How do you know if your sugar glider is stressed

Why is My Sugar Glider Shaking?

If your sugar glider is shaking, it might be due to a number of reasons. If your glider is shaking in a strange way, you need to know whether there is a problem.

In this article, youll learn about the symptoms of stress in your glider, how to spot if your sugar glider is stressed, and how to diagnose stress in sugar gliders. Youll have more peace of mind and a happier sugar glider.

Why is your sugar glider shaking

If your sugar glider is shaking, it is important to seek veterinary care immediately. Seizures, stress, toxin exposure, injury, and pain can all be serious conditions that require treatment. Here are a few reasons why your glider may be shaking.

Seizures

Sugar gliders can suffer from seizures if they have a calcium deficiency, hypoglycemia, or another illness. If your glider is having a seizure, you will need to take it to the vet immediately.

Stress

Sugar gliders may shake due to stress. If your glider is shaking in a strange way, it may be a sign of stress. There are a few things that can cause stress in sugar gliders, including:

• Loud noises;
• Changes in environment;
• Lack of social interaction;
• Lack of food or water.

If you think your sugar glider is stressed, you should take it to the vet to be sure.

Toxin exposure

If your glider has been exposed to pesticides, herbicides, or other chemicals, it may start shaking. This is a serious condition and you should take your glider to the vet immediately.

Bacterial infection

A bacterial infection, such as Actinomyces israelii, can cause your glider to have a swollen eye, vomiting, diarrhea, and other symptoms.

In addition, sugar gliders can also get infected after trauma or surgery. A lumpy jaw and an absces in the mouth are also common causes. If left untreated, they could even become dangerous.

Injury

Sugar gliders may shake due to an injury. If your glider has been in a fight or has fallen, it may start shaking. Reasons of injuries include:

• Fights with other animals;
• Falls;
• Changes in temperature.

Pain

Sugar gliders may shake due to pain. If your glider is in pain, it is important to seek veterinary care immediately.

Sugar gliders can be prone to shivering due to changes in temperature. Their preferred temperature is between 80 and 88 degrees Fahrenheit, and this means that normal house temperatures may fall below these temperatures.

If your sugar glider is shaking constantly, it may be suffering from nutritional deficiency, poor diet, or other health conditions.

How to tell if something is wrong with your sugar glider

Behaviour change

First of all, you should understand the behavior of your sugar glider. These animals do not normally shake, and their shaking behavior is usually a sign that they are ill.

Most animals are not supposed to shake when they are awake, so it may startle you to see your sugar glider shiver. While shaking is normal to some degree, it does indicate that your glider is experiencing a problem.

Lack of appetite

If your glider does not want to eat, it may be a sign that something is wrong. A loss of appetite can be caused by many different things, including stress, pain, and illness. If your glider is not eating, you should take it to the vet to be sure.

Signs of depression

Your sugar glider may be showing symptoms of illness or depression. If your pet is unable to play with toys, there may be an underlying cause. Poor nutrition is the main cause of many diseases in sugar gliders. Poor diets deficient in essential vitamins and minerals can lead to lameness or paralysis.

Is your sugar glider ill?

If your sugar glider is shaking, it could be a sign of a health problem. Sugar gliders are very small animals, and they need a specific diet in order to stay healthy. If they dont get enough vitamins and minerals, they can develop problems like metabolic bone disease. This condition weakens the bones and can cause paralysis.

If your pet glider seems sick, it could be because of a variety of problems. While its impossible to diagnose every disease, some can be more serious than others. One of the most common diseases in sugar gliders is called toxoplasmosis. This disease is caused by a protozoan that can be found in cat feces and raw meat. The infection may cause your sugar glider to lose their energy and become malnourished.

The signs include dehydration, loss of coordination, and low body temperature. Your glider may also have a sore throat or a lump in their jaw. However, you can safely treat your sugar glider with a prescription medication.

When sugar gliders are suffering from general malnutrition, they may develop conditions like hind-limb paralysis and lack of energy. Other serious conditions include liver and kidney failure. If your glider has metabolic bone disease, treatment will include correcting the underlying nutritional issues, as well as supportive care.

You will want to see a veterinarian as soon as possible if you notice any of these symptoms. Theres no need to worry its a relatively easy way to diagnose and treat your pet.

How to know if your sugar glider is stressed?

If your sugar glider is showing signs of stress, its probably because its hungry. It might bark in the cage to get more food, but it might also be stressed out because its afraid of you. The best way to prevent stress is to give it plenty of exercise. Keeping a sugar glider in an urban or industrial setting is a major cause of stress. Your glider may also be stressed out if you have other pets or live in a household with lots of noise.

A sugar glider may self-mutilate when stressed. It may bite its own body parts, such as its tail or wings. Blood may also pool on the cage bars or in a nest, indicating a wound. If you see any of these signs, you should take your glider to the vet to be sure theres no underlying health problem.

Other signs of stress are loss of appetite, overgrooming, and hair loss. While these symptoms are common, theyre usually related to diseases.

How do you get your sugar glider to calm down?

One of the best ways to get your sugar glider to calm down is to offer it a small piece of fruit or a little bit of honey. Sugar gliders are very attracted to sweet tastes, and this can help to distract them from whatever is making them anxious.

You can also try stroking their fur in a gentle way, as this can be calming for them. If your sugar glider is still not settling down, you may need to give it some time in its cage to relax. Make sure that the cage is covered so that it feels safe and secure, and provide it with some toys or other items to keep it occupied.

With a little patience, you should be able to get your sugar glider to calm down.

When should you be worried about your sugar glider

Shaking is a pretty normal thing for your sugar glider to do. When sugar gliders first wake up, they shake more than usual. Shaking can also look like shivering, which most animals do when they are cold. This is because it is a quick and easy way for the body to warm up. If your house or sugar gliders cage is colder than usual in the winter, it may shiver to stay warm.

Sugar gliders can live in temperatures from 60 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit (15 to 32 degrees Celsius), but 80 to 88 degrees Fahrenheit is more like what they like.

Shivering is a natural mechanism for your glider to warm up. However, it is important to understand that prolonged shaking may indicate a problem like MBD or a deficiency in calcium. If your sugar glider is shaking constantly, you should consult a veterinarian immediately.

If you notice that your glider is always shaky on its feet, not just when it wakes up, or if the shakiness never goes away, this could be a sign that something else is going on under the surface.

If you noticed that your sugar glider is shaking and it wasnt just because it was waking up, its likely that it is having other problems.

Conclusion

If your sugar glider is shaking, it could be due to stress, hunger, or a health issue. If the shaking is prolonged or accompanied by other symptoms, take your sugar glider to the vet for an evaluation. With proper care and treatment, your sugar glider should be back to normal in no time.

The Most Helpful Video for Handling Baby Sugar Gliders

The Most Helpful Video for Handling Baby Sugar Gliders

A Quick "Shortcut" to Speed Up the Sugar Glider Bonding Process

OK, lets get started on your FIRST Tip-o-the-Day by giving you a VERY important shortcut that you can use starting RIGHT NOW to help DE-STRESS you and speed up the whole bonding process at the same time!

This shortcut is NOT included in the Quick Start Audio CD so here goes!

Over the years, the pros here at PocketPets have helped more than sixty thousand people just like you develop INCREDIBLY close and rewarding relationships with their Sugar Bears and as you will soon see, one of the most STRESSFUL parts of getting to know each other (for both YOU and your new babies) is simply just picking them up out of their cage for the first time each day

The truth is, no matter how much you listened to our audio CD or read the report, it can still be VERY startling to see just how scary one of these little critters can ACT when you try to pick it up during the first few days. In fact, they can act SO intimidating (and the key thing to remember here is that its all just an ACT) that if you dont push yourself past that initial fear it can take a lot longer for you and your new baby(ies) to bond properly.

Luckily, there is a VERY easy way to avoid or at least minimize this stressful situation almost every time and heres how it works.

Hint: Make sure they're already familiar with your scent

First off, if your cage is setup properly, you should already have a towel or piece of clothing draped over your heat rock all the time. As you will soon see, this is KEY, because you will find that your new baby(ies) will actually be UNDER this cloth the majority of the time when you want to pick them up each day and this is EXACTLY where you want them to be.

Just remember, when picking out the best fabric, make sure that its non-toxic and cant unravel in any way that could accidentally hurt your little darling(s). You dont want anything with loose ends that your babies can get their nails caught in. Again , if you want to be extra-careful, we already have pre-made, custom-sewn blankets made out of a glider-safe fleece and special, water-proof fabric that are specifically designed to promote your little buddys health. hold your familys scent. and speed up the bonding process. If you want to check those out, theyre available in our online store.

Now, remember that baby sugar bears bond predominantly by SMELL so if you were to just reach into their cageyank off their nice warm covering and try to grab them all they see is:

• 1) a blinding bright light
• 2) a strange smelland
• 3) five giant telephone-pole-sized fingers coming at them
• Actually, one of the best analogies Ive ever heard to describe how this feels comes from one of the worlds best sugar bear bonding experts named Laurie. She always tells new moms & dads to visualize themselves getting grabbed and picked up by King-Kong, (because this is roughly the same size difference between a sugar bear and a human) and imagine how youd feel. Its kinda funny, but when you take a second to think about it from that perspective, its no wonder that this can scare them.and when they start ACTING tough, its JUST as stressful on you. :-)

SO, HERES WHAT YOU DO!

Whenever you go to pick up your new babies, (assuming theyre under the blanket) gently talk to them using their names and gently stroke the cloth until you have located every baby without pulling the cloth off them. Then, pick them up STILL IN THE BLANKET. Pick the WHOLE thing up, holding the baby(ies) firmly through the cloth, and then just ROLL them, one at a time, directly into the bonding pouch without directly exposing them to the bright light for very long.

Then, once they are in your pouch, do not try to look at them right away. Just hold them very firmly and securely, so they start to get used to you and talk to them while you firmly massage them with your fingers. Then, after a couple minutes of doing this, you will usually feel them calm down and you can slowly take it from there.

If you do this transfer quickly enough, you will find that your baby(ies) will probably still be half asleep and they will essentially wake-up in the pouch. This not only reduces their stress level DRAMATICALLY but it also takes a lot of the scariness out of this whole process for YOU since you wont have to push past any swiping paws and vicious-LOOKING nips :-) If you read all the information on bonding we provide we will teach you an even easier way to do this.

If however the babies are awake and not under the blanket, the first step is to take your bonding pouch turn it INSIDE OUT and put your hand inside it like a mitten. Now, reach inside the cage, and (as quickly and smoothly as possible), scoop up the baby(ies) with your gloved hand.

Now, if they are running around the cage, its probably easiest to try to pin them up against one of the sides of the cage with your gloved hand and then gently pry them away from the bars. Either way, as soon as you have them in your grasp, immediately pull them into the pouch by turning the pouch back to its normal side-out position. This is the same way Doctors usually take off their rubber gloves.

Whatever you do, make sure NOT to release your grip on the baby inside the pouch UNTIL the pouch is zipped completely shut so therefore its probably a good idea to have a family member or friend help you the first few times until you get the hang of it. Similarly, another great tip for right now (and probably ANY time you take the baby out of the cage until its bonded) is to keep a towel or small blanket close by. This way, if the baby should ever accidentally get loose rather than panic and chase the little guy all around your house, you can very easily just toss the towel over top of him and it will almost always freeze right on the spot. Then you can then scoop them up while theyre still in the towel fairly easily without fear of getting scratched or bitten. **************************

Oh, one more tip when handling your new babies its usually not a good idea to try to breathe or blow on them directly during the first few days. To most of us humans, this action seems like it would be calming, but since they dont know your smell yet, it can actually scare a little baby (who is already stressed) even more :-)

Ok, with all that in mind then, the last thing I want to briefly remind you of is to always keep your baby nice and snuggly warm. Most of us cant keep the room where our babys play & sleep at above 75 degrees, so youll probably want to make sure and get a good, quality heat lamp to go along WITH their heat rock at least for the next few weeks while they are growing up. For more specific information on: 1) why this is important, 2) where to get the right lamp & bulb, and 3) why NOT to use a space heater near your babies cage, check out the free report entitled: Keeping Healthy.

Now, if theres just no possible way to get a heat lamp, another thing you can try is to keep the room as warm as you can and then cover the cage each night. This will help the heat coming from the heat rock to stay inside the cage and make it more comfortable for them. Just make sure that whatever material you use holds in heat well is non-toxic and isnt made of anything with loose strings or something they could get tangled up and hurt in because they will be playing with it a lot. For that reason, we actually have custom cage covers designed of a special Glider-Safe material that are already made to specifically to fit your little buddys cage. You can check them out at our online store at www.SugarBears.com . :-) OK, well thats about it for now! These next few days and weeks will be an incredibly rewarding time that will lead to YEARS of enjoyment for both you and your Sugar Bear(s). Just remember, bonding is a process not an event so STICK with it and it WILL pay off :-) Some days it may seem like you are actually going backwards in progress, but then all of a sudden one day everything will just click, and the REAL fun begins! Remember it can take anywhere from a few days to a few months.

Throughout this process, be sure to refer back to the audio CD, special guides, and instructional video clips as much as you need. ALSO, dont forget to take a minute right now and check out ALL the other Tip-o-the-Day Reports and the series of Important Videos for New Moms & Dads posted in the Family Circle section of our website. Lastly, dont forget to also go watch the free educational video series put out by the Association of Sugar Glider Veterinarians at www.ASGV.org. They really are another excellent resource in addition to all the information you will find on our site. As always, dont hesitate to email us with any questions. We LOVE to hear from you!