Gliders Week by Week Photos
Joeys in the pouch-
Joeys the day before OOPing.-
Just OOPed-
The pouch just after the joeys OOPed completely-
Day 1-
1 Week-
2 Weeks-
3 Weeks-
4 Weeks-
5 Weeks-
6 Weeks-
7 Weeks-
8 Weeks-
Weanable & ready to leave the nest.
The development of a joey
The Developement of newborn Joeys:
Mating: 16 days after sugar gliders have mated they can birth up to 4 joeys at a time. 1 or 2 is most common among them, but its been known for thm to have up to 4 at once. When a joey is actually BORN its pink, without fur, blind, deaf, & with TINY black eyes.
To help a joey on its way up to the pouch after its been birthed the mother will lick a trail all the way up to her pouch so the joey wont get stuck in the fur. If the joey gets stuck there is a big risk in it getting too cold, dry, & obviously no food where it will die. However, the mother can sometimes help the joey if she needs to. A joey is only capable to crawl & nurse at this point. They only have little nubs to move them around, it normally will take the joey about 5 to 10 minutes to make its journey to its safe pouch & latched onto their mother nipple. When born they are around the size of a single grain of uncooked rice.
NEVER OPEN THE POUCH FOR ANY REASON TO PEEK IN AT THE JOEY. THIS CAN BE VERY DANGEROUS FOR THE JOEY IF YOU CAUSE IT TO BECOME UNATTACHED TO THE NIPPLE. (THEY CANNOT GET BACK ON IN MOST CASES!)
About 5-7 days in the pouch: you cant really see anything new with the pouch other than sometimes the pouch will look stained from the female licking, etc. The female is also VERY good at being able to hide the joeys in the pouch! At this stage of life, they are still VERY small & helpless & probably wont be visible for another few weeks..
2 weeks in the pouch: they joeys size has doubled, but not many physical changes can be seen. Their feet & tail are forming. Gliders can still hide the joeys rather well at this point.
21 days in pouch: At this point the growth has gone pretty fast & a lump or two can be visible in the mother pouch & cannot be hidden. The head has grown along with the eyes, their ears are still fused to the head, they have grown a bit, but they still cannot hear. Their toes are also starting to form & the tail is still growing, not yet as long as the joeys body. The body of the glider is noticeably larger by this time too.
30-35 days still in the pouch: At this point there is no question If your glider is carrying a joey or two as she can no longer hide it even if she wanted to. If you don’t see anything, but did before the mother may have cannibalized it due to lack of something in her diet, it was her first litter & she didnt know what to do, something was wrong with the young, the mom may have been overly stressed for a number of reasons, one of the other gliders caged with the female may have eaten the joeys . There could be other causes, but those are most common.
40-50 days in the pouch: The toes will have little nails on them, the tail should be about at least as long as the glider, they will start to develop whiskers, their nose has grown a lot & may look funny & too big for the glider. Their eyes are still forming, they have gotten bigger & will have a covering of skin over them for now, their ears are still formed to their head, & they still cannot hear. They are also kind of transparent & their insides can be seen pretty well. The joey is still becoming more & more noticeable from the outside of the pouch too. At this stage if you are holding your glider on her back you can sometimes see the joey moving around & on occasion a foot or tail will pop out for a second.
60-63 days in the pouch: They joeys are coming up on their expected due date at this time & should be OOPing (out of pouch) anytime now. Their jaws are now developed so they can attache & unattached themselves from the nipple.
OOPing: It can sometimes take a few more weeks for the joeys to actually OOP completely, but they will start to hang their feet, butts, tails, etc out until they are finally just too big to fit in the pouch any longer. The joeys when fully OOPed will have a thin layer of fur, will still look kind of pink & wont yet have fur on its belly, the ears are still slightly folded & they cannot hear for another week or so. Their eyes are also not so weird looking, but will still have a layer of skin over them & they will not open for a few weeks yet. Feel free to handle your joeys from the start if your mating pair don’t mind. The joeys may make noise when you remove them from their parents & this sometimes panics the parents. Sexing the joeys is also possible at this time. I happen to find this to be the easiest stage in which to accurately tell.
DO NOT ever take a joey out unless its not at all attached & you can see that. Some joeys OOP on different days even though they were ‘born’ on the same day as another. (Even though it is possible for them to even be born on different dates too!) Don’t mistake them clinging onto the or mothers with them still being in the pouch though.. It can look confusing to new breeders to see. When clung to its mother it can still stick its head into the pouch to feed for a few weeks.
1 to 2 weeks OOP: Eyes start to open around this week & they SHOULD be able to hear. Their fur is becoming a little more thick on their backs, but still thin on the belly. They still have very under developed teeth, but there are tiny ones forming on their upper jaw. The bottom teeth arent long at all & looks like a lump in their gum line.
The joeys will not leave the nest on their own yet, but will go for rides on their parents backs around the cage. They have also become a lot more vocal the past few weeks. They joeys like warmth at this age since they still don’t have much body fur & maintaining heat is trying.
25-30 days OOP: They joeys at this age will have fully opened eyes & should be able to see ok, their hearing should be in full swing, & their ears will move to the direction of sounds. They joey may start becoming a little more adventurous around the cage & may even start trying some leaps, although its still rather early for this. Their teeth are now nicely formed & when they chew on fingers or nails it may hurt a little. They also now will have furr all over them. (It will take a while to grow hair on the pom pom & the inside of the pouch.
45 days OOP: The joeys at this age have taken on their own personalities & are able to play around their cage a lot more on their own. They rarely will ride on their parents backs, but the parents are still a big part of their lives. You can start playing games with the joeys, they really like the feathers, but don’t be surprised if they are scared of the new object for a while. They will also now start to sample some of their parents foods. Generally they go for the sweeter things like juices, fruit, & some veggies. Tastes take time, so keep offering everything & eventually they will accept new tastes.
8 weeks OOP: Here is the stage where the joeys should now be completely ready to be weaned & moved to a different cage than their parents. (Or fixed so they cannot be bred with one another.) Their fur will be fluffy & the glider will be rather independent. Before weaning ALWAYS make sure that they are eating & drinking on their own & that they can poo & pee without the assistance of their mothers.
