Posted By: Anonymous
Potty training the glider - 04/28/05 02:53 PM
Veenyx asked me about this since I claim to have potty trained gliders.... so here's another myth I'd like to get rid of... Gliders CAN be potty trained, to an extent. Your not going to get them to go into a litter pan or anything, but you can make them stop peeing in their bag and on you.
Both my gliders are 5 & 6, they were trained, Indie within a month, Jaxom about a year. I first started off with the notion that gliders are at least as smart as rats. That being the case, the whole "gliders can't be potty trained" notion had to be false. My rats were litter trained so why not the gliders?
Personally I think this is one of the first problems.... people tend to think gliders are stupid. I don't. If they can open cages and zippers and carry things around in their tails and come to their names, they are trainable.
Indie would do a sort of "potty dace" before she would pee in her bag. She would look out at me, get real crabby for about 20 minutes and then pee. I just took up something she was doing naturally. When she gave me the "potty dance" look I just took her out and put her on a towel. Presto she peed. Sometimes it took a few minutes, and a little bit of stimulation, but she caught on really fast that I wasn't the stupid human she thought I was. I payed attention to her nonverbal language. Indie is fully trained. She will not pee in the bag and she will even WAIT for you to get a towel under her if she gets out before I can get a towel.
When Jaxom arrived on the sceen we had a problem. He ALWAYS peed in the bag. Indie would start crabby and end up with pee or poo all over her! EW! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> So, we started training Jaxom together. It started off as LOTS of potty breaks. I would get them out about evey 1 1/2 hours and make him come out, if he simply refused to pee, I'd go every 30 minutes. Indie would almost always pee. But only rarly would Jaxom. Sometimes he would actually wait until he got BACK in the bag! So I started making him stay out until he had done his business. He couldn't get back into the pouch until he peed. Nows he got it. He doesn't like it, I think he LIKES peeing on Indies head, but he does it.
Indie pees the instant she touches the paper towel.... Jaxom still takes some coaxing, I think he gets stage fright <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> but he does it. Neither of them pees in the bag any more, unless it's my fault and I don't pay attention to the potty dance plee and wait too long to give them a break.
All I did was take something Indie was natually already doing and add to it. That's how you train any animal.
If you want them to stop peeing in the bag you have to give them somewhere else to pee. Take potty breaks. Just like taking your 2 year old to the bathroom. Are they suddenly antsey, or crabby and looking at you for something? That may be the "I gotta potty" look.
At some point the glider will begin to associate a paper towel with pee time. Make sure you use the same type of towel every time. I carried a wash cloth for a while, now I use paper towels, but it needs to be the same material, otherwise they will just go on your jeans or where ever. But with enough time they will begin to associate the towel with peeing.
These guys live for 10 years. I think that gives anyone ample amount of time to teach them some manners. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yelclap.gif" alt="" /> This is not something that happens over night. My gliders spend 4 days a week with me, 9-10 hour days in the office. We hae LOTS of time together, which has certainly helped.
Both my gliders are 5 & 6, they were trained, Indie within a month, Jaxom about a year. I first started off with the notion that gliders are at least as smart as rats. That being the case, the whole "gliders can't be potty trained" notion had to be false. My rats were litter trained so why not the gliders?
Personally I think this is one of the first problems.... people tend to think gliders are stupid. I don't. If they can open cages and zippers and carry things around in their tails and come to their names, they are trainable.
Indie would do a sort of "potty dace" before she would pee in her bag. She would look out at me, get real crabby for about 20 minutes and then pee. I just took up something she was doing naturally. When she gave me the "potty dance" look I just took her out and put her on a towel. Presto she peed. Sometimes it took a few minutes, and a little bit of stimulation, but she caught on really fast that I wasn't the stupid human she thought I was. I payed attention to her nonverbal language. Indie is fully trained. She will not pee in the bag and she will even WAIT for you to get a towel under her if she gets out before I can get a towel.
When Jaxom arrived on the sceen we had a problem. He ALWAYS peed in the bag. Indie would start crabby and end up with pee or poo all over her! EW! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> So, we started training Jaxom together. It started off as LOTS of potty breaks. I would get them out about evey 1 1/2 hours and make him come out, if he simply refused to pee, I'd go every 30 minutes. Indie would almost always pee. But only rarly would Jaxom. Sometimes he would actually wait until he got BACK in the bag! So I started making him stay out until he had done his business. He couldn't get back into the pouch until he peed. Nows he got it. He doesn't like it, I think he LIKES peeing on Indies head, but he does it.
Indie pees the instant she touches the paper towel.... Jaxom still takes some coaxing, I think he gets stage fright <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> but he does it. Neither of them pees in the bag any more, unless it's my fault and I don't pay attention to the potty dance plee and wait too long to give them a break.
All I did was take something Indie was natually already doing and add to it. That's how you train any animal.
If you want them to stop peeing in the bag you have to give them somewhere else to pee. Take potty breaks. Just like taking your 2 year old to the bathroom. Are they suddenly antsey, or crabby and looking at you for something? That may be the "I gotta potty" look.
At some point the glider will begin to associate a paper towel with pee time. Make sure you use the same type of towel every time. I carried a wash cloth for a while, now I use paper towels, but it needs to be the same material, otherwise they will just go on your jeans or where ever. But with enough time they will begin to associate the towel with peeing.
These guys live for 10 years. I think that gives anyone ample amount of time to teach them some manners. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yelclap.gif" alt="" /> This is not something that happens over night. My gliders spend 4 days a week with me, 9-10 hour days in the office. We hae LOTS of time together, which has certainly helped.