⚖️ Hard Lessons, Second Chances | When Plans Change at the Grove
After the switcheroo with Mini and Junior, we found ourselves in yet another delicate situation—one that tested what we had learned about sugar glider care, colony dynamics, and the importance of planning ahead.
🩹 Meg’s Injury and a Careful Choice
Not long before the switch, Meg had suffered a serious foot injury that ultimately led to an amputation. She spent two weeks recovering, and during that time, we were reminded just how fragile these little ones can be.
We had just gone through the heartbreak of losing Mama, who had surgery, then became pregnant, and ultimately passed away after raising Junior on her own. The thought of anything similar happening to Meg was unbearable.
So when it came time to decide on new cage mates, we felt the safest and most stable home for Mini was with Meg and Louis. Louis was already neutered, and the trio quickly settled in together peacefully.
Or so we thought.
🤦♀️ The Mix-Up Becomes More Complicated
Weeks later, we realized that the glider living with Meg and Louis wasn’t Mini at all—it was Junior, her brother. And by then, Junior had already been with Meg for over a month, long enough for a real bond to form.
Here’s where sugar glider biology makes things tricky:
Female gliders can store fertilized eggs in stasis for up to a year (a survival adaptation called embryonic diapause).
Even if no pregnancy is apparent immediately, a bond with an intact male can still lead to joeys later on.
So now we faced a hard decision. Do we:
Separate them, risking stress on Meg (who was already recovering from her injury) and potentially making her raise future joeys alone?
Or keep them together, knowing they’d already bonded and that separating them could cause more harm than good?
✂️ A Hard Lesson About Neutering
Ultimately, we decided the best thing for everyone was to keep Junior with Meg and Louis—but also to take immediate steps to prevent this kind of accident from ever happening again.
We scheduled neuters for the boys and made a new Grove policy:
Any non-breeding males would always be neutered, even if we didn’t plan to cage them with females.
Accidents happen. Bonds form unexpectedly. And we never wanted to risk another unplanned pregnancy—or the stress that comes with it.
This was a big lesson for us as still-new Keepers, and it shaped how we approach glider care to this day.
🐾 An Unexpected Blessing: The Tweedle Boys
Despite the risks, Meg and Junior did end up having a healthy pregnancy. And from that unexpected bond came two beautiful twin boys, who we named Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.
They were almost identical—both lively, curious little joeys. But Tweedle Dee had something special: a tiny white tip on the end of his tail, making him a “White Tip” rather than a Standard.
What began as an accidental pairing turned into one of the Grove’s sweetest surprises.
Coming soon: Meet Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum—the unexpected twins who brought even more joy (and lessons) to the Grove.
🌿 The Grove Keepers