10/10/2010 was a good day in the Davis household.....we have been expecting sugar glider babies since August....2 babies emerged out of their momma's pouch on Sunday morning, bright and early. So, the babies are called Joey's. Adults are called Suggee's. The joey's will be adults around the time they become sexually mature...for females that is around 6 months, for males that would be 4 months.
Here's the scoop on Sugar glider pregnancy......the babies are in her tummy for 16 days developing, then they crawl out of her female opening up into her pouch on the outside of her tummy. There they spend 8 weeks developing even further, constantly feeding on her milk from the nipples inside her pouch. Her pouch will hold 2 babies easily. Although poor Zoey (momma's name) waddles like a duck when they are all tucked up in there. At the end of 8 weeks, when you see the whole baby crawling somewhere on mom, completely out of the pouch, that is called their Out Of Pouch date (OOP). This was this past Sunday for us. This is considered their birthday. However, they will spend another 8 weeks nursing and growing, coming out to play and romp around, only to scamper back into momma's pouch as quick as they can once they see your hand coming in to get them :o) We are supposed to hold them 5 minutes a day each day once they are OOP, so to get them used to human scent and us, so they will play with us, like their mom and dad do :o)
I wasn't certain on their OOP date range, but I was assuming it would be the first week of November. On Friday evening (10/8/10) we saw a little tail sticking out of zoey's pouch, just no baby. So, I knew we were close, just didn't expect them to appear 2 days later!
So, the babies haven't been named yet, we think they are both boys, not certain yet. I don't think I will go into detail explaining how we tell that, I'll just announce it when we figure it out!
Here is a video we got when they were 2 days old, finally got them away from mom for a few seconds. Looks like they are wrestling! At the very end you can hear their little cry for their momma.
Here is the second video where I brought momma over to the babies...she couldn't stand listening to them cry. I had her on my hand, and she jumps into the picture out of no where on to them....then they try to scramble into the pouch as quick as they can.
