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Neutering the young male sugar glider
By Beverly R. Oakes, Owner-Operator, Glider Gulch

A while back, I began to hear about, and experience, people who wanted a female baby sugar glider because they had heard the males “got bald and were smelly”.  While I felt like this was an uninformed assessment and was somewhat exaggerated, I began to think about the possibility of neutering young male gliders.  I have an adult male glider that was ‘accidentally’ neutered when he got ‘hung up’ in his pouch and some thread got wrapped around the piece of skin between the body and the testicle sac.  The sac dried up and fell off.  This male does not have the ‘bald spot’ - probably due to the scent gland there being inactive or less active.  He also does not ‘mark’ or release the musky odor that is so characteristic of the mature male (and even more noticeable in paired/mated gliders). 

I began to talk about neutering with my vet and he agreed that with the sugar glider’s anatomy and smallness of size, the best and safest way to neuter one would be to tie off the testicle sac (as opposed to any invasive type surgery).  I began to examine a couple of the male babies I had and when one was about 8 - 9 weeks, I could readily feel the testicles fully descended into the furry sac. 

At the vets, we decided to attempt tying off the sac without anesthesia of any kind.  If it was needed, the vet felt that ether would be one of the safest options.   The procedure went very well and took only a few minutes.  I held the glider with his underside visible to the vet.  The vet made a ‘loop’ with a piece of suture, the assistant lifted the testicle sac away from the body, and the vet placed the ‘loop’ around the neck of the sac and made the initial tie.  This initial tie must be very snug and the glider jumped slightly, which indicated some minor discomfort.  The glider also released some of the strong-smelling  white glandular secretion from it’s anal area.  He did not bite and settled back down while the vet tied it off a few more times.  All of my glider babies have been handled from the time they came out of pouch, so it was relatively easy to hold him.  However, if you are holding a less cooperative glider, you can wrap it in a cloth with only the underside exposed.  After the vet was done, the glider climbed back in the pouch tied around my waist, cleaned around the sac area a bit and curled up to sleep.  I have never seen the neutered males chew at the area, nor have I seen evidence of irritation in the area after the procedure.  If done properly,  after 7 - 10 days, the sac dries up, turns somewhat black and either falls off or will come off quite easily with a slight ‘tug’.  You may notice a pen-point sized spot at the point of separation.  You can put a dab of triple antibiotic ointment at this point to help prevent infection and promote healing. We have performed this procedure on several male sugar glider babies (8 - 12 weeks out of pouch) to date, and have not experienced any complications. 

Neutering enables the responsible owner to have a male/female pair of gliders without being concerned about breeding.   Breeding for the purpose of either giving or selling the offspring requires a USDA license.  Also, if a person has a breeding pair, they need to plan for how they are going to find homes for all of the offspring the pair might produce in their lifetime.  If a person wants a brother/sister pair, neutering the male will prevent inbreeding.  Unlike two males that were not raised together, two neutered males will usually get along quite well with each other. 

Glider Gulch now offers neutered male babies for sale to the person who does not want to breed, wants a male/female pair that are related (neutering required), or just wants a male baby, but does not want to worry about the marking behavior as it matures.