Sugar Glider Baby

After years wanting (and researching) a Sugar Glider, finally the opportunity presented itself to adopt two. We were given the choice or a 5 year old Male and Female pair or 2 1.5 year old females. Without hesitation I chose the 2 females, even though baby gliders are so adorable, we did not want to have babies.

Roxy and Rozy came to live with us April 6th , 2002. They had never been handled and were very flighty, crabbing ALL the time. My husband and I had decided to let them get used to the sights and sounds of our house before we attempted to touch or hold them.

The night of Sunday April 14, I woke up to an amazing humming sound. I noticed that Rozy, the smaller of the two gliders, was in the nest box. I wasn't worried, it was such a pretty song. I waited until Monday night to check on the girls. That is when I noticed something very pink, it looked like something on Rozy's foot. My husband got the flashlight and I shined it in and watched the "pink thing" move. It was a very tiny baby glider all pink, but he was completely out of the pouch. I of course panicked and called Lisa the next morning....

As far as we could tell there was only one joey, and worried about him every day and night, and checked him every night. He started to grow a tiny bit of hair down his back. Every time I checked him he was still out of the pouch, but occasionally I noticed him with his head back in her pouch eating. I thought everything was all right, but was still in panic mode. After worrying and calling Lisa every two minutes and not to mention the numerous e-mails about this little addition, I kept wishing he would just grow more hair and open his eyes. Then maybe everything would be ok.

Finally on Saturday April 24th his eyes were open and he was all covered in hair. I thought to myself, now everything will be ok. We started taking him out only a few minutes at a time. Since Rozy was a first time mother, I was still a little worried but we were through the worst. She was a little possessive of him, so instead of taking him into the other room, we would sit right next to the cage and every time she would come out to check on him, we would show her we had him and she would be fine. His aunt Roxy was the calmer of the two, but she to would get a little worried about the joey when he wasn't in the nest box, too.

Unfortunately, just a few days after his eyes opened, we noticed he was missing his entire back "drivers side" leg. There was a scar line in the center, but he was getting along great, sometimes he does go in circles before he knows which way to go, and he tends to scoot sideways when he climbs. But what a two month period! He is just over 1 month out of pouch and seems to be in fine health. Just a little bit more than we bargained for.

We did find out that the woman we adopted them from kept the breeding pair in with the girls and the older female was the dominant one of the group. We believe the older female attacked both of our girls before they came to live with us, since she did take note of a few occasions of the girls being attacked. They are a little scared still, and since she did have a large bird yelling at them every time they made a sound, that is understandable.

With patience and loving they will be wonderful companions. As for baby Roscoe, he is just perfect the way he is. With all his toes, and his three legs and with Arnold as a Godfather he can't go wrong!!

A Note from Lisa: Baby Roscoe is so very lucky to be alive and healthy today! The previous owner took a big risk by putting two younger females in with an older, more established couple.

Compounding the situation was the movement of Roxy and Rozy to Crysta's home and no one aware that Rozy was carrying a baby! From my many discussions with Crysta, it does seem like the older female maimed Baby Roscoe when he was very tiny and still in the pouch. The site of the wound appeared very healed up, with no signs of infection by the time Baby Roscoe emerged from the pouch! This is truly an amazing story and we thank Crysta for sharing.

Like this story? Check out the Sydney Sesame story.

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