Aggression after joeys

Sassy is my female SG, she is 11 months old. She is housed with Peanut, our male that is 13 months old. We took these two in as a rescue from a friend that got sick and could not take care of them any more. I was contemplating adopting or buying sugar gliders, but wasn't sure at first. This opportunity came up and it felt right. Anyway, Sassy has birthed her first set of twins (first pregnancy also). The joeys became OOP 5/31/12 and she has let Peanut daddy-sit the joeys. (I know this is a good thing) However, when she does not have the joeys, or is not in their house, she strikes at the cage door when I am putting their food in the cage. She also tries to "ram" you when you put your hand in. This is a new aggressive behavior that she has not shown before. I have had her since she was approximately 12 weeks OOP and this is not in her norm. I was just wondering if it had something to do with her being protective of the joeys since they are now OOP. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

GliderMama
Kristi

I am not sure this link is allowed but if it is, you may want to read the two about handling babies and mom. Also first time mom.
http://newagegliderssuggiew.forumsmotion.com/f16-breeding-sugar-gliders-handling-joey
It sounds like your female has kicked you out of her family or colony. Also like she maybe food agressive toward you or territorial toward you. In behavior on same board is a sound clip of territorial crabbing.

Have you held the joeys away from the parents?
Did the joeys "nitch", cry, skunk you, or sqwack for the parents? If so how did the mom and dad sugar glider react?
Did her behavior start after you started handling the joeys?
Is it only at night and during supper time when you bring the food?

She really should not be carrying the joeys around on her back in the cage, she should leave them in the nest. If you have a nest box you can feed the parents treats also.

I have read a few posts on breeders mentioning that their male is a sweetie if there are no joeys involved but gets "mean" when he has babies, even to the point of not being able to handle the dad. When this happens to me it means you either don't have a good trust(bond) or that you have broken the bond by scaring the baby and the parents are upset about it and telling you so by their behavior. My parents don't act any different when they have joeys toward me. I don't give them a reason to be upset with me either.

You may want to try and take the whole family out in their sleeping pouch and just have them on your lap and feed mom and dad a few treats. Also if allowed pet mom, dad, and baby. When you look in the pouch watch how mom either sits on joeys to protect or is she comfortable. It may give insight on whether it's a trust problem with you and the babies or a food aggression.After awhile you may want to use a family(glider) scent blanket to handle the joey in until he/she knows your smell and touch.

Second thing is to feed the sametime and when she wakes up. Open cage enough so you can slip part of dish inside so she can get a bite. Hold dish still so she doesn't think the food is being taken away. Then do same, if it works as you open the cage, let her get first bite.
Can feed her a snack an hour or so before you feed and it might curb her hunger. Are you increasing their food amount?

daddyglider wrote:

I have read a few posts on breeders mentioning that their male is a sweetie if there are no joeys involved but gets "mean" when he has babies, even to the point of not being able to handle the dad. When this happens to me it means you either don't have a good trust(bond) or that you have broken the bond by scaring the baby and the parents are upset about it and telling you so by their behavior. My parents don't act any different when they have joeys toward me. I don't give them a reason to be upset with me either.

I don't totally agree with that statement. As first time parents, they may just be a bit more nervous and protective of their new babies; that can be very normal behavior. It does not mean you don't have, or you have broken your bond with them.

I do agree that if you didn't have a bond with them to begin with, then yes, they could just be over protective of their joeys because they don't trust you yet. If they don't trust you themselves, then they aren't going to trust you with their joeys.

Even with first time moms, if you have a bond/trust and have been handling mom, dad, and joeys in pouch there should not be a change. Unless us humans have changed the way we do things with the babies. Changing cage location, changing nest area, The way we are handling sugar gliders can be very disturbing to them. You may need to look back and see if anything was changed even if it seems small to us it may be a big deal to the parents.

I have to disagree that the parents know the difference in a joey cry or skunk, in human handling and a baby on the cage floor, unless they come check on the baby in your hands. I think they become somewhat oblivious to baby crys. So if a baby crawls out of pouch and to the floor(say because of a clean pouch with no parent smell in it) and crys the parents will think you have the baby and not respond to the baby's distress. Is that what you mean Shelly?
I believe that parents that check on babies and are always around are good attentive parents and not over protective, they should be watching over their young and be very attentive toward them and not liking you making the babies be in distress or have to use a skunking defensive mechanism. Just my way of viewing things.

Art