Sugar Glider Joeys

About a month after Dizzi met Vicki, we were able to identify two "bumps" in Vicki's pouch area. From then on she became increasingly large and a bit awkward. We noticed that she was sleeping alot, and was a bit protective of you getting anywhere near her pouch.

Then, as if she knew exactly when Mother's day was, things started to progress very quickly. On May 12th, we got our first glance at the babies in Vicki's pouch.

Vicki was remarkably cooperative and trusting at this point. She let Theresa basically stretch her out and poke and prod so we could get a good look into the pouch.

On May 13th, the morning before Mother's Day, Theresa went to look at Vicki and noticed that one of the babies was hanging out of the pouch. This is normal as the pouch becomes overcrowded, but this is the first time we've had a good look at a baby. This picture also includes the father Dizzi snuggled up with Vicki so don't be confused.

By May 17th, we had seen both joeys out of the pouch. They're still attached, and their eyes are still closed. They don't have any fur but you can make out a faint stripe down their back. Vicki's been pretty good about tolerating us poking around at them.

You can see the joey's little toes and their little tail. You can imagine that space is a bit tight when she gets them all tucked into her pouch. I'm sure that's why they are occasionally out. Sometimes, Vicki makes a strange noise now, almost like she's doing the Lamaze breathing exercises only 10 times faster. We're not sure what it is but we hope it's nothing to worry about.

Here's a super-closeup, perhaps more than you wanted to see. You can see one of the joey's mouths attached to Vicki and his hands holding on very tightly. The fleshy membrane that you can see on Vicki is more or less the inside of her pouch. This picture is so clear that you can make out the beginnings of the fur on the joeys.

It's become a morning ritual now to go and check on the babies in the morning. They're changing a little bit each day. Today, we have occasionally seen them detach from Vicki. We have been able to identify that we have one male and one female.

Vicki doesn't let them stop her from climbing around. This is how they hold on to her while she's out and about.

On May 19th, Vicki showed up in one of the other rooms without her babies. I was alarmed and went and looked in the nesting box. That's where they were. They started making a wimpy sort of crabbing noise and she immediately climbed back into the box to take care of them.

Vicki actually left the babies in Theresa's shirt and one of them stuck it's head out, just like Vicki does. Isn't he cute?

At about one week out-of-pouch, Theresa started occasionally handling the joeys. We've read that the joey's would think of Theresa as "another Mommy". Nobody else handles the joeys so that bonding with their human should be easy. One of the joey's was a bit confused about the location of it's mommy's tit and tried to start sucking on Theresa's hand.

Here's a great picture of the little girl joey. Tentatively she's named Kristene Bell and she's destined to have Theresa's sister Elizabeth for a human. You can see the fur coming in nicely. We'd call this out-of-pouch about 11 days. Vicki sometimes leaves them with Dizzi (the dad), and has occasionally left them with Theresa, but she comes back to check on them every hour or so. Today Kristene was making crabbing-like noises on Theresa's finger and Theresa put some glider formula on her mouth and she got quiet.

Sorry for chopping off the head, but this is a nice sharp picture of Kristene's belly. You can just make out the round opening for her pouch. There's still no fur on the under-side. This is about 11 days out-of-pouch.

Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. The first tick-mark is one ounce but I wouldn't bet on it being accurate below about four ounces. Pretty clearly we need a more sensitive scale. We were wondering if the Post Office would mind us bringing in our glider and using their scales.

The joeys have been out-of-pouch now for 13 days. I haven't gotten nearly enough pictures of the little boy glider. As you can see, their fur is coming along nicely, even on the tail. It's nice to see the ears perking up too. For right now Theresa is calling him George, but that's just her generic guy-name.

The little boy joey puts up just as much fuss as the little girl when picked up by Theresa. They both start making this pitiful whining noise. I'm sure it's the normal "crabbing" noise, but they clearly haven't developed their voices yet.

Due to sexual harassment issues, we have to also show what the little boy's underside looks like, purely for educational purposes of course. I think I can see a little glimmer of the eyes opening in this picture too.

After being out of the pouch for two weeks, the joeys are starting to be a bit more active. Both of the parents routinely leave them alone. Today the parents left them in Theresa's shirt and Theresa was surprised to find the male had crawled out and was on the outside of her shirt.

Two weeks out of the pouch also seems to be the time when the joeys begin to open their eyes. They're not wide open yet, but you can easily see Kristene's eyes in this picture. I hope she doesn't mind my flash. We recorded a little sample of her crabbing noises today too.

Both of the joeys now have their eyes open more or less. Here Kristene is posing for the picture while George is hiding his face from the camera.

George (in front) is bit more timid than Kristene but we managed to sucker him into a good look at the camera. With a little imagination you might be able to tell that George's spot on the top of his head is slightly bigger than Kristene's. This is where one of George's scent glands are. According to Theresa, he can already cause a stink.

Kristene is getting a little tired of this photo shoot and is starting to fuss for her mother. They were pretty content to crawl around on the couch for 10 or 15 minutes.

We've managed to get Kristene to show a little bit of interest in the Glider formula that we feed the adults. After this picture, the joeys climbed aboard Theresa and hid in her hair. This is probably the most out-going they've been. This is at 16 days out-of-pouch.

Kristene wanders around on Theresa. Theresa says she's developing a personality. I guess she means that Kristene gets curious about things and investigates.

We have been taking the whole nesting box downstairs with us in the evenings. It's kind of fun because both Vicki and Dizzi will leave the joeys, run to the kitchen or upstairs to the sewing room, or our bedroom. They'll wander around for 30 minutes or an hour and then go back downstairs and climb back in the nesting box with the joeys. Theresa feeds them treats downstairs. She's tried to get the joeys interested but they still prefer Mommy.

We're now at about 23 days out-of-pouch and the joeys are getting stronger. Their eyes are wide open and their fur looks fully developed. They still don't venture out on their own but when Theresa takes them out they will wander a foot or so. They're starting to walk instead of crawl and even do a little climbing. Mostly they climb over each other.

See that nice jet-black furry tail? I'm pretty sure this is Kristene because she seems determined to avoid looking into the camera today.

It's amazing how such small creatures can feel connected to us large creatures. George was starting to fuss and Theresa kind of snuggled him with her nose and he quieted down.

"Wow, that first step is a doozie!" George peeks over the edge of the couch.

The little guys willingly climb aboard Theresa's hand and cling to a finger or two. George is on top and Kristene is on the bottom. Look at those tails, they're like coiled springs. This is 23 days out-of-pouch, but a little later both joeys climbed onto Vicki and she went to the other room, climbed up the fireplace, and crawled into a birdhouse that sits on our mantle, and took the babies with her. Vicki, Dizzi, and the two joeys were all in there and we just had to wait for them to come back out.

These joeys have been out-of-pouch for about a month now and they're starting to act like little gliders. So we're starting to think about owners and timeframes. Here, Theresa is trying to coax Kristene into eating glider formula but she's not really very interested.

Kristen demonstrates her ability to grip. She's perfectly happing walking on the underside of Theresa's arm.

George gets a taste of glider formula and is not impressed.

A wonderful closeup of George at one month out-of-pouch.

Kristene looks for a place to hide in Theresa's hair.

Here's Kristene at 44 days out of pouch. She looks like a fully mature glider to me, at least as far as having all of her fur and a nice tail, etc. She now comes out of the purse she rides in on her own. According to Theresa, she doesn't like to be disturbed when she's sleeping, she'll crab if the box is bumped. It's almost time to send these guys off to their adoptive humans.

Here's George at 44 days out of pouch. It looks like Theresa's Mom is going to take George and keep the name. Theresa tried to wean them over the last week but George was very resistant. He'd get upset when he couldn't get to his mommy (Vicki) and would immediately suckle when returned. But it's getting close to time to send these guys off to their adoptive humans.