How to Bond With a Pet Sugar Glider

Bonding between owner and pet is an important part of sugar glider care. A strong bond establishes trust, curbs aggression and allows a sugar glider to feel safe in its new environment. Bond with your pet sugar glider and make it feel more at ease with you and its new home.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Allow your sugar glider to spend between 1 and 3 days in its new habitat. Your pet sugar glider needs this time to relax and become accustomed to its new environment.

2. Hand feed your sugar glider treats like grapes or nuts during its acclimation period so that it becomes used to your presence. Be careful not to overfeed it treats; instead, carefully calculate the amount of treats you can safely give it while maintaining a nutritional diet. If you are close to surpassing the amount of treats you can give it, consider using parts of its usual meals as treats instead.

3. Establish a daily schedule for bonding routines. As nocturnal creatures, sugar gliders normally awake between 10 and 11 o'clock in the evening. The best time to interact with a sugar glider is while it's still asleep. Plan to spend between one and three hours a day with your sugar glider.

4. Insert a piece of one of your old fleece sweatshirts into the sugar glider's cage. Your sugar glider will likely want to snuggle into it and get used to your scent. You may also use the rest of the sweatshirt to hold the sugar glider when you take it out to play. To further aerate the cage with your scent, wear a shirt for a day and cover the sugar glider's cage with it during its sleeping hours.

5. Speak to your sugar glider. Soft speech can help put your sugar glider at ease and get it used to your voice.

6. Keep your sugar glider close. Put your sugar glider into a bonding pouch and keep it slung around you during the day while it sleeps. You may also slip your sugar glider into your shirt's chest pocket and offer it small treats while it's inside. Mind your activities while your sugar glider is in your pocket; don't brush or bump against something that could potentially hurt it.

7. Pet your sugar glider. Gentle touches while offering it a treat or while it's in its bonding pouch helps it to trust you. Petting your sugar glider while it's asleep can also work wonders for the bonding process. Your sugar glider subconsciously learns to accept your personal scent and touch this way.

8. Have your sugar glider greet you when you come close to its cage and not run away when you are handling it. These are the two signs that your bonding process is working.

Tips & Warnings

• Get other people involved in the sugar glider bonding process if they are interested in becoming part of its life. Your sugar glider needs to bond with each person that it is going to see regularly. However, make sure that it bonds with you before introducing other people to it.
• Individualize your pet sugar glider's bonding routines. Each sugar glider has its own personality and some may need more bonding time than others. Work with your sugar glider as long as necessary to bond with it. Don't get frustrated if the bonding process takes several months.
• Use treats that need to be licked off your finger to speed up the bonding process. Using yogurt, tapioca and applesauce makes your sugar glider stop and spend more time around you to get the treat off your hands and into its mouth.
• If you sugar glider is hesitant and refuses to come out to play with you, coax it out with a piece of food or a treat. Allowing your pet sugar glider to skip the bonding routine could later result in a perpetually hostile sugar glider. However, don't chase your sugar glider with your hand and force it to play with you. Use treats and positive reinforcement.
• Never smack, hit or roughly handle your sugar glider.