Hi I'm new and have a couple questions. We rescued a 2-1/2 year old male glider about 6 weeks ago. I've noticed a very STRONG smell coming from his cage, so strong that it exacerbates my asthma. Is this normal? Is this his musk because he's an intact male? We clean the cage and wash his sleeping pouch regularly, but it doesn't seem to help. The cage that he came with is mostly wood with wire mesh. Could it be his urine soaking into the wood (the wood is finished, not raw, but still...)? Would female gliders be better because they don't have scent glands? Also, he was just used for breeding and wasn't handled much so we're having trouble bonding with him and are getting tired of getting bitten - but that's something to deal with once we figure out the odor problem. Thanks.

All gliders mark territory but yeah, intact gliders smell more. I would take him in to get neutered and then give it some time to see if the smell mellows. They always smell but I do not find the scent strong or unpleasant.

Neutering may help with the bonding and biting too. Intact males are generally more aggressive.

I would also consider getting another glider. He might be lonely and overmarking territory due to loneliness.

Just my thoughts and subject to correction by the more experienced here.

The vet we took him to doesn't like to neuter gliders, so I'm not sure what to do there. The person we got him from had used him for breeding but sold him when the female died. Honestly, I'd like to start over with babies, rather than have a neurotic male as my first glider.

He is probably not neurotic and I would shop around to try to find another vet. He is also still young. Gliders have terrible twos sometimes. In another nine months or so he will be a full adult and probably calm down.

Depending on what his diet was and the condition of his home life before you got him can affect it, too. I rescued 2 little boys about 3 months ago and between the bad diet they were on and the fact that their pouch didn't seem to have been washed in a very long time (if ever), they stunk so bad and were a bad brown color.

Now that I've switched them to Critter Love and they get regular new clean cage fleece, etc the smell has gone down a lot.

I also forgot about this, but do you have a wheel for him? The first wheel we got we had to throw away because it stunk so bad due to them using the bathroom while they ran and it would get in the creases and nothing we did would clean it good enough.

Yes, urine will soak into the wood. Invest in a good flight cage. An HQ flight cage with 1/2 inch bar spacing is good.