Paired Glider Behavior change.

Question
In a pinch, I have 1 4 year old male, and 3-4 year old female. The male had been alone for the first 3 years, besides our handling, he loves spending time outa cage. We decided to introduce the female, the 2 have been together almost a year now, had ruff start but the 2 got along much better in pouch soon after we made em a nesting box. The 2 rarely argued in the cage just in a pouch they would crab and shake the cage since the nesting box only minor crab once in blue moon nothing violent as first experienced... we hoped that solved everything, been about 8 months since the change.

Recently tho, about a month ago the pair have become extremely inactive, slowly, the male will run in the one of 2 wheels, but she doesn't run near as much as him, and she has started putting on a lot of weight, she started off 2/3's his size and now is bigger. I wonder if she might be preggers, but i cant tell if she has lumps or not since the weight gain. i feel i may need to enlarge the nest hole if she is preg, because she wont fit if she gets bigger in the belly. when they are in the nesting box our male will try to kill anything that enters, even a pieces of fleece. He has always been protective of his box but this is a bit mean. she even crabs... which is a ultra rare.. she is so tame you can wake her from a dead sleep and she wont crab. our male is a little less tame, we can handle and play with both outside of the nesting box with no problems, they wont bite or anything but as soon as they go in, he will try to take a chunk out....

fyi: We feed them
Fresh fruit, variety,
Staple, we get from suncoast,
Protein, usually egg, cooked, sometimes meal worm and crickets
Vit,mineral supp, and rep-cal supp

If you have any ideas please advise.

Answer
Hello,

First, you need to get rid of the nesting box.  Obviously, the male considers it "his" and is way too possessive about it.  Clean out the cage thoroughly to eliminate smells, then put in a pouch for them to nest in.  

As for the inactivity and overweight problem, put some new, interesting toys in the cage.  Add veggies to their diet, and see if that helps.  

Carry the new pouch around with you during the day to help all of them become more tame.  See my article about bonding at nc.sugar.gliders.googlepages.com.

Hope this helps, keep in touch.

Betty