This was sometime ago (5-6 months?) but this is such a great story that I had to tell it...
I went to a local pet store which has a lot of products at a cheap price but I don’t like how they care for their animals. I saw a real small cage that was maybe 10 inches tall. The wire was rusted & very sticky to the touch. Food, pee, and poop covered the cage and in the bottom was just some filthy newspaper. This animal had to walk and live & walk in its own filth, food, urine, and poop because there wasn’t even a wire bottom to the cage. There were absolutely no
toys in the whole cage besides a very dirty plastic fake tree branch that was covered with 7-8 big house flies on it. The only food in the cage was a cup of birdseed & nuts in the bottom. The small cup of yellow, dirty, water had 2 dead flies floating around in it. There was no pouch or anything – just a basket that was soaked with urine and food. It had holes, and sharp sticks sticking out. There was no sign that said what animal was in there but as soon as I noticed that there in the basket was a trembling, skinny, dirty, horrid looking sugar glider I started crying and yelling at the manager. Apparently the glider was part of a petting zoo & the owner of which was getting rid of all his animals. Oh I was soooo mad! The guy in the store said he’d give the glider to me for $100 with the cage and everything. This may have not been the best thing to do but out of pity for the little feller I bought him. Oh gosh, you should have seen the change in his life –what an improvement! That evening I cleaned the cage real good and gave him a pouch,
toys, branch, fresh water, exotic nutrition pellets, BML w/ fruits, veggies, and bugs! He moaned in enjoyment and hyper squeaks while eating like a pig! He was so happy he squealed in love for the food. The next day I went out and bought him a new 3 ½ ft. tall cage, and new everything (
toys, branches, pouch, etc.) He wasn’t tame but he didn’t bite so for 2 months I worked with him and he was finally tame & healthy. I sold him to a wonderful home where he now has a mate and is doing very well =).