or
"Is that a glider in your pocket or are you happy to see me?"
A properly bonded glider will not run from but seek out it's human companion. A trusting bonded glider will allow all the petting and affection you want to give it. Once a glider trusts you there is no biting or running from you and when disturbed or startled it will return to you. You should not have to chase down your glider, it should in fact choose to come to you if you start to leave the room.
In order to get a glider to bond to you the first step is to get a newly weaned joey (baby glider). Around 6 weeks old, from the emerged date, is the ideal time to acquire a young glider. To begin the bonding process you simply put the glider in your pocket the first day and let it sleep there. Young gliders sleep a lot and this allows them to become used to your movements, smell, sound etc while snoozing away in your pocket. When the glider wakes up you speak softly and try to pet it or give it some fruit babyfood or baby cereal off of your finger. At first the glider will make a sound not unlike one of the party noise makers that spin around on the stick. This noise, called crabbing, is usually accompained by the young joey sitting up on it's back feet and butt and spreading it's front feet as if boxing with you. Next the glider will lunge and sometimes nip at you in an attempt to bluff you into leaving it alone. This behavior is shown by many species of opossum and like most other speices this behavior is mostly bluff with little to no bite. When the glider lunges is the crucial part of the training/bonding process on your part. It is extremely important to not pull away or yell ouch and make a big deal out of it when and if the glider bites. Most of the time they just lunge and when they bite it is no worse than a kitten gnawing on you playfully. If you jerk back when bitten, just like with birds, you will not only confuse the glider by creating an unsteady perch, but you also teach it that to be left alone all that is needed is to bite you. Fortunately this behavior if you ignore it and misdirect the chewing by petting it somewhere else doesn't last but a week or two. Mary has not bitten me since the fourth day I had her and has never shown the first sign of biting me or anyone else since.
The level of trust between your glider and you depends on the time you invest into it. My glider Mary is completely bonded and loves me to death. She is always willing to let anyone see her as long as I hand her to them. She is not a fan of being grabbed off of me by someone else but tolerates it nonetheless. Mary never bites, hisses or anything negative and even tries to groom me with her bottom teeth the same way they groom each other. I can touch her or look at her any way I want and she doesn't mind. In order to reach this level of bonding and trust I spend as much time with her on me as possible. Fortunately in my case Mary is able to sleep in my shirt pocket all day every day usually only waking up to share a bite of lunch with me. This constant exposure to me has no doubt had a tremendous influence on Mary's overall behavior. One does not however have to carry their glider all day like myself in order to create a very strong bond and great relationship with it. Simply having the glider in your pocket as much as possible goes a long way toward the glider becoming used to you and looking to you for compainionship. A useful tip is to place a tee shirt that you have worn during the day into your glider's sleeping pouch so that your smell becomes both normal and comforting to your glider. Another very important point is that when handling gliders you can't really restrain them easily and when trying to stop one from going somewhere you cannot get frustrated and handle a glider roughly. Gliders are small delicate animals that cannot take rough handling and abuse. Also when teaching a glider not to bite or not to do something unacceptable you absolutely cannot reprimand or punish the glider by doing things such as the typical stupid human animal training move of smacking something on the nose when it does wrong. This is not only cruel and ignorant but the glider does not understand the point you are trying to make anyway and all you end up with is a pet that fears and does not trust you. Patience, gentle handling and time are the only ways to get the glider you want. There simply are no short cuts or quick fixes. Like anything in life worth having you get out of this deal exactly what you put into it.
This is not an animal to purchase on a whim and lose interest in down the road. Approach this with less than a full effort, or a just what I have to do attitude and you will definitely be dissapointed and the glider will suffer for it. Treat your glider as you should and you will be rewarded with one of the most amazing pets ever seen. I have yet to see anyone able to resist Mary peeking out of my pocket or sleeve. These are magnificent animals worthy of your full attention. Please don't get one unless you are willing to give just that.
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