Guide to Hand Raising Sugar Glider Joeys

Written by: TMarie - GA Owner/Admin & Mysticangel38671 - Moderator

Download a printable version here

Hand raising joeys is something that we almost all pray we never have to do.  The thought of the joey being attacked or rejected on top of the horror of thinking our adult gliders are not good parents can be horrifying.  However, sometimes things such as this happen, and letting panic and anger set in does not help the joey.

I recently had my first experience hand-raising joeys.  The two little girls were not rejected, but their mother was stressed and she was taking it out on them by attacking them.  She attacked them even if they were supplemented.  She was a single mom (the father had passed away two months before they came out of pouch) and no matter how much I helped baby-sit so she could eat and relax, did not help.  At two weeks oop I had to pull them both due to horrendous injuries to their eyes.  One healed completely and the other still has sight in both eyes but will need surgery to completely correct the issue.

This article will discuss the following:

**Habitat  Setups & Instructions

**Supply Kit

**How Often, What, and How Much to Feed Joeys According to Age and Size

**How and When to Make Them Potty

**Supplementing Joeys (If They Do Not Need To Be Completely Pulled)

Habitat Setups & Instructions

Critterville Rescue’s ICU

Critterville Rescue has a great step by step instruction list on making the ICU they have used with their joeys and that many others have used as well.

http://www.crittervillerescue.com/joeys/icu.htm

My Aquarium Incubator

This is the aquarium incubator setup I used with my girls until 4 weeks oop.  Here is a picture of the finished product:

Take a small aquarium base with a breathable lid

**Put a covered heating pad on warm on half of the bottom (below the aquarium, not in it).... the other half is for them to move if they become too warm

**Next place a big piece of fleece on the bottom to pad it

**Place a damp soft cloth in the corner or one side between the layers of fleece for humidity

**Scatter fleece blankets around the bottom as well and put in two pouches (one on the heating pad and one not) with blankets

Stage Two Cage

After the joeys are producing enough of their own body heat to keep them warm, it is time to move them into another cage.  This cage should be smaller than the average cage you keep your gliders in, and give them enrichment toys to help them learn to play and climb and jump. 

The cage I use for this step is a travel/temp cage that is 1.5 x 1.5 x 1.5 feet and PVC coated wire.  I started off with a small wheel, toys, food, and a parrot play set as can be seen here:

After a week, I removed the parrot gym and small wheel and put in a larger stealth wheel as shown here:

Final Cage

After they are jumping and climbing on their own without any issues, it is time to move them into a regular glider cage.  Be sure to monitor them closely for awhile though, and make sure they are getting along fine.

Other Notes

Please whatever you do, do not place a dish of water for moisture and humidity in your habitat for your little joey.  If they get into this (and yes they are curious enough that they can) they can drown almost instantly.  Please think twice before using any incubator instructions that call for a dish of water.

Supply Kit

One thing this experience has taught me is to always be ready.  I always had emergency supplies on hand but was nowhere near where I would have liked to be in preparations.  How I wished I had something like this article on hand to know what to feed and when, and everything in between, because the jitters got the best of me and for a few hours I felt like I lost all my knowledge.  I hope this can help relieve that panic in you.  So alas, my items to have on hand:

**Printed out information on what to do in case your nerves get the best of you

**Items for either one of the initial incubators included in this article

**Heating Pad

**Plenty of fleece blankets or fleece to make blankets from

**Syringes (you will go through these fast, if for no other reason b/c washing them causes the markings to fade and disappear) that hold at least 2-3 CC’s initially (they will need bigger ones as they grow) and eventually 6-9 CC’s if possible.

**French Catheter (though I don’t recommend using unless necessary)

**Wombaroo Milk Replacer Less Than 8 and Greater Than 8 (Greater Than 8 will most often be used).  These can be found at the GA Store.

**Leadbeaters or BML ingredients (I used leadbeaters)

**Assorted glider approved baby foods

**Juice with Electrolytes (Gerber or Pedialyte)

**Q-Tips

**Small shallow dishes for eventual weaning off syringes (bottle caps work great)

How often and how much to feed joeys according to age and size

 How Often to Feed

**Just out of pouch:  1-2cc's once every 3 hours

**25 Days (3.5 weeks): 3-4 cc's once every 4 hours

**4.5 – 6 weeks:  5-6 cc’s 4 times a day

**6 weeks: offer in the bowl (2 times a day), as well as a bowl of fruit mashed

Please remember they may start eating on their own before this, and I encourage everyone to try.  Also remember the guideline of how often to feed.  If you have a new joey just oop, you start to feed them at 4pm and it takes them an hour to eat a cc, the next feeding is still at 7pm.  Not all joeys will have this exact same schedule too.  Do not be afraid to go at their pace, just make sure they are eating as much as they should be in a day’s time.

What to Feed

It is important to remember here as well to go at their pace.  Every glider will be different.  These are just general guidelines based on our experiences.

If at all possible, newly oop joeys should be eating a liquid form of either BML or Leadbeaters.  I chose Leadbeaters as this was the diet my gliders were already on.  If you cannot get them to eat either of these in the first couple weeks or so, try mixing Wombaroo milk replacer mix.  Remember this will go bad after approximately 4 days in the refrigerator so make only a small amount at a time.  If you can get them on liquid BML or Leadbeaters, mix in some Wombaroo milk replacer with this as well. 

After they reach a few weeks oop, I gradually try to introduce them to different foods, and more solid foods.  I do this by mixing in baby foods with the liquid mixture.  This helps them get accustomed to the taste of other foods as well as making the mixture a little more thick as well.

After this stage, start putting in less and less liquid mixture and giving adding more and more baby food to make it thicker.  Then move them to higher stage baby foods that have whole pieces in them or put fruits and veggies in a food processor (I used my magic bullet for this).

Finally, they will be ready to eat the complete diet as juvenile and adult gliders do.

How to Approach Feeding

In my opinion, I would only use a French catheter if absolutely needed and the joey refuses to eat.  I found that my joeys would eat just by licking and sucking off of a plain syringe, and I felt this helped them get accustomed to eating out of a dish earlier. 

From three weeks on I was having them try eating out of a dish until it worked.  A good approach we have found is to put them in front of the dish and let them see you put the food from the syringe into the dish.   Mine were eating completely out of dishes at 6 weeks oop and solids at 7 weeks oop.

How and When to Make Them go Potty

You will need to stimulate your joeys to go to the bathroom for a while.  I did this with my girls until 6-7 weeks out of pouch just to be sure.  In order to do this, you will have to imitate how the mothers stimulate the joeys.  Please be sure you do this at least after the joeys eat at every feeding.  I recommend doing it before and after just to be sure.

The first step is to have on hand Q-Tips, warm water, and a Kleenex or cloth.  Dampen the Q-Tip with the warm water.  Then, softly, with an upward stroke, move the Q-Tip from the bottom from their belly towards their tail a few times.  You will be able to see them go to the bathroom.  This scared me at first that I would not be able to tell, but do not fear, you will be able to tell.

When they are on an all liquid based diet, everything will be a little less solid.  However, if it seems off or continues after they are a few weeks oop, try giving them a tiny (and I mean tiny) amount of juice with their feedings and this will help.  Clean them up and dry them off with the Kleenex or cloth.

Supplementing joeys  - Mysticangel38671

How and When to Supplement a Joey

Sometimes the mother can't produce enough milk for a joey.  In this case you will need to step in and help mom out some.  The hardest part is making the decision if the joey needs to be pulled and treated as a rejected joey or leave with the parents and just supplement.  In making this decision you have to ask yourself some questions:

**Is the joey hurt in any way?

**Is mom biting at the joey every time it tries to nurse?

**Are the parents taking care of the joey?

** Is the joey injured?  How bad is it?

Now if the joey is injured, you have to look it over thoroughly.  If there is more than one bad bite, pull the joey.  If there are just a few little scratches you can try to just supplement, but this is only if the parents are taking care of the joey and not trying to cause it further harm.  Other signs of mother not producing enough milk are hissing, crabbing, licking, and pulling at the joey to make it stop nursing. Not all cases of mothers not producing enough milk will have bites or any other injuries.

Signs Of Needing To Be Supplemented

**Weight loss or no gain

**Scratches, bites, to the face head area, but parents are taking care and are not trying to further hurt the joey

What You Will Need To Supplement

**French Catheter

**3cc. syringe

**Wombaroo Milk Replacer or Esbilac Puppy Milk Replacer

**Pouch or fleece pieces with mom and dad's scent on them

**Pedialyte and Fruit juices

How To Supplement

Depending on the age of the joey, you will need to supplement every 2 to 4 hours.  You can also follow the schedule listed for hand raising as well.   If the joey is under 2 weeks I would say every 2 hours sooner if any noises are coming from mom.  For joeys 2 weeks or older, I would say every 3 to 4 hours, again depending on joeys demands. You will have to heat the milk before feeding.  I turn the tap on hot, get the milk in the syringe, and hold under the running water till warm.  I then test it just like I would for a human baby on my wrist.  I then wash my hands of all smell and get the joey out, wrap in a piece of fleece with mom and dad's scent on it.  Nex, hold the joey in your hand and put the syringe to the mouth, with a little drop of the milk at top.  The joey should start licking the milk and when more is needed to be pushed to the top the joey will start to nibble at the syringe.  After a few feedings you and the joey will get the hang of things and know how fast to go with the flow.  After feeding the joey I would try to potty at least 2 times a day to make sure it is able to potty and to make sure it does not have diarrhea.

When you put the joey back with the mom and dad make sure they clean the joey and stimulate it to potty, if not you will have to do this by rubbing the area between the tail and the colaca with a warm swab or soft cloth.  Also make sure to offer water or watered down fruit juice after feedings.  Also before you put the joey back with mom and dad make sure you rub the joey down with a pouch or fleece that has mom and dad's scent on it to reduce the chance of the joey being totally rejected.  You must keep the cage in ear shot so you can hear any sounds of fighting the baby.  The usual crab or hiss is most likely okay but you want to check.  If for any reason the joey is attacked more or cries out in pain you will have to pull it.

What To Feed The Joey

Some swear by the Wombaroo milk.   Some joeys will not eat it and that is when I have tried the Esbilac Puppy Replacer. Some will tell you to use the Joey BML.  I used the joey BML with the joey I supplemented.  I could not get him to eat anything else.  Of course I mixed the joey BML with the Esbilac milk to make it thinner.  When feeding the joey BML it seemed that the joey went longer between feedings.  I would feed a joey until they were content.  Let them tell you when they have had enough.  You will know, because the joey will stop eating.  If you try to give them more, they will turn away.  This is what I did to supplement a 3 week out of pouch joey.  Here is a little about why I did this, and how I came to the conclusion it was needed.

I was gone for a week to the SGGA and I came home on a Sunday night late.  Monday I went to check on all the gliders and to really check in on Kami and Radar and their little male joey.  They were all asleep and the joey was nursing so I left them alone because of Kami's past with joeys.  Tuesday morning I went to check in on them and find the joey with a bad bite on the face between the nose and eye.  I went into panic mode and got on the phone to call Shelia of To And Fro Gliders.  She and I talked for awhile.

I decided to to let the joey stay with mom and dad.  They were taking good care of him, but Kami was not producing enough milk.  I then started to supplement every 4 hours, keep in mind this is a 3 week OOP joey.  Kami and Radar were great with him after I started to supplement, they kept him clean and warm, and as long as I kept the joeys belly full there was no fussing at all.  They lived together and the joey was able to learn things just like a regular joey being raised by the mom and dad.

Before and After

Soon you will see your hand raised joeys are healthy, strong, and happy.  Here is a before and after picture of my two girls:

© 2003-2005 :: TMarie Designs :: Last updated on December 15, 2005

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