Category Archives: Joey

Updates on the joeys.

Well, Baron and Cuppy went to their new homes last week. Both are now in Malacca, enjoying each of their homes. I didn’t get to take a last photo of them but they were huge, Baron being more than 60g.

Anyway, yes, I know I have been very very late with the updates but it’s because my life has taken a hectic turn with new projects coming up in my uni life. Even updating the Facebook page is beginning to be slow.

Here is Peanut and Butter. They have grown so much. I have not weight them yet but I suspect they are around 50g or more since they feel so solid and bulky in my hands. They are ready to go to their new homes already but their owners will take them later.

Butter

Peanut

Then here we have Koda and Kristy. These 2 have a little yellow shading on their heads. Hopefully it stays. They are already begining to try solid food already. They will be ready for their new homes soon but again, their owners will be taking them at a later date.

Koda

Kristy

Then here with have the naughtiest little joey, Arizona. She is Miss Complain Pot. Why? Because every little thing she crabs to complain. LOL…. people who saw her last week have witness just how vocal she is at crabbing. But she is super active and sleek looking. She will be going to Eugene this Sunday. My lil crabby pot.

 

Arizona doing her balancing act.

Then next are Emmy and Emma. These 2 girls are so dark, they are considered Black Beauties. Still nursing but will begin to eat solid food soon. very pretty girls. They will be the last of Sugus’s joeys as she will begin retirement next year.

They look big don’t they? Any they are still drinking mom’s milk.

Now here are Max and Magic. They OOP on the same date as Emma and Emmy but their growth is not as fast as those 2. Max and Magic still got their babyish looks. Still nursing, they are growing soundly. Mom is taking great care of them. They are lucky as the first batch of joeys were rejected last year.

Aren’t they just such cutie pies?

Then lastly is Kailey. She is small, she OOP on 3 August 2011. Joey to Kiah and Kimba. She follows much like Kiah, very dark  features on her face. She will be going to Luoyun at around end of September or beginning of October, depends on when she starts to be independent.

Alright, I hope these updates will brighten your faces with broad smiles. Playing with these joeys are really a joy, but taking their pictures can be an extreme workout because they do not sit still for the camera.

Poor lil Berry

I think I did the right thing by opening a Facebook page…. so far I’m getting many “Likes” and people have been asking me lots of questions and also for help through facebook. The power of social networking… amazing. Anyway, a girl and her sister were very worried about their joey and came to find me all the way from Kuantan if their joey was ok or not.

Little Berry is a very young male joey. I really really hate petshops. Little Berry has to suffer because of petshops looking for money. Let me explain further. Berry was a from a very famous petshop in Klang Valley. They were told the joey was 2 months old…. but he is actually only 4 weeks OOP. His upper front teeth has not grown yet. Anyway, the owners felt worried so they visited another famous petshop that told them to feed one of the most common sugar glider diet, HPW…. I was kinda surprised why they did not recommend the joey milk replacer…. Hmmmm…. anyway, from my experience, underage joeys should be taking milk till they are 6 weeks to 7 weeks OOP. Because of the petshop advising them to feed HPW, they followed….. but Berry’s digestion could not tolerate the high amount of honey.

I know alot of you have come to realize that I’m no fan of the HPW diet because of the amount of honey. Imagine 1.5 cups of honey to 2 cups of water…. I don’t even take that much honey. A teaspoon of honey to 1 cup of water is enough for me as a drink. It’s just not my favourite diet to use but I do advice people to use it if they have no choice since the HPW diet is readily available at most major petshops.

Anyway, Berry couldn’t tolerate the excessive amount of honey. As a result, he began to suffer from diarrhea and it didn’t stop. His owners were so worried that they brought him to me. They actually brought to a vet in Kuantan and the vet was so new to gliders, he/she said that the joey was healthy. Anyway, good thing they had 2nd thoughts and brought him to me.

Berry is now under my care. His owners asked me if I could helped them to take care of him and I volunteered. He only weighs about 12g. My 1 day old OOP joeys weight 12g….. so… he is seriously not absorbing any nutrients from the HPW. It just goes in and comes out.

My article here is not to point fingers or scolding anyone or anything but just to make everyone aware that petshops are only in it for the money. They have no heart about the joeys. They care about sales. Even agents or resellers or commercial breeders are the same. Be wise when you choose a breeder or seller. Your heart will suffer the most, just like how Berry’s owners are so heart broken now.

Now, I just hope he survives. I can see that he is trying to be strong by crawling up my arm and walking all over my table. He still has diarrhea but at least he is eating every 3 hours.

 

Please pray for Berry so that he stays strong. I’m doing my best at helping him survive for now. Let us hope that he makes it through.

His owners have allowed me to share this because in a way, it will be educating people more about purchasing from pet shops and also about underage joeys. Thank you Berry’s Owners.

Joeys Galore

I have so many pictures of my joeys. Well, this post will only be just pictures. So, enjoy!

Tonight will be Jodi and Jerry’s last night with me. Tomorrow they will be going home to Eric (Jerry) and to Ched (Jodi).

Here is Jodi. She has grown quite alot. She acts just like her mom. Crabby girl hahaha.

Then next is Jeremy. I think my last post I mis-spelled his name as Jerry LOL..Sometimes I get confused. Oh well….. he became quite a handsome boy. Very adventurous. He now follows his sister’s crabbiness but it will subside once he goes to his new home. He kinda followed and copied his sister. Look at his picture below. This is how a 2 month old OOP joey should look like next to a 50 cent coin.

Then next we have Keera’s 2 naughty joeys. Koda and Kristy. Koda will be going to Stenn, Kristy will be going to Shigure. They are still very dependent on mom, as you can see with the pics. They got that babyish blur face that every loves about joeys.

Here is Kristy cuddling againts the pink fleece.

Kristy in my palm.

Koda hanging on hehehe….

Koda on Keera’s back.

The joeys torturing their mom hahahah.

Then next we have Arizona. She belongs to Eugene. Arizona hates the camera, she was basically attacking and pouncing on my lens. But taking pics of her, she poses naturally. Awww…..

This is Arizona’s kungfu pose LOL.

Then comes Peanut and Butter. They are growing strong. Peanut will be going to Shigure and Butter to Sharon. Butter is pretty fiesty, she won’t sit still for the camera. Peanut is more calm. But then joeys will always be joeys. They are just so active.

Butter giving me the ” I surrender!” look…. funny girl.

Peanut has a very “koala” face.

Coming up, we have Baron and Cuppy. They will be going to Chong Hau (Baron) and Amir (Cuppy). These 2 cheeky fellas, very attached to Jen, their mom. Very hard to get them to pose.

The top one is Baron, the bottom one is Cuppy.

Baron

Cuppy.

Then some new joeys. 2 sets of joeys, both sets OOP on the same date! 26 July 2011.

This 2, a male and female, are by Ginger and Pepper. I adopted Ginger and Pepper in…. I think…. end of 2009? She had a joey once, but she rejected it and I couldn’t rescue it in time. That was last year. This time, she is more confident so her joeys are healthy and she seems happy too. The girl is Magic, going to Abdul Fareeq and the boy, Max will be going to Aqidah.

Then this here is from Sugus and Gizmo, 2 girls that also OOP on 26 July 2011. So happy that they will be going to the same home to Rabiatul and her sister. The baby girls are called Emma and Emmy.

Anyway, it took me awhile to update due to a very hectic day today. So hope you guys enjoy them.

Edited: So sorry…. I got confused with some joeys. Shigure is getting Kristy. Luoyun will be getting Kailey. My apologies as I got too many names to remember, too many joeys at one time.

Another tip about commercial sellers

I think in my last post about the difference between a homebreeder and commercial sellers or agents, I forgot to add some important information. So here they are:

Homebreeder:

  1. A homebreeder would use original joey pictures for sale.
  2. A homebreeder would not separate the joeys from their parents and chuck them all in one cage.
  3. A homebreeder never sells you a pair at the same time. Homebreeders do not have the sufficient breeding stock to give you a male and female pair at the same time. If this happens and from a homebreeder, it could be brother and sister.
  4. A homebreeder would never boast about his or her gliders come from imported line unless he or she has a certificate to prove such a matter.
  5. Homebreeders never off their joeys in a package deal. Why? Because we homebreeders are not in the pet supply business. Sometimes I may have 1 or 2 extra cages for sale but that is it. I never offer in a package like buy 2 joeys, get free cage and toy and bottle, etc…

 

Commercial Sellers:

  1. They would sell many joeys at once. All in the same cage, eating mostly apples or papaya or banana.
  2. Commercial sellers would never be able to tell you much about joey behaviour like how it barks and cries at night, how it would react to interaction. They would just say, “super tame” or “sangat jinak dan manja”.
  3. Offer a pair of joeys with all sorts of packages. Even weird food stuff and vitamins.
  4. Commercial sellers would always sell you a male and female pair. They do not care if the joeys are brother and sister.
  5. Commercial sellers sometimes would say their joeys are 100% from Australia. There is no such thing as importing joeys from Australia, the sugar glider trade in Australia is an illegal and banned pet trade.
  6. Commercial sellers would sell their joeys underaged or sometimes small sized joeys with so-called bushy tails.
  7. Apparently one commercial seller is selling joeys base on how bushy their tails are. The fluffier and bushier, the more expensive. The underage and thinner looking tails go cheaper.

So here are some guides. I hope you guys take a good read and spread it to your friends. I have seen too many that have fallen victim to commercial sellers and many innocent joeys living unhealthy lives, some never even live up to a year. So just beware.

Homebreeders

I have seen many ads in online classifieds with underage sugar gliders everywhere. The sellers would advertise with the words “Homebred joeys” or “homebreeders”. But are they really homebreeders?

I’m a homebreeder and from what I can see these sellers have 100s of joeys for sale whole year around. A homebreeder normally breed their gliders as a hobby. I have 30 gliders, but then only 10 pairs are breeding and they do not breed frequently because they breed when the time is right. So how on earth do these people have more than 20 joeys each month to sell? This is just a thought for you guys to ponder on.

Many have cheated. On the internet, anyone can sell anything. People these days are very gulible. They would believe what a seller says. “Oh, don’t worry, my joeys are just 2 months old. No problem wan, can eat alreadi”…… Common thing to hear these days.

Do take note of these so called homebreeders. How to know if the person is a homebreeder?

Ask questions. What does he feed his gliders? How long is the gestation period? How long do joeys live in the pouch and how long do they stay out of the pouch? When was the joey weaned? When was it’s OOP date? How many pairs does he have that breeds? What cages does he use? Question on glider sickness, calcium intake, what foods should be given and what should not be given. Normally a true hobbyist would be able to answer all of the questions. I sometimes get confuse with my joeys OOP dates especially when I have so many joeys that OOP during the same month, but I keep a logbook so I would know when and also who has booked them.

Homebreeders are also very concern about their buyers. I would ask alot of questions about the buyer, exchange long emails and answer questions thrown at me. A normal seller would push all these aside of answer in very short answers or give very weird answers.

Anyway, judge them yourself. If possible, view pictures of the joeys. If the joey is an underage joey, then it is definitely from just a commercial seller.

Oh yah, homebreeders also do not put several joeys in 1 cage. I do not take all my joeys and put them in 1 cage or container because it would mean getting the joeys mixed up and stressed up as well.

So becareful when choosing a breeder……

The joeys

I know I have been slacking in photos and joey updates. Anyway, here are some long awaited joey pics and updates on them. Future owners, hope you enjoy these.

Here are Jodi and Jerry, a female and male joey from Jessie and Pugle. They OOP on 01 June 2011. These 2 have taken on their parents’ characteristics a bit. Jerry is the male, he has inherited his father’s found face, but not quite sure if it will stay round or not. When he first OOP, he had a puggy face like his dad but as he grew older, it changed a bit. He is like his dad, loves to explore but calm too. Jodi is the female, she is like mom, face and all. She is crabby like mom but then she has turned out to be the calmer one. Noisy little girl she is. And her brother follows her, she is the more outgoing leader.

Jodi and Jerry will be going to their new homes in 2 weeks time. Their new owners, Ched will be taking Jodi, and Jerry will go to Eric.

Jodi is on the left, on the right is Jerry.

Jodi giving me her intense face to face look.

Jerry with his blur face.

Jodi riding on papa Pugle. 

Then next in line is Arial, a joey that OOP earlier than Jodi and Jeremy by parents Russel and Gennie. She OOP around 21 May 2011. I was thinking of keeping her myself but I believe when a good home, I rather she goes to a new home. She will be going to Eugene this weekend.  She is now fully independent and eats on her own. She doesn’t crab much but she is super active, can’t sit still for the camera. She is a perfect little glider for someone new to having gliders so she is quite a match for Eugene.

This is how an 8 week old joey should look like. Well developed facial features, a fluffy tail and bright eyes, even out fur. Head and body ratio normal. Underage joeys normally can look super cute because they aren’t fully developed, so their heads can appear bigger.

Then of course Jen have 2 joeys as well with her mate, Crumble. But her joeys have a little bald patch on their heads due to the joeys keep rubbing their heads against the bars while in the sleeping pouch. This is a first for me, never seen such antics before but there are no skin problems. Fur is growing back and no sores. Anyway, they OOP on 16 June. Again, 1 male and 1 female, Baron and Cuppy. Baron is going to Chong Hau, Cuppy is going to Amir in Malacca. These 2 are growing well, very vocal, and they are expected to be big sized gliders since Keera and Crumble are big sized gliders.

Jen is a great mom, she inherited her mothering instincts from her mom, Keera.

Cute but with weird bald spots on the head LOL. Don’t worry, not skin disease or mites.

Then here is little Arizona. She just OOP, on 5 July 2011. She is already booked by Eugene, so she will be Arial’s companion when the time comes. Her parents are 2 new gliders from my own breeding. This is their first joey. Parents are Rimba and Paige. Rimba is from Sugus and Gizmo, Paige is from Chiwek and Oshine.

Then here comes 2 joeys, Peanut and Butter, they OOP on 24 June 2011. Parents are Chubs and Girl. Peanut is the boy, Butter is the girl. Butter is going to Sharon. Peanut will belong to Shigure. They are like little hot chilli peppers. Really fueled with energy right now and they love their mom to bits. Momma Girl is a great mom.

Here is the joeys on Girl’s back.

Peanut and Butter

Then tonight, 8 July 2011, Keera’s joeys OOP. These joeys are unbook for the time being. It’s a m ale and female. I have named them Koda and Kristy. So if you are interested, please do email at suggiesathome@gmail.com

Also, 2 more gliders are expecting 2 joeys each, they will OOP in a few weeks time.

Getting sugar gliders online

Hi everyone

Ok, I’m actually in the middle of my higher diploma finals. Since I have finished my theory exams, I got some spare time to blog about what I always fear and stress greatly about getting sugar gliders online.

Yes, I know it can be ironic because I too sell joeys online but the thing about me is that I do it for a hobby, a passion. It has nothing to do with getting an income from it and I do not take advantage of the hobby. IT just makes me so sad to see hundreds of sugar glider joeys are being sold in terrible conditions at times.

Today I was browsing through Mudah.my again, it has become a daily routine for me to browse Mudah…. I don’t go scouting for additional suggies, I already have enough but I keep my eye on the sellers. Many of them use “fake” pictures. What do I mean by fake? They use pictures, sometimes my photos as well…. anyway, pictures that are available from the internet, cheating their buyers into thinking that the picture is showing the original animal itself. Here is one of the most popular pictures used….. now it is a picture of a 2 month OOP joey, but in reality, do they really sell 2 month OOP joeys? Do they even know what is a 2 month OOP joey?

Well, today someone was honest but what I saw disgusted me. The condition of the joeys in the tank with loads of apples? Tsk tsk tsk….. woodshavings….. they are not hamsters. Come on people…..

The age of the joeys, to me they look like they just turn 4 weeks OOP only. Well, at least better than what I saw on the Pet World 2011 where a popular petshop company was selling joeys that were not even weaned off their mom’s milk. Younger than 4 weeks OOP, they looked dehydrated and stressed from the noise and people tapping the glass tank. Sigh…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Listen people, you can help by just educating your friends, educating people that you see going into pet shops looking for sugar gliders. In fact, start educating people on facebook. There are many sellers doing their sugar glider business on facebook, and I have been trying to educate people there too but my Bahasa Malaysia is kinda crappy LOL. Anyway, just tell people to avoid buying cheap sugar gliders. The cheaper they are, the higher chances of getting an underage joey. So do spread the word.

Oh yah, I think one day sugar gliders may go extinct in Indonesia in a few years time. Suppliers are supplying sugar gliders to glider farms by the hundreds per shipping, they are dirt cheap there and every mass breeder in Thailand, Malaysia and even Japan I think are trying to get hold of as many wild adults for their breeding facility. So stop the demand for joeys from mass breeders.

Ok now, back to my studies.

Sugar gliders from Thailand?

It’s been kinda crazy lately. I see adverts popping up especially in Mudah.my of sellers trying to sell off joeys as 100% fully imported sugar gliders from Australia. Hey guys, I already wrote an article on when Australia banned sugar glider exportation. Our sugar gliders are all from Indonesia, some maybe from Papua New Guinea. Then how about Thailand? Gliders are not native animals from Thailand, they get their stock from Indonesia as well.

Again, bear in mind, a hobbyist home breeder can never churn up 20 to 30 sugar glider joeys in a week or a month. I own 30 adults, and I only get a few joeys in a few months, in a year I may end up having close to 12 joeys for sale but most often less because I do not practice overbreeding nor force breeding. Commercial mass breeders do force breeding by taking the joeys away at too young of an age, then feeding loads of cat food to boost protein intake to make them breed. In the end what happens? Unhealthy joeys and breeding adult gliders that die in 3 years. Pitiful.

Here are some facts:

Sugar glider joeys are white, grey and black in colour. They will change their colour a bit as they grow older, depending on the shade of natural grey to brown tinting.

Sugar gliders start breeding at 10 months old. So people saying Indonesian gliders do not breed at 1 year old, rubbish, full of fake facts.

Sugar gliders that are properly bred are tame. Underage joeys are always tame because they are so blur and scared that they just never bite or fight back.

Please do not get cheated by these new “so called authentic suppliers or sellers”. What they are selling is false advertising to make you believe in them so that you would buy. Heck, the joeys are even going for RM200. If it is fully imported, I would sell it for RM400 because the permit to import is high, the license to obtain from overseas and dealers is high as well. If the price is low, it means the sugar gliders were illegally smuggled or all brought from indonesia because the cost price for a glider from Indonesian suppliers is like what, RM50 a joey……

Another joey went to a new home

Little Meera, that OOP on 24 Jone, just went to her new home last Sunday. Really happy that she has gotten herself a good home but of course, I do miss her. Anyway, I’m just happy that she is in good hands.

Facts about Meera:

  • She has got weird eye lids that only Kiah passes on to all her joeys.
  • She is a wheel addict, will run on it every night.
  • She is scared of dubia roaches LOL.
  • She hates bonding pouches and would crab but she loves people.

Ah my little Meera, you will always be one of my favourite joeys from Kiah.

Some last pictures of her before she went to her new home:

Sorry bout the photos being a little crappy, had my white balance set wrongly LOL.

Newly OOP joeys

OK guys, I will be back blogging more often soon. Tomorrow is my last day of my final exams.

Anyway, just to update, I now have 3 female joeys that recently OOP and have not been booked yet. All a bunch of cuties to me.

Kiah and Kimba just had a female joey, Meera OOP 24 June 2010. My guessing is that Meera would be just like the spitting image of her mom Keera. Coz previous joeys from Keera always turn out to look like her. And she somehow passes on this eye ring that is unique only to her.

Then there are Fura and Fala, OOP on 28 June 2010, both girls and by Sugus and Gizmo. This has got to be the first time Sugus produce 2 girls at the same time for me. Anyway, she is a wonderful mom.

Of course, a few females haven’t OOP their joeys yet. So let me update on the list:

Keera (I’m really expecting some promising results from her)

Dippy (1 joey)

Genie ( 2 joeys, should OOP very very soon)

Lada ( 1 joey in pouch)

Will soon update on some latestn pictures of the joeys.