We Sugars 3 (from a glider POV)

Perfect Pocket Pets... we ARE, but we hate them. Does that make sense?

2010-02-07T14:13:00.001-07:00

Some people wonder what we have against places like Perfect Pocket Pets. I mean we ARE perfect, right? Yeah, but the lies they tell about us cat get us killed by a cat, or land us with Hind Leg Paralysis from a calcium deficiency. And THAT is far from perfect. So here ya go, from Spin4Suggies,

TOP 20 REASONS NOT TO BUY A SUGAR GLIDER FROM VENDORS AT FAIRS, SHOWS, MALLS, EXPOS & FESTIVALS

1. They lie about where their gliders come from

2. Their gliders are often sick with giardia and/or coccydia which can kill the gliders and is transferrable to your other pets and even to people

3. They lie about proper sugar glider care and nutrition

4. The gliders they sell are often underweight

5. The gliders they sell have often been taken from their parents too young and are not ready to be on their own

6. Their cages are too small to be suitable for gliders

7. Their products, including the cages, diet components, pouches, and the gliders themselves are extremely over priced

8. Their gliders often come from mill breeding facilities where gliders are kept in over crowed, unsanitary conditions

9. They advocate the use of heat rocks which are both unnecessary and dangerous for gliders

10. They took it upon themselves to change the name of an entire species from sugar glider to “sugar bear” just to keep you from finding good care, information, and advice when you look up the animal on the internet

11. They tell you that these are easy animals to care for when they actually have special needs

12. They tell you not to listen to anyone but them out of fear that you will find out they are lying to you about these animals

13. They will not allow you to tour their facility or see in person where their gliders are born and raised

14. Their gliders have often been severely inbred leading to deformities and genetic issues like HLP (Hind Leg Paralysis)

15. They tell you these animals never need vet care when they actually DO need vet care and can ONLY be seen by glider knowledgeable exotic vets

16. They tell you sugar gliders will get along with your other pets, when in reality, it is dangerous to let your other pets near a sugar glider as the glider might be injured or even eaten

17. They tell you sugar gliders can survive on nothing but glide-r-chow, glide-a-mins, bread, and apples… in reality, they need a specific calcium to phosphorous ratio and a specific amount of protein in their diet.

18. They tell you gliders do not smell if you do not feed them meat… first of all, they are NOT vegetarians, they are OMNIVORES and they REQUIRE a protein (meat) source in their diet and second of all, the MALES all have SCENT GLANDS on their heads and their chests… they will always have SOME scent once they hit puberty, and the ONLY way to lessen the odor at all is to have them neutered.

19. They don’t tell you important glider facts like how some are prone to a problem called SM (Self-Mutilation) where if they feel pain they are capable to EATING holes in their own bodies to “dig in to find the pain” and they can KILL THEMSELVES by doing so.

20. They claim the products they sell are manufactured by them… but they are actually PURCHASED by them and then repackaged with a new label, so they are taking credit for someone else’s work.

By the way, if you are reading a site that PRAISES PPP chances are they OWN it. Like...
www.sugarbears.com
www.pocket-pets.org
www.sugargliderinfo.org
www.mynasga.org
www.mynasba.org
www.sugarglidershere.com
www.ASGV.org

Hissing Cockroaches are DEEEEELISH!

2010-02-05T09:20:00.004-07:00

The other day we had our friends from MWPCC over to enjoy a delicious snack... Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches! Oh they are DELECTABLE!

They are also the exception to one of our family rules that really annoys us. NOBODY IN THE FAMILY IS ALLOWED TO EAT ANYBODY ELSE IN THE FAMILY.

We HATE that rule. Because we are "family" with parakeets, lizards, all delicious things for suggies. Family... Pffft! But that's the rule and Mama will not budge.

EXCEPT for hissers. The adults, those she names and keeps as pets, but their BABIES, she raises to sell, some as pets, but SOME as FEEDERS and that means feeders to US too! NUMMY YUMMY!

friends

2010-01-08T22:11:00.003-07:00

So, Human Mama is apparently lonely. WHY? She has US! We should really be enough to entertain her, but for some dumb reason she wants to meet more people in the real world. But at least she's smart enough to know she should hang out with people who understand us sugar gliders. People who don't might think she is weird for keeping little marsupials in a pouch in her shirt, and occasioanlly her bra. They might not understand why WE are the most important part of her social life. So at least if she hangs around with other humans who have suggies they can relate to each other as sugar mamas and sugar daddies. Unfortunately, here in Utah there aren't a LOT of us sugar glider and human families to play with. So she has to use the internet to find them. So she started this club:

Mountain West Pocket Critters Conference

On the other hand, we are never lonely. The 3 of us never separate EVER. Actually, once Mama accidentally left Nani in the cage and took Lilo and me (Heber) in the bonding pouch and thought she had all 3. I sort of freaked out. I jumped on her hand and even bit her and jumped to the stairs. She she rain to the stairs and then I climbed back up into the pouch. I was nicer once we headed back towards the cage and Mama knew I was pulling a Lassie and wanted to go there, and there she found Nani, all alone. He told me I was a hero and gave me a treat.

Because, yeah, we do NOT like to be apart... not ever.

Sharing

2009-12-03T23:14:00.003-07:00

Sharing is hard.

Our Human Mama often brings us with her shopping. We like the sway of our bonding pouch as she walks and usually just nap as she runs errands, except for Heber who peaks his head out all the time to see if there are new people to meet. One of our favorite places to go is PetCo because pets are ALLOWED in there so she never says Shhhhh.... or makes Heber go back down into the bag.

So we are IN PetCo and she is buying WONDERFUL things. CRICKETS. Some supplement Mealworms (she raises her own, but we are in a really weird lull between "crops" and everything is a beetle or a teensy mealie). We were there and SAW her buy these treats.

But then we get home.

Guess who she gives the crickets? Legolass, Mab, and Oberon! The Long-Tailed Grass Lizard and green tree frogs, themSELVES delicious snacks except for the dang family rule (Nobody in the Family is Allowed to Eat Anybody Else in the Family) And the lion's share of the mealies? JACK the new little baby Leopard Gecko she thinks is SOOOOO cute. CUTE?! Again... Lizard=SNACK FOOD. But whatever. nSHe WON'T let us eat him. She thinks he's almost as cute as us. But not quite. OBVIOUSLY.

Wanna Meet us in Real Life?

2009-11-29T15:32:00.004-07:00

So, we are VERY popular gliders. We have friends all over the world through Twitter and Facebook. But our human mama would also like some of this face-to-face thing. So, she is trying to pull together the Mountain West Pocket Critters Conference! It's a club for sugar gliders and their people and even other small exotics and their people to meet in PERSON (or, you know, in CRITTER) in and around Utah. So if that's you, you should join.

http://mwpcc.blogspot.com/

We love holidays

2009-11-23T20:50:00.003-07:00

We love Thanksgiving time so we are very excited for it! Our Human Mama gives us little bits of many of the foods they eat! So many glider safe foods at Thanksgiving! Now if only we could convince them to have a mealworm salad instead or a Jello one.

But Mmmmm.... Turkey! Sweet Potatoes! Carrots! Green beans! Green Salads! The list goes on! YUM... Thanksgiving!

What the Click?

2009-10-21T00:08:00.001-06:00

Clicker training? What does she think we are, golden retrievers?! Mom thinks she might try to clicker train us to come when she clicks, stuff like that. Well, we are not impressed! Okay, so far she is just giving us bits of Yoggies when she clicks, so, though the sound is REALLY annoying (we have very sensitive ears) we can put up with that. For now.

Going Pro?!

2009-09-21T20:56:00.003-06:00

Our Human Mom has been thinking about taking us a lot more often to do Educational shows. We have done a few classes at work, but she has been working with us so that we will be comfortable doing it more.

We will be teaching kids all about sugar gliders in the wild!

Bratanik will teach about Russian Tortoises, Tortuga will teach about RES Turtles, basically we are all going to be involved. (except Cali the cat, thanks goodness!)

Heber is pretty excited... Nani, not so much. What do you think. Are we ready to be PROFESSIONAL suggies?

WE are against Gliders as Pets? What are We? Livestock?

2009-09-03T01:57:00.004-06:00

We haven't been Tweeting a few days because Our Human Mom hasn't been feeling good, but we were catching up and found a WEIRD Tweet. It asked why we were SO AGAINST HAVING GLIDERS AS PETS.

WHAAAA?!?!

Ummm, we are totally NOT against that. That's what WE are. Some people act like "pet" is a dirty word,m but really, it's not a bad gig. We get food and toys given to us and we are dotted on all the time. We rather like our Human Colony Memmbers. There are no Dingos or Owls inside our house, if we get sick we are taken care of (though that is not fun) and actually, we exotic domestics live pretty well... in fact, WELL TAKEN CARE OF pet Gliders live as many as 15 years where as our cousins out in the rainforests of Australia live an average of only 8! Heber is about THAT already! Yikes!

Where the girl got that idea, we figure is that everytime someone tweets stuff like "OMG I SAW A SHUGAR GLIDER AT A FAIR I BAI IT NOW!!!" it freaks us out. So we send out things like "We R CUTE but do ur homework! We r HIGH MAINTENANCE! Nocturnal, out of cage time, fresh food(not kibble), cagemates, etc."

That doesn't mean nobody should buy sugar gliders, geez! That just means if you DO you should FIRST no that we are not super easy pets, we like to play at NIGHT, we need to get OUT of our cage at least a few hours every day, we need a good balanced diet not some crappy pellet diet the mill breeders try to pawn off at a fair, and we don't do well by ourselves! IF by telling people these things BEFORE THEY ADOPT A GLIDER it makes them totally NOT want a glider then, yeah, maybe they shouldn't get one.

Personally, our Mama knew all this stuff and still got us girls... and then later, even after having us, wanted Heber too... and someday, if she can ever afford it wants to adopt more. So I REEEEEALLY don't think we, or she, are against having gliders as pets. Do you?

We are just against getting gliders as pets, and then putting them in a hamster cage or feeding them birdseed or repackaged cat food or getting them for your kids for a year and thenm deciding the next year that your kids are tired of them and to "trade up" for a puppy.

[Suggies] Who Twitter - An Introduction

2009-07-27T16:32:00.007-06:00

So we should start this new blog with a little intro on us! We decided to do this survey style, and stole it from http://catswhotwitter.blogspot.com/ Even though we are NOT cats.

How did you find your forever home? (Or how did it find you?)

We will probably go into more detail on this someday, individually, but for now... After She met her first glider (her brother's friend's pitiful creature named Killer Pouncing Sugar Weasel who later lived with us awhile while she got healthier and tamer and was then rehomed to a forever home where she could be cagemates with another female named Shakira) our Human Mom fell head over heals (as most do) but (as most DON'T) started researching so that she could provide us with the best care possible. So it was a couple years before she even got her first, which was Epiphany Jo aka: Nani, from breeder Rebecca of My Sugar High. - Heber

Shortly after that she was joined by Lilo, from breeder Elisabeth of My Sugar High (yeah, the humans are sisters... confusing enough for ya?). - Nani

THEN a year or so, came Heber! He was a rescue, originally from Texas (as best we can tell) from a very nice family who LOVED him but had been told a lot of crap about our care. (Birdseeds?! Fruit Cocktail?! Hamster Cage?! AAAAAAHH!!!) So he was pretty close to dying when they contacted Her and asked if our Mom would take him in which of course she did. Also, unlike many times, Heber didn't get rehomed because our Human just fell in LOVE with him and he became part of our colony. WE love him too! - Lilo

What do you call the humans you live with?

We call BethAnn Mama, Her, Mom, or Our Human. While we travel a bit with Mom, SHE is our constant.

The OTHER humans are in and out... We call Her roommate, well, just that. Her brother is, Her Brother or The Boy. *Her* Mom is Our Human's Mom or if we are feeling particularly familial, Grandma. Or sometimes, The Lady with the Treats... we LIKE being spoiled.

What do you like to do, even though it drives your human(s) crazy?

We are PERFECT! What do you mean?

Oh, well, sometimes we bite The Boy, and Nani gets in crabby moods, and for some reason Mom does not like that we have learned to open cage doors. Now she LOCKS them at night which is very inconvenient when I want to LEAVE the cage and she is asleep. - Heber

Is there anything else you would like your twitter pals to know?

We have to share our Human with other animals which is very annoying. She tends to take in fosters and strays. Also, she has a Russian Tortoise called Bratanik, a Red Ear Slider Turtle called Tortuga, a couple of frogs called Fiona and Donkey, some fish, and most annoying of all She is friends with a Semi-Feral CAT named Cali who would very much like to eat us! Cali isn't allowed near us, of course, but we don't really like how much She LIKES Cali. I mean, it's not as if she is a sugar glider, after all.

Recommend 5 of your twitter friends to our readers:

@LuckyGlider is a great friend to suggies. They not only find homes for many sugar gliders out in Nevada, but are a good resource for glider information (have a great adaptation to HPW diet, etc), and spread the word about getting educated FIRST so that places like Perfect Pocket Pets don't continue to thrive and more gliders who NEED homes get FOREVER ones!

@kipluck is our Human Mom. She totally made us list her. Ha ha!

And 3 of the many fellow sugar gliders (or their humans)...

@Usha77 @Crockettsgirl @LilithGaea

@CaplinROUS is not a sugar glider. He is a Capybara, which is our Human's SECOND favorite animal (yes, we are the first.) but also our hero. He tweets, blogs, and is just AWESOME. We look up to him... unless we were in a tree, then we would look down on him. But in general, we totally want to be like him.

- Heber

And we don't even think of him as a large delicious mouse... usually. - Nani

I think he's cute. *giggle* -Lilo