My nippy little glider...

Question
Hey, I am a new sugar glider owner as of a couple weeks ago. Unlike most sugar gliders from what I have heard and have read, it took my glider just 2 days to get comfortable with me rather than a couple weeks or months. He is about 7 weeks oop now and he's great but I only have one problem. Everytime I get him out he gets very nippy. He doesn't seem mad at all and has NEVER drawn blood but he has this nasty little habit of chew'n on my fingers and arms, sometimes just my shirt. Not horribly painful but a nice little pinch sometimes. Can you explain to me why he is doing this and how I can teach him not to do it possibly? All I have read is that they do not understand negative responses so if that is the case I have no idea how to teach him the good and the bad. Thanks alot and please help! lol

Answer
Dear Travis.  

Congratulations on your new sugar glider.  

However, someone did a very, very bad thing by allowing you to take home a joey that was only 5 weeks old.  Sugar gliders should not be removed from their mother and nursing until 8 weeks at a minimum.  I sure hope what you wrote was a mistake or that you were misinformed, but if he is 7 weeks out of pouch now and you have had him two weeks, that would have made him 5 weeks old when he left his mother.  I am not putting you down or blaming you, because I'm sure you didn't know, but that is wrong, wrong, wrong.  This upsets me so much.  The breeder who ripped this baby away from its mother so young should be told that it is wrong, and if they do not correct this problem and refrain from doing this again, they should be reported to the USDA.  Assuming they are not licensed and do not correct the problem, I would report them to the local humane society.  

You are lucky your sugar glider bonded so quickly, but you are even more lucky that your sugar glider survived.  I sincerely hope you take the initiative to call the person who gave or sold you this joey and set this straight so it does not happen again.

As far as the nippyness goes, that is something he will probably grow out of.  He is still learning what is food and what is not.  Sugar gliders are orally fixated and will explore with their mouths.  In the wild, they will bite the bark on trees and lick the sap.  He will likely grow out of this phase.  If he begins to bite hard enough to draw blood, you can .gently. blow on him and that should take his attention off biting.  

Best of luck with your new baby.

Laurie