Good Morning All,
So my girls Suki and Tem (3 years old) I adopted from Craigslist. They are doing amazing, and love to hang out on me and my children, however, they are not quite "hand-friendly" yet.
Just an interesting observation. It appears both my girls are afraid to jump and glide, as if they never learned. They are both very careful and take their time with any jump, but both will climb to the floor and crawl up curtains and surfaces and will seldom jump more than a few inches. They look like they want to, and get into a pouncing position, but back off and reconsider more often than not.
My instinct is that they have never really learned or been exposed to more open spaces and roaming.
Anyone ever experience this? or have any suggestions on helping them build confidence?
Thanks
B

You posted that on Dec 27th, so the girls have not been in your home all that long even though from your posts they are making good progress in adjusting.

Some gliders take to jumping and gliding naturally while others take a bit of coaxing.

You can start by placing them on a table top, bookcase shelf, back of chair or any place that is about your chest level. Back up so there is a little space between you and your glider. Hold out your hands and coax the glider to jump to your hands. You may need to use a treat the first few times.

As you see the glider is getting more confident back up a step or two but not too much. Never let the glider fall to the floor

Once this is accomplished, you can place her on something that is a little higher and repeat the process.

You will know when she is ready to go on her own by her body language and tail movements so be ready. Whenever she is on top of something, once she has her confidence, she can jump/glide at any time

I agree with Karen.

Be patient and when they do start jumping to you make sure that you catch them, if they jump to you and you flinch and they miss they will not trust to jump to you.

I agree with Karen and Feather.

They may have had a bad experience, and their confidence needs to be built up again.

I saw this post yesterday and wanted so badly to reply then, but now here I am.

There are most likely three possibilities
1. How they were raised and kept may have restricted their opportunities to learn or gain confidence in jumping and gliding. (As already mentioned)
2. Something could have gone wrong, or mistreatment, resulting in a bad experience that destroyed their confidence or made them otherwise fearful or distrustful.
3. They may be still adjusting and acclimating to you and their new home are are not feeling adventurous.

All three of these can be resulting in lack of confidence or a lack of adventure. Good news is both can be overcome.

I could share a couple of stories from my personal experience, but I'm on my tablet and stories can be rather long. Maybe later I'll type them up on my PC or maybe start a thread on the topic.

I may be misinterpreting, but it seems there is a lot of suggestions that there is something negative in their past making them timid about gliding now. It could simply be no one has worked with them or given them the incentive to develop that skill.

I've needed to work (& bribe) mine to build up their gliding distance since they first started coming to me willingly. Much as you're describing BridgitBruce, it started with short jumps & controlled falls, & with work improved from there. For Gwyn, it has been about 20 months of 'training' & she will make glides of about 6' to land on my upper arm from a height of 6' readily. In fact, I frequently underestimate her now. Last night, from my shoulder, she went completely across my living room.

The others decrease in their ability/daring (& how long/often we've worked on it) from Morgana (several feet), to Arthur (mostly controlled falls, but if I can motivate his lazy butt he'll do several feet), & then Merlin who is very timid in most things (unless he wants to return to then cage, then maybe 2').

I see it like kids: While they have a natural tendency to attempt things they're capable of (slides, for example), they require encouragement & a reason to push themselves further (really tall slides). I bribe with yogurt drops in my hand, tap my wrist to get their attention focused, & wait while they line up/work up the courage for their attempt. Keep at it with them, give them a goal, & work in baby steps. They'll be surprising you in no time.

I like Hutch's answer.

Hutch, mine is from a bad experience. Tucker tried to glide to me one day and I wasn't paying attention and he didn't make it to me and hit the ground like a rock.

After that he would just stare you down until you got closer and closer, until he could climb on you.

Here is a video from a gal on Facebook, she uses a clicker to get and keep her glider's attention.

Kim, I've had kind both, not much experience, mostly do to them not getting enough opportunities for most of their first year, after novelty wore off. It took some time for Lulu, but I knew she was capable, having seen her glide a distance away from me (before we were bonded). She was more timid about it in out of cage play, some small, short distant jumps. Skadoosh was more adventurous during out of cage play, love to climb as high as possible and glide to me. So as Lulu had begun building up confidence, I really wanted to help her. This one time Skadoosh had climbed atop the medicine cabinet, Lulu the shower curtain. I was standing closer to Skadoosh, but she didn't look ready to launch, Lulu was working up the courage. My bathroom being small, it only took one side step to the right to encourage Lulu, only just as I took that step, both gliders launched. Skadoosh had been aiming for where I was just standing and hit the floor. Uninjured, but didn't trust me after that. Unfortunately, soon after I move and it was far and few times between that I could get them out for play. It's been only this recent past year I've been able to resume some playtime, and I am working with Skadoosh to rebuild trust. Lulu has passed, but I have to work with my Ollie as well, unfortunately, it was soon after homing him I had to move as well (all in all, I've moved twice within a year). So he hasn't had the work that the girls had.

It seems mine are more forgiving.

There've been plenty of times where I wasn't watching one close enough & they made a leap for me. Sometimes they just miss judge somehow (looking at you, Arthur), sometimes its my fault for moving.

They look either annoyed or embarrassed for a moment, then hop over to me & scramble up. It probably helps I'll give them a small treat for the attempt (& coming to me themselves).

Edit: I should clarify they do frequently land on me during the ambush... but maybe a third-ish of the time results in a 'plop.' Also, Merlin doesn't go for the ambush, but the other three will.

BridgitKBruce, in addition to the above advice I've given, I recommend you make it as much of a game as possible & don't do it too long or frequently. Accept small gains & end on a good note to keep it fun for fluffy & non-fluffy participants. Also, treats

Tucker hit the ground like a rock. He was a lover, not a fighter. Guess that is why he gave up so fast.

Great feed back!!!!