My Buddy

While the markings on our sugar glider are often the most direct way to tell who is who, it is also easy for us to tell them apart by their personalities. They are all very distinctive. This is the first of four posts in which I'll take a look at the personalities of each of our gliders.

I think CB and I had a bond from the moment we left for home after picking them up from the breeder. I'm sure he didn't feel that way toward me at that time, but I knew he and I would hit it off. The day we picked CB and his sister Foehn up was an unsettling time for them. Foehn crabbed off and on during the long ride home. CB couldn't care less, and he slept almost the whole trip.  His name "CB" is the abbreviation for a cumulonimbus cloud, or thunderstorm.  He isn't the "stormy" type, though. I liked CB's laid back personality.

CB hanging out in my pant leg during tent time

He likes his sleep, and he will go to lengths to find a comfortable place to curl up.  Usually that is in my shirt (or M's). After only several months with us, when they had becoming more trusting, CB would crawl into my shirt during tent time for a nap. He obviously wasn't quite ready to play. While Foehn (and later Virga and Cirrus) were running around the tent, CB was curled up in my shirt just above the belt getting some more rest. After 20 or 30 minutes  he would usually find his way out and play with the others.  Sometimes, I think he does this to get a break from the three females he lives with. 

CB climbing out of my shirt after a 30 minute nap

While CB has an easy personality, he doesn't just sit back and watch the world go by. He will be two years old in May, not quite an adolescent in glider years. When he isn't sleeping he is usually pretty active. On three occasions he has gotten away from us and gone exploring. These little adventures might have been fun for him, at least for awhile, but they were stressful on us. One of these in particular was scary for us, and probably for him as well by the time it ended after a couple of hours. He hasn't gone exploring since this summer, when I inadvertently left the cage door open. Part of that is we are more careful and part is that he is comfortable with us and isn't afraid of our hands. Given the opportunity, though, he will take off.  He, like Foehn, doesn't particularly like to be held, but during those times when he doesn't mind he will sit quietly and let you pet him between the ears. Eventually, though, he gets restless and is off looking for something to get into.

Early Morning Antics

I was just becoming conscious of the news on the radio when it went on shortly after 6:00 a.m. this morning and was in that fuzzy zone between being asleep and being awake. I heard a noise like something hitting the floor in the kitchen, but at that point wasn't sure if I was dreaming it or heard it for real. When I was finally awake a few moments later, I figured I had better go check just to be sure. As I stepped out of the bedroom a single bark came from the gliders' cage. I flipped on the red light near their cage to see what was going on. Cirrus heard me and jumped to the front of the cage. At my feet was an assortment of plastic toys and doodads that had been in a plastic bowl atop their cage. I then realized what I had heard - it was the bowl falling off of the top of the 5 ft high cage. Cirrus had managed to work the bowl along the top of the cage to the edge where it eventually fell off. All of the gliders love to play with stuff sitting on top of the cage - it's a challenge for them.  The openings in the wire are one inch by one half inch, so they have to work at getting at what is ever there. So, I picked up the mess, and in the meantime Cirrus retreated to their sleeping pouch.  M was due to give them their morning yogurt licks, so I headed back into the bedroom to get ready for work. M was up and getting ready to head out to them and I told her what I had found. We were both amused about what Cirrus manged to do.

After getting dressed I headed to my office to get my stuff for work. When I got to the cage the same bowl that I had picked up 30 minutes earlier was on the floor with its contact scattered all over. I figured maybe M had dropped it. When I asked her about it, she said "I thought you had left it on the floor."  "No," said I, " I picked it all up and put it back on the cage."  Well, it didn't take us long to figure that Cirrus, and apparently also Virga, had managed to work it to the edge and knock it off again. M said when she came out they were both on the front of the cage looking at her like "What? We didn't do anything..."  They had to have worked fast, because there wasn't more than about 10 minutes between the time I left them and the time M came out.  Unfortunately I didn't have the video camera set up, but I wish I had.  They were certainly enjoying themselves!

This is what greeted me when I came out the second time
this morning. The smaller items were in the plastic bowl,
and the bowl was on top of the cage.

Checking Out the Ladies

M contacted me at work this morning after she had returned the gliders to their cage after their morning time together. She noticed that both Virga and Cirrus, our 8-year old gliders, both seemed to have something wrong with their pouches. The color was not the pink healthy color they should have been, and seemed to have some dried discharge. We were concerned that their pouches might be infected, and called the university small animal clinic for an appointment.

There was nothing else to  indicate that something might be wrong. Virga has had some loose poops at times, but otherwise seemed OK. All four gliders have been really active, and in fact last night as one of their most active nights. However, sugar gliders often try and hide their illnesses or injuries as a matter of self-preservation. In the wild a sick or injured glider is more susceptible to predators. Sometimes by the time you notice a glider is in distress it is too late. So, with all of this in mind, and the fact that the ladies were due for their annual checkup in a month, off to the vet we went.

Cirrus and Virga did very well during the exam, considering they were being handled by a stranger and their normal sleep time was being disrupted. The vet, who we had not been to before, was very thorough with the exam. She swabbed their pouches to check for infection or other problems. They also ran tests to check for parasites or other digestive issues (giardia can be a serious problem in gliders). After about 30 minutes the vet came in to give us the news.  There was no sign of infection in their pouches and the coloration and small secretion was normal. The tests and exam for parasites were negative. We were relieved that there were no problems and both Virga and Cirrus were healthy.

We really liked this vet, and we'll be making an appointment to take Foehn and CB in for their annual exam in the near future.

Fun with Hearts

I didn't mean to go this long between blog posts, but what can I say?  Night playtime the last two weeks, with the exception of one night, has been in my office and not in the tent. All four gliders have a good time running and climbing. They can go an hour an a half like that on most nights. We also have a wheel in the room and it gets a good workout- three of them are spinning around in it right now.

This week they have enjoyed the challenge of playing "hearts", so to speak. M picked up some small heart-shaped plastic containers used for candy. She made a few small holes in the container lids. She has been filling them with about 6 meal worms each, and we put them out for the gang to try and open. It usually takes a while, but they eventually get them open for their reward. It is a hoot watching them try to get the containers open, wrestling it and pushing it around (as if that is going to get it open). When one glider is working on one, a second will often come over to help out.  When they do get it open, well, then often the others show up to enjoy the reward.

Tonight Virga was the persistent one. She stayed with it and eventually opened two of the containers. CB is usually the more adept one at opening them, but he wasn't very interested tonight. I did manage to get some video of Virga and Cirrus working hard to get one of the containers open. They eventually do, and either CB or Foehn (not sure which) joined them for a meal worm. We keep the light at a low level in the room, so the video is a little dark.

Virga works at getting a heart open for the meal worms inside

Shirt Tales

Now that the holidays are over and things have settled down again the gliders are back into their routine. M still gets up in the morning and brings them into the office for some yogurt and some exercise, and then gives them a kefir and meal worm snack in the afternoon. We really haven't done much time in the tent the last week because I've been letting them have the run of my office.  We put sheet on the floor and set up some of their toys. Once they get their evening treat, off they go. Well, at least three of them.  The last couple nights CB has crawled into my shirt for a nap, and seems to come out to play only when I'm ready to wind things up. 

They have also been spending time in M's shirt after their afternoon snack - all four of them. M usually wears a long sleeve cotton shirt over a long sleeve pullover and they are finding it very comfortable between the shirts. I'd take a photo but I don't think M really wants a photo of her looking like she is wearing an inner tube. Well, it's not that bad, but she does look pretty lumpy. The problem is that they don't always settle in one place, and move around her shirt finding a more comfortable place to settle down.  They seemed to be especially active today. There were a couple of exclamations for M this evening when she felt small areas of "warmth", shall we say, spreading on her shirt. So, we decided to start "office time" a little earlier. Right now CB is currently in my shirt starting think about coming out, Foehn is taking a nap in their soft-sided boat, and Cirrus and Virga are running in the wheel.. They have been going for well over an hour now, so it's about time for me to gather them up and get them back to the cage for their dinner and yet another nap. Ahh, the life.

A Bridge in the Distance

I recently learned that my sister, who raises and trains horses, had suffered a second unexpected loss of one of her horses in a matter of less than two months.  The first was a horse she had raised, trained, and rode for more than 12 years, a horse she had a special bond with. This horse succumbed to a sudden infection. A few days ago she lost Snickers, a 9-month old filly, in a freak accident. I had a chance to give Snickers a scratch between the ears when I was there on a visit last summer when she was a little over a month old. She had a good temperament, was friendly, and a good looking horse. A twinge of sadness came over me when I learned of the accident, not just for Snickers, but especially for my sister because I know how much she cares for her horses.

Occasionally I read through the Real Stories forum on Glider Central. This is where members post stories about medical and other challenges with their gliders, or memorials for gliders that have passed away, euphemistically called "crossing the rainbow bridge". Many of the stories are poignant, and it's clear that the glider owners feel a real sense of loss. When I read these I sometimes wonder how I will feel when one of our gliders passes away - not that I am looking for that to happen anytime soon. We have only been at this a little over a year, but in that time these four energetic marsupials have definitely captured our hearts. We know their personalities and they pretty much know what to expect from us. They have bonded with us and us with them.  It will be a little difficult to deal with when they are gone. 

There was a time when I did not quite get why some people got as upset as they did over the loss of a pet. I had pets as a child, mostly what I call "look at" pets - turtles, chameleons, goldfish, etc.  We did get a dog when I began high school and she was terrific. However, after I left for college I spent little time with her and what attachment I had faded away as the years passed.  To that point I never had suffered the loss of a pet that I was really attached to. In the many years since, through the experiences of family and friends, I came to realize how pets can become part of the fabric one's life and family. That's where we're at now. I hope the bridge remains just a speck on the horizon for a long time.

A Bit of a Scare

I was still in a morning haze in bed Wednesday when I heard M calling me from the family room. She had gotten up to bring the gliders into the office for their morning yogurt and exercise (sounds like a spa, doesn't it?). As is often the case, Cirrus was still out and about the cage. Cirrus climbed on to M's robe, which normally is followed by a short trip to the office. Well, this time Cirrus had other ideas. She quickly jumped to the outside top of the cage and then crawled to the bottom where M could not reach her. Virga was already out of the pouch and climbing on M, so she decided to get the three of them into the office and come back and get Cirrus. The trip to the office and back is 30 seconds at most. When M came back out to get Cirrus, she was nowhere to be found. There was no scurrying of little feet or other sounds that would point to a likely location.  That's when I got the call.

Typically when one of the gliders is loose you can here them running around. As I slowly went through the family room and adjoining rooms I didn't hear a sound. That was not good. Cirrus is a very active glider and she especially has a good time in the morning, so it wasn't likely that she hunkered down to sleep in that amount of time. With some dread I went down into the basement to see if she might be there. I checked the areas near the stairs and did not see or hear anything. I headed back upstairs to look around some more, but no luck. On place I did not check in the basement was the area we discovered Foehn in during their summer "breakout".  I went back downstairs and checked the utility area. Within seconds I heard and then saw Cirrus climbing around the stuff down there. She was not about to come to me or let me grab her - she was having far too good of a time. I dashed upstairs and grabbed a pouch and went back down. I held out the pouch and she crawled right in. She joined the rest of the gang in the office moments later, but not before she got a little bit of a talking to by me. That leaves Virga as the only one who hasn't headed to the basement, and we'd like to keep it that way.

It still amazes me how fast the gliders can move. It also amazes me that they can get down the stairs so fast. Getting down the stairs is the easy part - getting up the stairs appears to be more daunting.

The basement stairs - a tall order for a small glider.