Flashback: SUGGIES!

This is a really random way to start..but I realized I never told you about my SUGGIES! So come back with me to 2003 when I bought Pika, the sugar glider. Sugar gliders are an animal from Australia that are marsupials..meaning they carry their babies in a pouch in their tummy and they are nocturnal. (That got really annoying!) Pika was the cutest little thing when I got her. She had such soft fur and she was about the size of a large walnut and to bond with them you are supposed to hold them alot in your hand so they get used to your smell. She could easily fit in the palm of my hand. They love to be bundled up a little blanket and we used to let her play around our house and you'd see her dart from the entertainment center and jump onto the christmas tree! Oh, also in the wild they can "Glide" up to 150 feet with their arms..they have arms kinda like a flying squirrel. One time, when she was out of her cage ...she got really quiet and I was looking for her everywhere...forever! I was scared that she had climbed behind some boards in the cabinets or something or got stuck. But we finally found her, curled up in a little ball, asleep in the toothbrush holder!

(These are just cute pics I found online, not Pika)

Well, I was reading alot about them online and saw that they really need a partner to be happy. And it said that same sex ones dont really get along. So I looked into breeders around here and found her a boyfriend, or immediate husband I guess. Then the breeder told me the diet I had Pika on was a terrible one designed by the seller I got her from. I had been giving her something called "Glider grub" and apples and corn. I guess that diet can really hurt their mouths giving them something called lumpy jaw. Anyways, I all of the sudden had 2 sugar gliders with a diet that became Very HIGH MAINTENENCE! Every week I had to buy mealworms for them, cook them chicken, cut up fruits and veggies every night. And the boy, who we named Chuey...turned out to be satan himself! He was so MEAN to us...he bit us all the time, no matter how much we held him. But he did like Pika, so that was good. He was really protective of her though and anytime I reached in to hold her, he would bite me. They were so cute together, though. I made them alot of little beds all over their cage out of soft fleece and I'd look into where they were sleeping and they'd be all cuddled up together.

Pika, my favorite.

A huge problem with their new and improved diet was they started to STINK! really STINK! I thought that neutering Chuey would help with the smell and with is meanness. (Yes, they ACTUALLY have a vet here that will neuter little suggies!) But 180 dollars later , it didnt help.

Then I got pregnant and I really couldnt handle the smell. Pika had kinda been taken over by Chuey and didnt wanna play with me anymore. PLus, I was SO Self consious of people coming over..it smelled like PISS wherever there cage was. No matter how often I cleaned the cage. I'd put them in my room when we did have company, but people would always want to see them..so they'd come into my piss smelling room and I'd get really embarrased. So to wrap up this ridiculously long story my uncle adopted them..Chuey continued to be mean, from what I hear, poor little Pika fell in a weird way and died :( (When I found out I was pretty emotional and cried ALOT) And who knows what happened to Chuey. He never liked me anyways. I loved Pika, she was such a good little suggie. She was my baby before I had a baby.