Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Meet Our New Pets!



This is Gwen. She is a Sugar Glider. We also have her brother, Ben.



They were born July 31, 2009 and we got them last Saturday, when they were 8 weeks old. Here is what they looked like when they were born.



Sugar Gliders are marsupials, so a cousin of the kangaroo, but much smaller, of course. They live in the tops of trees. The females have a pouch. They are great family pets because once they get to know you, you become part of their family. They love you unconditionally. Not like hamsters or gerbils who would run away the first chance they got. These are more like tiny dogs. :) They are called sugar gliders because they can "fly" by gliding. I read that they can glide the length of a football field.

Anyway, we just got them and they are still babies so they are trying to get used to us. Gwen, the girl, is so sweet. She will already climb all over us and isn't scared at all. Ben is still skittish and doesn't like us too much. He yells at us when we come close, but he is getting better. Last night he climbed on me twice. I had to be perfectly still though. :)

The only bad thing is, is that they are nocturnal, and right now they aren't waking up until after 11 at night. This is not making the boys happy. We were able to wake them up last night, so they got to see them a little bit before bed time, but Gwen was not happy. She was a bit freaked out about being woken up. We are trying to change their schedule so they wake up after dinner. We'll see.

We built them a huge cage and they are in our extra room upstairs. They love exploring it. :) We have been up until after midnight playing with them. The other night they were playing hide and seek with each other in the curtains. It was cute. I also made all of the toys and accessories for their cage. I am pretty crafty! Who would've thought?!

They are incredibly hard to take pictures of because 1) they are quick and move constantly and 2) it has to stay dark because light hurts their eyes. So the room is dark and I can't use a flash. I finally got a few pictures last night, but they aren't great.

Anyway, we love our new pets, and it is helping Sam get over losing Angel a little bit. :)


Gwen eating in her "kitchen".

Gwen coming out of her pouch. (They sleep and feel much more comfortable in pouches.)

Gwen

1 comments:

Jenny said...

So are they going to get the size of a small dog? How do you potty train them? I have never heard of them before. Can you pick them up at your local pet store?