True Sugar Glider Stories and BehaviorHere I will be posting funny and incredible stories about my own Sugar Gliders! These stories will give you an idea of sugar glider behavior. They are all very different in personality, all are individuals!
Frodo the Movie Star (story added Nov. 2009)My Husband sometimes feels a wee bit jealous because I always say how beautiful my Arwen is (she is!) and tell everyone all about her. I tell so may great stories about her! But my first story on this site is about HIS handsome Frodo. Frodo is really the most handsome sugar glider I have ever seen! In fact we took him to one of those Mill Breeder types that were doing a "show" in front of a crowd and when we pulled Frodo out and held him up we actually heard a gasp or two and a few chins hit the floor and eyes opened wide, and some were by the mill breeder guys!!!
Frodo really is a movie star! You will get to see him in a movie coming out spring/summer of 2010 called "Morning Glory". He actually did a scene with Diane Keaton! We had an offer to use one of our sugar gliders in a small part in a movie. I so wanted Arwen to get the part, but in the try outs she would NOT leave my arm and stuck to me like glue then ran down my shirt so fast and hid in my bra, the actor was like "were did she go?" So out came Frodo. He was all charm and cooperated wonderfully! He did all he was supposed to do, which was act like a sugar glider, and go down a sleeve, climb on the actress (Diane Keaton), and even poop on her which was great! Diane Keaton seemed to enjoy the sugar gliders thoroughly and we were able to chat with her abit about them. She agreed they are the cutest animals ever. We got the part through Steve Mcaulif of "Animal Actors" who also got us involved with the movie "Sorcerer's Apprentice" in which I assisted in the training of the wolves in the movie.
Sugar Glider Intelligence? (story added Nov. 2009)
Arwen the sugar glider has shown me that sugar gliders are much smarter than the average cat or dog. Sugar Glider Behavior is as individual as human behavior!
SUGAR GLIDER VS LASER POINTER
I routinely play with my sugar gliders with "chase and catch" toys such as feathers, leaves, palm leaves with a freeze dried cricket tied on at the end, and make the toy "run" around so the sugar gliders will chase them. One day I decided that if my cat loved chasing that red dot from a laser pointer, perhaps the sugar gliders would as well.
I figure if the average cat or dog will chase a laser for quite a while and will every day, then it would be an inexpensive and entertaining toy for a sugar glider! Imagine making your sugar gliders chase that dot up the curtains! What fun would that be?
It was fun for about 10 seconds! It took about 10 seconds for Gizmo and Arwen to realize that chasing that dot was silly as when they got to it and tried to grab it, there was nothing there! They would actually look sort off quizzically at their hands! I was quite impressed. But then the next second showed me just to what depths sugar glider intelligence may really go! Arwen looks at the dot as I move it and she than looks at my hand holding the pointer. Each time I move it she looks from the dot to the pointer. The THIRD time she looks at the dot, she jumps on my hand and proceeds to "kill" the very tip of the pointer where the dot comes out. This whole thing took about 10 seconds and only 2 times thinking about it while looking back and forth between the dot and the pointer and the third time realization occurred and instant decision on what to do!
I was amazed that they figured it all out so fast! Definitely sugar gliders are the smartest little people I know!
Gizmo and the Puzzle Toy
In an attempt to test out sugar glider intelligence a little bit more, I buy or make some puzzle type toys, such as the kind made for parrots.
I bought one toy that is a cylinder shape and the treat spot needs to be twisted to pull it out and get to the treat hidden inside. I put a yummy treat in there, walk out of the room, come back about 2 minutes later and the toy is open and Gizmo happily munching! I have sat and watched Gizmo and Arwen hold onto the toy with one hand and deftly open the toy with the other. I am constantly on the hunt for harder puzzle toys for them (if you know of any that would be sugar glider safe please let me know!)
THE MIND OF ARWEN Story added Dec. 2009When you spend any length of time with me, even as short as a minute, it becomes painfully apparent that my world rises and sets wherever my beloved Arwen is playing. The mind of a Sugar glider is an amazing thing. Here are 2 instances that have shown me there is a depth to sugar gliders that most of the world will never know but people who are owned by sugar gliders see every day. Sugar Glider Behavior is never a dull thing to experience! They are true individuals!
"It's mine...Ha I got it!"
One morning during play time, my Arwen and her mom Gizmo are being fed a cookie treat. Now normally when these 2 girls eat they will readily share their food. The will literally eat food from the others mouth and no one complains, except when it comes to these cookies. Then you see some really funny stuff, hiding faces, shouldering out of the way, all sorts of funny things. But this time it was hysterical, if I hadnt seen it myself I would never believe it! Gizmo is eating her cookie treat and of course Arwen wants it (she ate her own treat already!) Well Gizmo puts her "hand" on Arwen's head to hold her back and Arwen is trying to reach the cookie but cannot. Arwen then reaches around to Gizmo's shoulder and taps her, and when Gizmo turns to look, Arwen grabs the cookie while she is distracted and runs away with it! Gizmo of course looks up at me like "well?"
Arwen versus the pinewood derby car
In my glider play room I have a shelf we put up pretty high that has my son's pinewood derby cars on it. Arwen of course was the first one to figure out how to get all the way up there. Arwen would only go up on that shelf if I was either reading (instead of playing with her) or if I had to leave the room for a short moment. On these and ONLY these occasions she would go up there, and out of the corner of my eye I would watch to see what she would do.
She would sit next to a car and test it to see if she could move it. When she realized it would roll, she would look around, look at me, and of course I would pretend to ignore her, and she would push the car off the shelf! Then go to the edge and look down at it then at me and wait. Of course I always rewarded her by immediately getting up and petting her and telling her just how smart she is!
One day one of the cars broke (sad, but I was able to fix it) and I decided I had better move them. Since she always rolled them off the shelf end, I figured that the 3 cars left in the middle section of the shelf (which is designed in such a way that the cars cannot be ROLLED off on their wheels, as there are small dividers) they would be safe. After all she wouldn't PUSH them SIDEWAYS would she? She had been rolling them as that was easy. Imagine pushing your car sideways and you will see the similarity.
Well, one day as I am "ignoring" her again, she goes to her shelf, sees I am ignoring her, and tries to push the car off. When it gets to the end of the shelf and she realizes it wont go (because of the small divider) she sits ON the car "thinking". After a second or two, she puts her 4 feet on the wall, her back to the car and shoves with all her might! Well of course the car slides a bit. She goes to the edge of the shelf and looks down and at me and at the car. Goes back to her position and shoves again! Little by little my darling sugar glider does this until the car goes crashing down! She looks at me, I say "Arwen!" and she jumps to me and lands on my face and then "whispers" to me. What a funny girl!
PS "whispers"- what I call it when she makes these little tiny airy whispery sounds at me face (I am the only one she does it to) I think she does it because whenever I pick her up I whisper "my sweet Arwen" to her face over and over.
Her first glide Story added Jan. 30, 2010
This happened when Arwen was about 6 months OOP. She has only done small jumps so far. The longest being about 20-24 inches. her Mom....nothing. small hops only. and she does everything very carefully. everything! well Sunday Arwen, Gizmo (mom) and I are enjoying our new glider room. Arwen realizes if she climbs the pole jumps small jump to shelf, runs across the top and another small jump to the other shelf and gets on the uppermost point and looks at me...she can glide 6 feet to my face! she loved it so much she runs down to the floor, across to the pole, and does the route again....6 times! and each time she lands on my face or chest she stops a moment to LOOK at me as if to say "look what I did!" she was definitely doing it for fun! well...the whole time Gizmo is watching us. Just sitting on the shelf near the "launch pad" just watching. after Arwen's 6th time she stops and sits on my lap and now looks at her mom. Gizmo slowly goes to the "launch site" and puts her nose WAY out. but doesnt jump. so I move alittle closer...she lifts one foot and I move closer and tell her its ok...and she jumps! only about 2 feet but the first time for her too!. well she runs right to Arwen and the 2 of them look at me...very intently...and then proceed to nuzzle eachother with all sorts of happy sounds and then they both come to me and assume the "cricket position" (that's sitting on my chest and looking at me till I feed them one) no one could have seen that and not realized the dynamics of the relationship and events. Gizmo no longer looks at me disdainfully when I wake her up either!
I am so proud of them I just had to share
(Arwen is over a year old now, but this story still remains special to me, every day she (they) do something that just warms my heart) I love all my furry family, but my dear Arwen is someone truly special.
WHO TRAINED WHO? Story added April 7, 2010Sugar Gliders are such amazing animals. With each day I am able to spend with my dear sugar glider Arwen, I feel I am truly blessed. The depth of intelligence and moods and personality of a sugar glider never cease to amaze me.
I have trained two of my sugar gliders to come to me when I call their names as well as to jump on me on command. It was quite easy to do as sugar gliders are easily motivated for a favorite treat, and in the case of my sugar gliders especially if that treat is a cricket.
So we have developed a routine. Where ever my sugar gliders are during play time, when I call them and pat my chest, they will jump to me, and they get a cricket.
I have a small container I keep the treats in and of course they also recognize it. I will leave it in another spot, to ensure they are responding to the commands and not the container. Sometimes I leave it there during playtime and occasionally they will find it and try desperately to open it.
I am truly amazed as my dear sugar glider Arwen has taken it one step further. Dare I say she has “REASONED”???
One morning after a terrific battle with the treat container which my dear sweet sugar glider, Arwen, lost (she couldn’t get it open), her little head calculated that every time she had JUMPED on me she would get a treat. I watched her go up the shelf to her favorite launching site and she jumped on me. Landing on my chest. Well of course I laughed and gave her a cricket. But at this point I figured she was playing and the whole thing was a coincidence. Well…..NO. Now every time she goes to the container and if she cannot get it open, she will go straight to the shelf and jump to my chest and wait for her treat. Which of course being the well trained human I am, I give it to her!
She has learned to train me!
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