I received a lot of info from the members of the "glidernet" list on how to rescue and hand feed an abandoned sugar glider. It really came in handy when I had to save the orphaned joey.

Of course I was very nervous and prayed a lot. I had the puppy milk replacer and syringe on hand. The joey was listless and very weak. At first he wouldn't take the milk.
I cried; he wiggled; I begged. Eventually he starting taking a very, very little milk. I was elated.

I stayed up with him all night the first night feeding him once every 20 min. - half hour. I kept him with me in my shirt the whole night. The best part was when I found out I didn't have to go to work because of severe weather conditions. I spent the whole day keeping a close watch on my sugar.
I used a wet q-tip to stimulate him to urinate and poop, but that didn't happen till the next day.
Boy, it's funny what can get a person excited.
I was so happy when he pooped for the first time. I swear I had tears coming out of my eyes.

Weird huh?

The next day I ran out to get more milk, a thermometer, and some pedialyte (in case he got diarreha). I put him in a small plastic animal box which I placed on top of a heating pad. I placed some soft dark pieces of cloth in the box and covered it with a towel to keep the light out.
The thermometer was to make sure the box kept a temperature of 85 degrees. I found a good one at the pet store that is used for reptiles. I found that the temperature would be a constant 85 if I left the heating pad on the middle or medium setting.

I checked on him about every 15 minutes or so and fed him every hour. I also bought an eye dropper it turned out to work much better than the syringe with the powdered milk. I was able to get a plastic eye dropper from our science teacher at work. This worked the best. It has a very small opening at the end - about one ml. It actually fits into the baby's mouth. The hardest part was squeezing out the right amount of milk. If you give it too much it goes up their nose.

It's been four days now and I feed him about every 2-3 hours. He tends not to eat much during the night i.e. 1, 3, 5 O'clock in the morning. I've noticed he eats more between 5 and 10 p.m. I keep giving him milk even when he turns away from it. I get him to drink as much as I can without forcing him. I keep him in the box most of the time, but make sure I keep him with me a for about 3 - 4 hours a day. I believe the contact is necessary for his continued progress. So far so good.

Melva and Co.

HIS NAME IS "SPUNKY"

Above pictures taken in January, 1998