Effects of Music on Sugar Glider Playtime

Written by: TMarie - GA Owner/Admin

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I decided to study the effects of music on sugar gliders for my observation. Music is a huge part of my life as I am constantly either singing or dancing to music or just listening to it. I have always wondered what my music does to my gliders.

My subjects were Kami and Kaze. Kami is a three year old cinnamon female with a joey in pouch. Kaze is a 3 year old cinnamon male and is her mate. Rock and country were the types of music decided upon as well as having a period of no music. Music was done in intervals of 10 minutes every night at 21:30 eastern standard time. The choice for rock music was She Loves Me Not by Papa Roach and for country it was 2 Pina Coladas by Garth Brooks. The experiment was conducted from Saturday, October 4, 2003 until Friday, October 10, 2003.

At first it seemed as if my sugar gliders were not affected by any of the music. It seemed from day to day that they were playing and eating and running around like they normally would. However, after gathering all my observations and findings and recording them in a chart, I saw differently.

One observation I noticed that was consistent the whole way through this experiment with both gliders was that when no music was playing, they would come out, eat, play, and act normally. This was the only time they both exhibited the exact same behavior.

Kami seemed to be unaffected by the music, the type not mattering much either. A few times she would stop as if she was listening or go back in her cage pouch, but this is normal behavior for her much of the time anyway as she is very attentive. Kami ate and played and did normal things just as she usually would, with or without music.

Kaze was a little different. For much of the time the music was playing he would hide in one of the cage pouches or stand at a complete stop as if he was frightened. The only time he really came out for the most part was to eat or to help Kami clean her pouch or see what she was up to. Once the music stopped, he came out of his pouch or unfroze almost immediately.

Gathering conclusions was hard to do once all was said and done. Their reactions were obvious but there are always some other factors that are not counted in. Since this was only a week long project, not all of the factors could be counted in. One such factor was that Kami is pregnant. How this has an effect on her I am not sure of. Another thing to consider is the environment. They had only been at my house for two weeks while I was conducting this experiment.

The results of my experiment show that my female was less affected by the music than my male. It also shows that the type of music was not a factor. Kami was not affected by any type of music played. Kaze was affected by all types of music that were played. This leads me to wonder if it is not music specifically that can affect an animal, but noises and presence of people in general. Since this experiment was done during the hours they would be awake, there was only a very tiny desk lamp on in the room they were in.

After taking a closer look at their normal behaviors and personalities and then the observations from this experiment I came to a final conclusion. Music only enhanced the personality each of them already exhibited. Kami is very friendly and easygoing. She has not shied away from me at all since I brought her into my home. Kaze on the other hand has been very slow towards getting to know me and being out when I am in the same room. He is always the first one to jump to the back of the cage or right into the cage pouch. If you would like to see a chart of my observations, please click the contact link above to email me.

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