Zuzu, the novel. My sugar glider experience.
I had one. I agree, they did sound great, and had she turned out handleable, I'm sure she would have been a great pet. It ended up just being a case of terrible timing & circumstances for us, and things didn't go as planned at the beginning. I'll just say, that no matter what, DO that handling & bonding at the beginning. No matter what. Stay up that extra hour, whatever it takes. I take my pet ownership seriously, I do my research, I plan everything out, I plan ahead. I did everything right, had a great breeder... When I was planning everything, I had my own house, had a job where I was home most of the day, and even when I was at work I could have worn the glider pouch all day. It was going to be awesome. Between that time and the time the Joey was ready to come home to me, job situation changed and house situation was tied to job. Had to move in with mother in law. Not happy about additional new pet, therefore roaming the house freely not an option, so out of cage time limited. Upstairs bathroom has open holes for piping, therefore not an appropriate enclosed play area either. Again, out of cage time limited.
In the meantime, new job. Office job, in city half hour away. Gone from house over ten hours a day. plus two young children. So all that plus the depression of the situation had me just in such a state that the bonding just didn't happen. I tried to do the best I could about taking out the pouch while I was at home, and feeding her worms and stuff, but it just didn't seem to be enough cause that's when she would just be sleeping, so there wasn't really any interaction time.
Then, on top of that, I had built her a mansion of a cage. Wanted the biggest and best for her of course. Well the cage was huge for this tiny critter, and catching her out of it was impossible, as I had made it too far to reach!! Lol!! Also, I had fussed about the sharp edges of the metal mesh on her delicate feet, so I had gone with a plastic mesh. Well, after about a week of living here, goofball had found an escape route. She was sneaking out and taking up residence in the coat pockets in our nearby closet. Sometimes it would take me over a day to find her!! I couldn't find the escape route for weeks, so it kept happening, the hole was so small and so close to the wood edge you could barely see it. But the damage was done. That first month of bonding was trashed and we never really got it turned around. She had a constant thirst for escape, and a taste for blood when handled. I kept wearing the
pouch and carefully reaching a finger in to try and pet her while she was sleeping, but there was hardly any out of pouch interaction. If we did let her out she'd just take off and then we'd have to fuss and stress about catching her before we could leave the house (we also have 2 cats & a dog) so if there was limited time it just wasn't worth it.
I eventually bought an actual metal birdcage that seemed to improve things as far as being able to round her up in the cage easier, so I could take her out whenever I wanted, so that helped a little. She seems more comfortable in it too, cause she actually used all the space, whereas I thjnk in the big one she was afraid of the bottom cause she could see the dog & cats down by the floor.
Anyways, we ended up moving and she took up residence in my daughter's room. She seems more comfortable there, less traffic maybe. Anyways, she seemed more active in her cage, came out and interacted more. Not to the point where you could touch her without getting bit, mind you, but taking treats while in the cage and pouch a little better than before. And she wasn't constantly trying to escape from the cage.
Put it this way, she wasnt the kind of pet she was originally supposed to be, and wasn't living the life I had wanted for her, but we'd both become
comfortable with our present arrangements and seemed to be cool with things.
This whole time I was preparing the bml diet for her as I thought that was supposed to be the best. I wasn't doing live insects (mother in law) but I was giving freeze dried. Mostly mealworms. That was our bonding.
Anyways, one day my daughter says to me " Zuzu's acting funny" and she was, climbing weird on her cage. Something was definitely up, maybe a sprained leg I thought at first but it seemed to be more than that. I had to rush off to work but once I got the urgent stuff out of the way I spent the day googling and phoning vets, one seemed to think it sounded like a nutritional deficiency of some kind, which crushed me cause I thought I had been doing everything right in that department. Anyways, by the time I got home, well, that was it.
My daughter was devastated, as she'd grown so much more attached since the cage was in her room. Couldnt sleep without the sound of the wheel at night, and she felt responsible because she was the one putting the food in the cage (I was making the food, so any fault would be mine, and I explained that, but you could tell she still felt responsible.) It was so so sad. She still has the pouch hanging on her wall as a memorial.
We werent inthe kind of financial situation to pay for autopsy or anything, so I still don't know for sure what happened. So I can't say specifically what not to do, just a general make sure you bond well, so that you can handle the glider, and do handle the glider. Maybe then we would have noticed the decline in health. As it is, they always look kind of weird & awkward when climbing up the side of a cage, so it was hard to notice there was a problem until it was too late. But if I were you I would research diet as much as you can, and give as much variety as you can, just to be safe.There was a wonderful glider forum much like this chameleon one, that was so helpful to me when doing my research. I forget the name but I hope it's still kicking around.
And just take that inital bonding period as an urgent non-negotiable priority. It
will make your future life with that sugar glider infinitely more enjoyable if
you're able to handle and interact with her. And they can (are supposed to)
live for a VERY long time, so you want that time to be fun for both of you.
I wish you the best of luck, and I'm very jealous. I'd love to get a second
chance on a glider someday. They really are adorable. For now I'm pretty happy with my chameleons.
They actually had some gliders at Repticon, and I got to hold and play with one.. it was soooo cute! Kept climbing all over me and trying to hide in my shirt 
.. I kind of want a marmoset too 
He says something about monkeys and ebola 
