How to Make a Sugar Glider Sleeping Pouch

Sugar gliders are marsupials who love sweets and cocooning. They bond easily with humans and, although they are very active, make great apartment dwellers. Once considered exotic pets, these Australian natives have endeared themselves to pet owners worldwide. In the wild, sugar gliders sleep in hollow trees and, as pets, may be happy as can be with a little birdhouse she can pad with shredded paper. The height of sugar glider bedroom fashion, though, is a sleeping bag that approximates the maternal pouch that infant marsupials occupy for the early part of their lives. A pouch has an added benefit in that you can clean it easily. Below are four ways to make a sugar glider sleeping pouch.

Things You'll Need

• Fabric, travel pillowcases, bookbags or other material Sewing machine Seam binding Scissors Thread

Instructions

1. 

   Make a simple sleeping bag with travel-size (about 12- by 18-inch) pillowcases or bookbags. Simply turn one inside out inside the other and join the sacks at the bottom. Cut a hole about 2/3 up one side of the bag, and bind the edges together with seam binding. Make four button holes in the top (open) end of the bag, and use shower curtain or drapery rings to gather the fullness. Hang the pouch up near the top of your sugar glider's cage. He'll climb in the hole and settle down in the bottom of the pouch.

2. Construct a simple envelope pouch by cutting a 1- by 2-foot rectangle of denim, quilted or other tightly woven fabric. Bind the edges of the short sides with seam binding. Lay the fabric lengthwise and fold the ends in to meet in the center. Seam the top and bottom of the envelope so the finished side is inside. Stitch the bound ends together where they meet in the center until there is a 1 1/2- to 2-inch opening left for your sugar glider to slip in and out of her pouch. Finish edges and seams so your busy little friend can't unravel it from the inside in her sleep.

3. 

   Create a designer pouch by cutting out four identical triangles of tightly woven fabric and a square with the same side measurement as the base of the triangles. Cut a hole in one of the triangles and cover the edge with seam binding. Bind all the edges, and seam the edges of the triangles to form a pyramid. Add the square to the bottom to complete the pouch. Hang with shower curtain rings or curtain rings through button holes or grommets put in the top of the pyramids.

4. Craft convenience into your sugar glider's pouch by adding a zipper along the side of an envelope or pyramidal pouch. Although your glider generally won't need any lining for his nest, he may at times drag things into it that you'd rather not stay there forever. Pouches made from pillow slips and bookbags can be turned inside-out and shaken. Use natural fabrics, threads and bindings that you can wash easily.

Tips & Warnings

• Caroline Wightman's book "Sugar Gliders," published by Barron's, is a good source of information on habitats for companion sugar gliders.

• Finish all edges on the inside of your pouch carefully; sugar gliders' tiny claws and little fingers can become tangled in loose threads.

Resources

• North American Sugar Glider Association
• Sugar gliders as pets
• Out of Love Sugar Glider Rescue