handmade Sugar glider bonding pouch

TOO CUTE!

Arwen in her Sling Bonding Pouch...be sure to scroll down for a few more cute pics of this neat pouch!

All about my NEW Sugar Glider Bonding Pouch....Sling style!

The Bosom Buddy "Sling" Bonding Pouch for Sugar Gliders
and a "discussion" of safe pouches...

I am always trying to find/make the BEST pouch, and while I realize what works for me and my sugar gliders doesn't work for everyone, I still like to offer my ideas to others in the hopes someone says "THAT is just what I needed!" and I make them happy.

There are alot of different styles of pouches and many different beliefs on what is safe and what isn't. Personally I feel that every item we put in a sugar glider cage can pose some sort of risk. 100% safe is impossible.   What one person looks at and says is safe, another person will look at and see it in a different perspective and say it is not safe at all, or safe but SOME risk. As a care-taker of these amazing animals we need to make rational and responsible decisions for the animals in our care. Freak accidents do and will happen. With that in mind, everything I make, each and every item, I strive to make safe. Let us be honest here, I LOVE all animals! But my Arwen is like a child to me, and if I feel a product is good for her, then it is good for all sugar gliders! But not everyone will agree with my ideas, and that is ok!

Take windows on pouches for instance. While the first pouches I bought and made had windows, after a while I started to realize that if I took both my girls traveling, they seemed to always be up, restless, peaking out the window, trying to hide their faces. They slept better if I covered the window with a piece of fleece. But what about ventilation? That is why I added ventilation holes. (Of course if you feel you need more holes you may always ask and I would be happy to add more at no extra charge!) There are concerns about the sugar gliders getting enough air...Well even with a window or not, I wouldn't put ANY pouch zipped up and under MULTIPLE layers of clothing! ESPECIALLY if the pouch had joeys in it! In my pouches with the ventilation ("peek") holes I have put them under 3 layers of clothes with no problem. But again with layering, it may not be the pouch that is the problem, perhaps it is the LAYERS of clothing! While I make sure all my pouches are "breathable" what kind of material are YOU wearing? If you take a perfectly safe pouch and put it under 2 or 3 layers of material that is NOT breathable, your sugar glider could suffer!

Zippers on pouches...I do not approve of using zippered pouches in a cage. Only for traveling! Here again others may disagree. My Gizmo doesnt care if I zipper her up or not. My Arwen gets agitated if I zipper the pouch! She will fight like crazy until I open it! Then she looks up at me, realizes everything is ok, and goes back to sleep. She would do this even in a pouch with a window! Like she didn't want to look at me THROUGH the window and she still knew she was "locked in"? Who knows? So after a year of observing them in zippered windowed pouches, I started looking for another style, couldn't find it, and taught myself to sew so I could make my own.

That is how I came up with the style bonding pouches I make and use. I also took into consideration what I wanted in a pouch. No "cords", no detachable straps (although some people like that....my hubby and I would misplace them) and I love adjustable straps! Sometimes I need that in a strap! Everyone likes to carry differently when "packing fuzz" so I felt an adjustable strap was best.

Now....what makes my Buddy Bonding Pouch different? Why did I design it that way? Well for starters I had to keep the adjustable strap thing. I knew I still wanted to use "peak holes" instead of a window. Wanted to add a zipper for those who need or like a zippered pouch (sorry Arwen!). I wanted a pouch that rather than hang on your neck, could be worn sling style.   There are 2 benefits to this! First there is not the weight hanging on your neck, second the pouch stays more "stable" when you move around. Sometimes when you bend over or swing around quickly that pouch goes "weeee" and my sugar gliders are like "hey is this a ride? we are trying to sleep here!"
So I experimented with adding clips to the bottom of the pouch to hold it to your shirt, and all sorts of silly things. Finally I decided I just had to make the strap longer so that I could toss it over my arm. I loved it! Of course with my Comfy Corner pouch that works too, but the shape of the square pouch made carrying it on my front sorta weird when I threw the strap over my arm, on the side works...but the front...well...looked funny. The pouch wouldnt hang straight down, it was sorta lopsided and stuck out funny. So I knew I had to redesign again and make the pouch in a shape that would hug my body and still hang down correctly when the strap is worn sling style. That is the reason for the "tear drop" shape. You can position the pouch down on your side and it works well there, or position the pouch up on your chest, and it hangs well there too. Sometimes I position it just under one breast and it hides quite nicely there.   What I like is I can dance all around and the pouch doesnt swing out and around as much. It hugs the body better!

Size? Well I wanted to make a smaller pouch that would be snuggly to one or two gliders. Too much material in a bigger pouch just gets bulky feeling. So this pouch is really for one or two gliders. MY 2 girls fit in it quite nicely and they are comfy in it. They have gone the whole day in this pouch and didnt wake up one time! Well....except when I needed to see their faces and bribed them with a treat! While I love to bring them all over, I really want them to get their beauty sleep as well! The strap is a generous 55" long or so! Lots of room to make adjustments here! There is also one of those little loop thingies that hold the "extra" strap! The Zipper is a 9" zipper. The pouch at the narrow end is about 3" and at the deepest end is about 6".

Material? Here again there will always be people who disagree. Fleece is the recommended material for sugar gliders. I like flannel as well. I have experimented alittle on using "jersey" and will let you know what I think there. I find that every material can pose a problem if your sugar gliders' nails are not kept healthy. My girls don't snag on anything. But the boys...well....it is harder keeping their nails in good shape, and they snag on everything, even fleece! That's usually when we know it is time to add the trim wheel to the cage! So I typically use fleece, as the fuzziness seems to help keep them from getting stuck, it breathes, and is snuggly. I like to use flannel as my girls love it, it breathes nice, is good for summer pouches, lets go of nails easily, and doesn't pose a safety issue if the edges and seams are sewn properly. Plus it is soft next to my skin and so makes great pouches for under your clothes!
While I will use 2 layers of fleece is cage pouches, I typically do not in a bonding pouch with a zipper. The pouch just gets too bulky for my taste and my sewing machine doesn't like it too much either!
As for zippers...I tried using those "hidden" zippers, don't like those much, hard to open and close, so now I just use regular zippers you can find at Walmart.

Please check out the photos of this pouch and feel free to email me with any questions, concerns, or customizing issues you may have!