SG BEHAVIOR:
NON FRIENDLY GLIDER HARD NIPPING OR BITING:
Sometimes when you first get a baby sugar glider it nips or bites after crabbing, if you force it into a corner or push after crabbing or after glider is chased. This is a scared defense response and with patience and trust it should go away as the crabbing should subside also.
FRIENDLY GLIDER BEHAVIOR:
TASTE NIPPING: This is totally different than biting. This is a communication that the glider wants something or it is tasting everything in it’s environment(us included). It may want something to eat(cricket or treat), some water, or if baby is contained, to see what’s going on. It reminds me of a human baby at the everything in the mouth stage of growth.
SQWAGGLE: (WORD I MADE UP)
This is what the glider does when it is marking you as belonging to it’s family group. They grab(with teeth) your shirt or skin and will rub their belly and back end from side to side three or four times in a row. When they do this if they didn’t hold on with teeth( young ones use teeth, older ones can glide across material with a little training) they would fall off(it is that vigorous). Hopefully they grab your shirt and not your bare skin. I have seen a female do this to her male and he made a noise like it hurt. It looked like the female was on top trying to mate until I saw that side to side movement. This is not an aggressive behavior, you should be honored you have made the family, even though it hurts on bare skin(pinched). It also could be territorial scent marking.
HEAD RUB: The sugar glider will grab you with it’s front two feet and curl it’s head toward their underside and start rubbing the top of their head vigorously against you. It usually is accompanied by a girgling sound or a giggling sound. If I am sitting while this is being done, it sometimes is followed up with a ¾ full body turn and the length of body rubbed against me. I have females and males do this behavior, I think it is friendly hello or family recognition. I have seen a male do the head rub to the female also both parents do it to the babies(they have to be out of box and weaning). Sometimes they do it after I have petted them down the full length of their body. The full length ¾ body turn is like a cat rubbing against your leg and if laying down with glider can be done down length of body or legs.
BELLIE RUB: Normally done by adolescent sugar gliders or adult sugar gliders. Males and females do this underbelly rub. It looks like a wave or they are trying to wipe something off their bellies. Peanut would do this also when she had babies and her pouch was extended about ¼ in., she would lay still on my arm and spread out so her belly was flat against me. I found out later she was getting my smell on the babies through the pouch opening. I think. The reason I think this is because I caught her male sleeping with his head against her pouch opening. Maybe it is a pre oop bonding between father and babies.
TOOTSIE POP LICK: This is where the baby sugar glider or sub-adult sugar glider will climb up on your shoulder and go over to your neck and lick, lick, lick, and lick then take a nip out of your neck. It also can be done on arm or any where else on you. If you have a mole or band-aid on your finger or any thing that the glider thinks is foreign it will try and remove(groom) it. I think this behavior is taste or grooming. It usually is done by a glider I hear purring from or extremely attached to me. It usually goes away(tootsie lick, grooming usually continues) either by me moving every time I get a little pinch or with time or after puberty. Another type of behavior that can occur at same time as this grooming is the wet willie which is the glider nip on ear, purring, tootsie lick and/or the tongue goes in the ear with purring usually. I don’t mean tongue on outside of ear I mean deep in the ear.
Written by daddyglider/Art
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