing a good job paying attention to his needs and wants.

bjornolf wrote:That's so cool. I was saying on here somewhere that I thought they kind of looked a little like certain lemurs I'd seen. BTW, I asked this in another thread, but you were the one guy that DIDN'T answer, Lavabe. Have you seen Zaboomafoo? It's a kid show about a lemur. What do you think of it?

To answer Tilly, both my sons play with him on a daily basis. My three year old is especially good at "treadmilling" him (putting him in one hand then moving the other hand in front of him so he can hop onto it. Rinse. Repeat.) He's almost as good as I am at that, but then, he's the athletic one. The cage is in my older son's room, and he gives me reports about what the "little fella", as they call him, did all night while he was alone with him, and if he runs out of food or knocks his water bottle off, I'm notified immediately. So, while Sean doesn't "take care of him" per se, he'd definitely doing a good job paying attention to his needs and wants.

Wow! Impressive!

Does he choose not to feed him, or is that a rule that you feed him?

bjornolf wrote:That's so cool. I was saying on here somewhere that I thought they kind of looked a little like certain lemurs I'd seen. BTW, I asked this in another thread, but you were the one guy that DIDN'T answer, Lavabe. Have you seen Zaboomafoo? It's a kid show about a lemur. What do you think of it?

Well, if you posted it in the last two weeks, I've been having ISP issues. The week before I was dealing with just having gotten here in Madagascar, and the week before that (make that 3 weeks before that), I was dealing with getting ready to come to Madagascar. And you know, it was finals period before that, and NOTHING gets done during crunch time. And before that it was taxes... So, I may not have seen your post... especially if it was buried in the LTE. ;) ;)

As for Zaboo, I am not a great fan of the show (it's just not for me), but it DOES serve a great purpose. I give them a lot of credit for that. I also poke a little fun at it, because they always call Zaboo a lemur. Technically, Propithecus verreauxi/coquereli is not in the same taxonomic family as Lemur or Eulemur (like my guys). Strictly speaking, Zaboo is a sifaka, which, as we all know, is pronounced as it is in Malagasy, as: she- FOCK!

Whoever produced that show recognized early on that they couldn't have <6 year old kids saying that to their parents.

Ah... academic humor!