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Some degree of stress in sugar gliders is normal, especially during the first months of bringing the sugar glider home, when everything is still new and strange. It is normal for a newly arrived sugar glider to be anxious. Wouldn't you be? Mild anxieties will ease as the sugar glider becomes accustomed and then comfortable with your presence, but ongoing sources of stress can lead to real illness and sometimes even to death.

Mild signs of stress include lunging, biting, and a kind of chittering called 'crabbing' which is quite distinct from their usual range of sound. These reactions usually indicate too sudden an intrusion into the environment, and can become more serious if you don't act. If the reaction is to hand training, you should withdraw for the moment. Give your glider time to relax before introducing your hand again, this time much more slowly to give the sugar glider time to get used to its presence.

Signs of stress which indicate a deeper problem include pacing, diarrhea, constipation, eating too much or refusing to eat, or just acting 'off.' This isn't really so different from what would cause us concern in our own children. For our children, we would wonder immediately, is it something in their diet, a bug they picked up, a problem at school? Much the same options apply to the sugar glider. Key dietary culprits include citrus fruits and bananas, or bread and other starches for constipation. Your sugar glider may have picked up an intestinal or skin parasite. If your sugar glider bolting its food and then hiding, maybe another of the household pets has taken an interest, scaring your sugar glider before it is secure enough to explore. Pacing may indicate that lack of stimulation is causing your sugar glider to become frustrated and stressed. Alternately the location of the cage may be too bright or dark, too hot or too cold, or there may be an electrical appliance nearby. Most pets are sensitive to the high-pitched humming.

Coprophagancy, or eating of the feces, can be a mild sign of stress. More often it indicates an imbalance or nutritional lack in the diet.

A more serious symptom of stress is self-mutilation, where the sugar glider starts biting at itself. This is never normal behavior. Hair loss may indicate a hidden habit of biting at the spot, but it could also indicate skin parasites or even a dietary imbalance.

A major cause of stress leading to depression is losing a cage mate. It is also possible that your sugar glider is not receiving enough bonding and other social time with you, which is particularly likely in sugar gliders which do not have cage mates. Inadequate social contact and sudden loss are far more dangerous to a sugar glider than variations in diet. Early symptoms of depression are lack of appetite, sluggishness, and a general lack of interest in its surroundings. Do not take these symptoms lightly! If allowed to continue, these symptoms will only get worse, and in the end your sugar glider could die.

But give your sugar glider the attention and security it craves within a stable and stimulating environment, give it one or two sugar glider companions for nighttime play, and you will have a happy, healthy, friendly pet for some years to come.

Learn more about this author, Michael Totten.
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