Challenges and Success

When you raise sugar gliders, it is such a wonder to see the little joeys emerge from the mother's pouch for the first time. So tiny and not yet having their eyes open. Then about 10 days later, they open their eyes, and everything they see is new to them. We get to enjoy watching them start at being completely dependent on their mom. With sugar gliders, both parents are involved in raising the joeys. They take turns in watching the joeys as their mate leaves the pouch to eat and then return to allow the other to go eat. Then as the weeks pass, they gain both in weight and in their being able to venture out of the pouch. Then one evening you see the joeys eating at the food plate alongside both parents. It doesn't always go as smoothly as in the case of little Juniper. When she and her brother were about 6 weeks out of pouch, it became apparent that she wasn't gaining weight as quickly as her brother. We found her at the bottom of the cage, cold and clinging to a piece of fleece that had fallen out of their sleeping pouch. She was not the typical rejection that sometimes happens. We think that perhaps her brother was taking too much of her mother's milk and she was not getting enough. This is the reason that it is so important to have a rejection kit available. We set up her little home away from her parents and prepared for the next several weeks of around the clock feedings, cleaning, and care. Often when joeys are younger, they must be handfed until they learn to feed from a small lid or dish. This little female proved to be very smart and when we put milk replacer in a lid, she took right away to drinking from the lid. We watched her gain weight and grow, so now she is back to a healthy weight in just a week and a half. We have watched so much personality emerge from such a little creature. She is continuing to grow and still has several weeks to go before she will be ready for her new forever home.