Welcome back to Animal Wonders.  I'm Jessi and today, I want to give you an update on some of our little friends, the sugar gliders.

(Intro)

We had four sugar gliders, Gizmo and Gadget, PingPong and Boomerang, and unfortunately, Gizmo passed away of old age a few months ago, which then left us with a problem.  Gadget needed a companion because sugar gliders are social animals.  So we could either search for a new sugar glider to adopt and hopefully they'd get along, or we could try something else.  We could try to introduce him to our other two sugar gliders who were already bonded, but here's the thing.  Most of the time, sugar gliders are kept in same sex pairs or a trio of two females and one male.  The reason for this is because normally, sugar gliders can be quite territorial and males can fight for space.

However, if males are neutered, it can drastically reduce their territorial tendencies, so since all three males are neutered, I was really hoping this might work.  I did reach out to my colleagues to see if they'd ever tried three males together before and none of them had, so I took the introduction really slow.  Since their enclosures were already in the same room, the next step was to get them more comfortable with each others' smells, so I swapped their bedding and toys.

Since sugar gliders are very territorial, they use their urine and scent glands to claim their territory.  Within a couple days, the sugar gliders were actually sleeping in each others' pouches, which was very encouraging.  Within the next couple weeks, I was able to introduce them and they got along wonderfully.  So the whole introduction of the three neutered male sugar gliders was a success.  

Now, if you've been following along on PingPong and Boomerang's training sessions, you'll know while progress was being made, it was quite slow, so I'd like to give you an update on that as well, but for that, I will need my training assistant.  

This is my son Jacob and he helps me with animals all the time, but the first thing we need to do for this training session is get you some equipment.  

Go ahead and put your jacket on.  Hood, too.  

Jacob: Zip it?

Jessi: And we'll definitely want to zip it, too.  So there's two reasons Jacob should wear the jacket.  One is sugar gliders have really sharp claws and I don't want him getting scratched.  The second reason is, sugar gliders like to pee a lot and it's quite stinky.  Because this is a training session, the next thing we need is some reinforcement, so we got some mealworms.  Alright, buddy, now it's your turn to be tree.  Can you grow some branches?  Good job.  Alright, let's loosen up those elbows.  There we go. 

Alright, all three sugar gliders are in their little banana pouch and we're going to give this a try.  You ready?  This is Boomerang.  That was PingPong.  Boomerang, you wanna come on out?  Go right on Jacob's arm there.  There ya go.  Good job.  We're gonna give him his little treat.  What do you think, buddy?  You good?  There you go.  Nice.  Got Boomerang back here, and I know this is Boomerang because he is the largest of the males.  Then, we're gonna have Gadget come on out.  Come here, Gadget.  There you go, buddy.  Nice job.  Would you like a treat, too?  Yeah.  Get that.  I know that is Gadget because he willingly comes out.  He knows he's gonna get a treat.  He's had the most training so far.  Boomerang is doing amazing back here.  He's just chomping down now.  PingPong here, he does not like coming out of the pouch at all, so what I'm going to do is just give him a reward because he's not crabbin' at me right now.  

So so far, every time I've (?~3:54) PingPong out, he doesn't want to go back in his pouch.  He usually just tries to jump off like in previous sessions or climb down the leg and then run around on the ground, so I would really like it if I could get him to come out and just stay just like these other guys are, and we're gonna put PingPong right here on this arm and we're gonna see how he does.  

This could be a disaster but I want to get him--he took that last worm, so I would love it if he would--

Jacob: PingPong's cute.

Jessi: He is cute.  Let's just give him a little treat here.  You want that, bud?  I know you came halfway out of your pouch.  He's already saying I'm out of my comfort zone.  Here, eat that.  You're doing good buddy.  You're doing good.  You wanna go all the way out and then come back in your pouch?  That would be the best reward?  Go right back--Yay!  Yay!  You went back in!  Ahh, I'm so excited.  Yayayayayay.  And he's comfortable again and he'll take a treat.  That's the first time he's ever done that.  Every other time, he has just totally bailed.  Ahh, that was wonderful.

Okay, now we're gonna try and get Gadget to do his last thing that he does.  Ready?  Come on buddy.  Go Gadget, go.  Go Gadget, go.  Whee!  Good job, buddy.  Did that scare you?  I laughed and it scared him.  Back in your pouch.  

Jacob: (?~5:18)

Jessi: No, no, now he's on me.  Now, oh, pee.  Oh, there he goes.  Oh buddy, come here, come here.  Come here buddy.  You go back in.  I got him!  Yay.  Okay, I really want him to go back in his pouch so I am going to give him another reinforcement in there, so hopefully he'll be like, yay, every time I go in there, I get worms and this is a wonderful place to be.  I've been trying to get Boomerang--

Jacob: (?~5:46)

Jessi: --to jump into his pouch.  Let's see if he'll do it.  

Jacob: (?~5:48)

Jessi: Can you do it, buddy?  

Jacob: It's--he stinks.

Jessi: He does stink, you're right.  

Jacob: Have you smelled him before?

Jessi: Yes.  We're trying to get him to jump.  

He's not so into jumping.  Alright, buddy.  There you go.  Go on in.  Are you eating their leftovers?  He's like, I don't wanna go back in the pouch, I get all of my good stuff out here.  Okay.  Who wants the last one?  Do you wanna give it to him?  

Jacob: I'm not touching those things.

Jessi: You don't like mealworms, I know you don't.  Well, this was a really, really productive training session.  We got some good stuff going on.  So Jacob, do you want to get out of your pee jacket now?  

Jacob: Yeah.

Jessi: Thank you so much.  High five?  You did amazing!  Go have fun.  

Jacob: (?~6:34) Bye, Mommy.  

Jessi: Bye.  Alright, so proof that sugar gliders do pee all over you.  We've got a couple pee stains here and these guys are getting on real--you know what, do you want to see how cute they are?  Look at them.  Boomerang's looking for more treats.  You're a big boy buddy, yes you are.  I'm gonna let them head back to sleep, get all cozy in their enclosure and sleep the rest of the day away.  

So overall, I think that was really a really successful training session.  All three of them did positive things.  First, Boomerang was just his really chill self.  He came out, hung out on Jacob, I even got him up on his head, which is perfect.  Second, PingPong came out of the pouch and then went back in.  Without like, trying to run away!  That was the first time that's happened and it was amazing, and third, Gadget did a really good job coming out and then jumping back to his pouch.  However, there was that little adventure up the bookcase, which I hope we don't repeat, and of course, Jacob was awesome.

Thank you for watching Animal Wonders, which is produced by Complexly.  We produce over a dozen shows, including SciShow, and we wanted to let you know that the SciShow team just put out a really cool new episode.  This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first time humans walked on the moon, and to celebrate, SciShow made their first documentary.  Their team traveled the US and talked to experts trying to figure out if the moon landing was even a good idea, and they got some really interesting answers, but I won't spoil them.

You can watch the episode at youtube.com/scishow or by clicking on the link in the description, and if you wanna go on more animal adventures, subscribe to AnimalWondersMontana and I'll see you next week.

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