When Heaven came to me, in March of 2003, she had been in four different homes in 6 months. Her original owner, a breeder, had passed away and the male that she was with had ripped her back open. She still bears a long scar on her shoulder. Her second owner, one of the children of the breeder, did not know what to do with the 20 gliders he found in his mother's home. He gave them to anyone he could find, and told them little to nothing of their needs.

The woman who brought Heaven or "Okalami" to me cared deeply for her, but was ill equipped to deal with a sugar glider. She was told by a pet shop to feed her whatever she ate. So, Heaven was given fried chicken, french fries, hot dogs, well-mostly people food. It did not help that Heaven was on something called Supreme Blend at her original owners house. This high fat, high sugar diet was developed as a treat, but was being used as the sole food for Heaven.

This is a picture of Heaven, she was a whopping 238 grams when she came to me. She could not glide, she could not climb the bars of her cage. All Heaven could do was look at me with those beautiful eyes and lick my fingers.

• Heaven's disposition is wonderful, she is a loving glider who always wants to be cuddled. But, because of her weight, I was afraid to put her in with another glider until she had lost weight-afraid that she would eat 2 gliders' worth of food and starve out the cage mate!




• Now, after 8 months, Heaven has joined my colony rescue cage with 5 other gliders. She is doing well, still crabbing at others when it is dinner time-but a bunch of bowls solves that problem!