She Likes Me! She Really Likes Me!

We had to make some adjustments to the gliders' tent time this week. On Saturday we went and cut down our Christmas tree, a beautiful spruce, and I set it up and put the lights on Saturday night. The tree is in the family room and now there isn't a lot of room to set up the tent. So, we moved tent time into our bedroom for the time being. The tent is only up for the time we are using - it folds down and stores under the bed. This is a Genji tent, and the metal frame is built into the tent. It pops up and folds down in literally seconds - here's a video showing how it folds down. Pretty cool.

When we had tent time Sunday night both Foehn and CB came out of the pouch almost immediately, with only a small bribe needed. More to the point, CB did not spend time "warming up" - he went right to climbing, running and jumping. This was unusual, as they have never been this quick to get started before. The same thing happened on Monday. The only thing we could figure is that there was only a small lamp with a 15 watt bulb on in the bedroom, and the light was very subdued. In the family room we have the several lights and the TV usually on, and sometimes the lights in the kitchen which is open to the family room. Since these guys are nocturnal, the subdued lighting may be more to their liking.

Both Foehn and CB have been climbing on me more and more each night. They climb up my back, across my shoulders, down my arm, or launch from my shoulder to the tent side where they climb. Last night Foehn climbed up my back and was sitting on my shoulder. I could not really see her as she was close to my neck and out of my peripheral vision, even with my head turned. I felt a little pinch on my ear, then another, and then something in my hair. She was nipping my ear and my neck, not so that it really hurt. I could not figure out what was going on, and M, who was watching this through the tent, said "She is grooming you!" Gliders groom themselves regularly and often each other. Typically, once you have bonded with a sugar glider and earned its trust it will start grooming you. When it grooms you, it will bite lightly (more like scraping its teeth on your skin) and/or lick repetitively. However, even light bites on an ear lobe are a little disconcerting especially when you are not able to see what is going on. Now I know why CB sometimes hisses at her when she starts to groom him! Of course, she seems to always want to groom CB while he is snuggled up and asleep!