speech "SUGAR GLIDER : THE GROWTH"

Petaurus breviceps or sugar glider is belong in the marsupial family which is famously known as small gliding possum. They are named as sugar glider because nectarous foods and the ability to glide through the air like. These small creature are native animal to eastern and northern mainland of Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago. They can be found commonly near to eucalyptus trees supplies or any source of food in any forest. Sugar gliders is nocturnal animal so, they will actively seek foods in the night. Their shelter is hollowed tree bark and live in with eight adults each group. Dominant adult male sugar glider will mark his territory and members with scented saliva on the forehead and chest to avoid intruders.

            Generally, males sugar glider reached their sexual maturity within 4 to 12 months, differ from females which attain it at 6 to 18 months. What is interesting about petaurus breviceps is there are a few signs when a male becomes mature. Adult males may have scent glands on the forehead and chest  and “sack drop”. Male sugar glider will continuously breed throughout their lifespan. For females, it is adviced to wait between 8 to 12 months to be breed. Although they will continue to breed until they are 5 to 8 years old, it is rarely to happen due to physical and emotional health, diet and overall desire to be a mother.  Some male and female will be not breed eventhough they are reaching their maturity.

            Sugar gliders’ reproduction system is different from other animal. Males have bifurcated penis and females have two separate vaginae and cervixes and a divided uterus which lead tem to have joeys at different stages of development. Female’s’ pouch is cannot be open because joeys will die as they unable to reattach their jaw. The cycle of a female sugar glider is 29 days and will ovulate within two days of estrous. Gestation of female will occur for approximately 16 days and give birth during daylight hours in the morning-noon. The mother will lick a path for her joeys to avoid them getting tangled in her fur. Numbers of delivered joeys are commonly 1 to 2 but can reach up to 4 joeys at a time. Newborn joeys will find their mother’s nipple and it will swell so, the jaw will remain locked for the next 8 to 9 weeks.

When a joey is at one week age, it is hidden by the mother in the back of her pouch. Make sure to increase the high-protein diet for your sugar glider to make it produce quality milk for the joey. In this age, size of the joey is similar to green pea. It does not have fur and it’s skin is pink. The joey’s ears and ayes are remain closed while the jaw is under developed and not much movement.  A dark spot or a small lump will be emerged on the mother’s pouch on the second week but the mother still can hide her joey easily in the back of the pouch.

When the growth reach fourth weeks in pouch (IP), a lump is visible. The pouch will be lopsided if there is only one baby while if it’s twin, it will be a lump on each side. In this period, the possibility the glider mother to reject her baby is high. The reasons are diet deficiency, unknown defect or illness with the joey, stress, too young to breed and first-timer. The joey is similar to the size of grape with no fur. Head and eyes growing larger. Ears are still fused to the head. Toes are starting to to form while the tail is not long as the body.

On the seventh week of IP, the baby can be seen through the pouch. The mother become active because her babies are getting larger. Sometimes, the joey’s little tail or foot slip out from the pouch. As sugar gliders are arboreal, they like to be up high but in this case, the sleeping area should be move to lower space to avoid the joey become injured when it comes out of the pouch. Size of the joey is similar to the size of a peanut with it’s shell and will grow rapidly. Dark sections can be seen where black hair will grow in on the pink skin and it is appear wet or shiny. The joey’s tail grow twice longer than it’s body. Nails and whiskers also starting to develop with the ears still fused, closed larger eyes with a layer of skin over them, eyelids, nose and the jaw still locked.                

Within 8 to 9 weeks of IP, the joey will come out from it. If it’s twin, joeys will not come out in the same time. The mother will sing to her baby which every mother have different song and each of it will song different. The mother will leave the joey alone in the nest with the father to make sure keep it warm.  Sometimes, the parents of the joey will leave their baby to eat and play. In this weeks, the young sugar glider can be weighted with a gram  specific scale to identify any problem. Continue the high-protein diet for the mother glider to help a good milk production. Baby glider will weight averagely 12 to 18 grams. The fur will not grow all over the body, just at a certain place such as the abdomen. Ears are beginning to pop out and joey becomes vocal.

Up to 2 weeks out of pouch (OOP), the joey have to be hold about 10 to 15 minutes. As the joey will cry, the hands’ warmth will calm it down. The joey’s fur is starting to fill the legs and will become thicker from time to time. It’s also becomes vocal, teeth are starting to grow on the top jaw while the bottom teeth are little more than a lump and the eyes will finally open. Baby sugar glider will stays in nest and starting to ride on mom or dad’s back. On the first week, the joey will weight 12 to 22 grams. When it reach second week of OOP, the baby will weight average from 16 to 26 grams.

On the fourth week OOP, the personality of the baby glider started to appear. It becomes very active at this time depending on the glider whether it will jumping or leaping. The weight of the joey would ranging from 17 to 33 grams in week 3 to week 4.  The joey’s underside body will completely furred, the tail will start to fluff out and body fur becomes thicker. Ears of the joey is now up and constantly picking up new sounds. Teeth are intact and make it wants to chew on nails, hair and fingers. Fascinatingly, the baby glider starting to make small jumps or hops.

On the sixth week OOP, the cage will be explored by the joey with it’s parents. The joey will mostly try the fruits and juices at first. The joey will start to eat by it’s own but it’s mother still nursing it to ensure the nutrients are consistently supplied. The joey also coping with it’s nature to glide from the parents by learning behaviours, sounds and how to react to people.  At this stage, the baby would weight at 30 to 40 grams on week 5 and 35 to 45 grams on week 6.

The baby will be completely weaned and ready to live on it’s own on week 8 OOP. To remove it from it’s parents, make sure it’s no longer suckling on mom, eating solid foods and going to the bathroom on it’s own. On this week, the joey is fully furred and the tail also poofed out completely. It also able to fully mobile. Weight of the joey is ranging from 40 to 60 grams from week 7 until week 8.

As we can see, sugar gliders are small and suitable to be keep as pets or companion. The baby of sugar gliders are having different kinds of growth whether in pouch or out of pouch period. Just like humans, sugar gliders development is a magical of science that we can experience it by making an observation on this creature.