Meet Pascal

Pascal enjoying a morning yogurt treat.

Here is our latest addition, Pascal. He is an intact (for the time being) male who will be 6 years old in October. It's hard to tell from the photo, be he is a little more grayer all around than our other gliders. He carries the leucistic gene (recessive). Leucistic gliders are white with black eyes. You can see in the photo he has his "bald spot", the scent gland on the top of his head. That will disappear after he is neutered.

Pascal weighs about 85 grams, smaller than any of our other male gliders. (Flurry is now tipping the scales at 115 grams).  He has been eating well for the last week to ten days. We were concerned because the first few days he hadn't been eating much at all. We started weighing his food dishes before and after he ate and began to see a steady increase in his appetite after the first few days here.

It's a little hard to describe his personality at this point. He is very wary and obviously still unsure about his situation. We have an open pouch (more like a hammock) rather than a deep sleeping pouch our other gliders use. He tends to be pouch protective in a deep pouch and it makes it difficult to approach him. Pascal does bury himself beneath the fleece blankets but we are usually able to still see him and he can see us. He has two "pouch buddies" he sleeps with to keep him company. They are no substitute for a warm-blooded buddy, but they do provide him some security. Even though he is still unsure and uncertain and crabs to let you know, he seems to be a gentle glider. He will carefully take a mealworm from us, and will slowly approach M's yogurt covered finger for his licks. We think that once he trusts us he will be a very friendly glider.

His first appointment with the vet is on Friday for a baseline wellness check, and we will schedule his neuter to hopefully follow soon after.  It looks likes its going to take some time for him to get over his wariness and trust us, but we are working on it every day. Once he is more comfortable with us we can start thinking about a strategy to introduce him to Foehn and Rossby.

Oh, and by the way, "Pascal" is a weather-related name, which is why we chose to keep it. A pascal is a unit of pressure in the International System of Units.  Probably more than you wanted to know.

+1 = 6

Yeah, we went and did it again.

A week ago we saw a post on GliderCentral about a breeding glider that lost its mate in May and was having a tough time on his own. He wasn't eating well and obviously missed his companion.The breeder/owner was willing to give him to a good home. She had been trying for some time, and after not a whole lot of discussion we decided we could take him. I had read the post and mentioned it to M. She told me she had thought the same thing but wasn't going to say anything until I did. And I did.

One of the reasons we decided he would be a good fit is that he is about the same age as CB and Foehn, We also knew he wouldn't do well on his own for much longer, We figured that after he was neutered and used to being here we would get him together with Foehn and Rossby.  Foehn would love another man to dote on!

So we went and picked up Pascal (that was his name and we aren't changing it). The first two nights we had his cage in the laundry room and he barked all night, no doubt looking for the other gliders he was housed in the same room with (but not the same cage) at the breeder's. We decided he would feel better near other gliders, so we moved his cage in proximity to Foehn and Rossby's so they could see and smell each other.

Pascal is wary and of course unsure of what is going on in his life. He wasn't handled a great deal in his previous home so we will have to earn his trust. He's slowly coming around, and will now come out from under his blankets to take mealworms from us.  He was very unsure of the yogurt M was trying to give him in the morning, but the other day he came out for the first time and took some licks. Small, but important steps.

More on our new addition soon.

An Update on the Gang

It's been a busy five weeks since my last post. Last week we traveled to Lexington, KY to the 2014 Sugar Glider Get Away (SGGA), a gathering of sugar gliders owners from around the country. We brought all five gliders with us (a first) and had a great time meeting many of the glider owners we only knew through the Glider Central forum.

In terms of who's with who, that hasn't changed. Foehn and Rossby are together in one cage, and CB, Sprite, and Flurry are in the other.  We'll probably be getting another, slightly larger cage for Foehn and Rossby as it is unlikely they will be a colony of five. Foehn continues to exhibit marking behavior almost constantly as if her hormones were stuck in the "ON" position. She and CB had their annual checkup this week and the vet did not find anything physically abnormal with her. Her weight is good and she has been eating well.

Our second Sansbug tent we use for playtime has bitten the dust. One of the fiberglass hoop supports snapped and it won't hold it's shape very well, besides being a pain to set up. So, we have moved playtime into the guest bathroom adjoining my office. We removed the sheer shower curtain and M has been making fleece vines for them to climb on. Sprite and Flurry like to climb up to the shower rod. The problem is, Flurry can't quite figure how to get down, and he hasn't worked up enough courage to jump. Even if I stand up under him he won't make the relatively short jump to my shoulder.  Only when I stand up on the toilet so my shoulder is higher will he jump over, obviously quite relieved. We have only been in the bathroom a few days, so they are till getting used to it. There's more for them to climb on and more room to run.

This evening it was the trio's turn for playtime They weren't very active, although Flurry took time to investigate the large piece of fleece hanging from the shower rod. He climbed to the top and after a few minutes finally figured he could climb down the way he came up.

CB, Sprite, and Flurry (l-r) contemplating coming out of the pouch after their mealworms.

Flurry working his way back down a hanging piece of fleece.