Bonding Report

If you would like to listen to an audio version – please click here 

One of the most rewarding parts of your experience with your Sugar Bear is bonding!

When a Sugar Bear has bonded PROPERLY to its new family, it can be one of the most INCREDIBLY rewarding experiences that ANY owner could ever have. The truth is, Sugar Bears are one of the most LOVING little creatures you could ever own – and that’s one of the main reasons why they have gained SO much popularity as companion pets over the last few years.

In this special report, we’re just going to start to TOUCH on how the bonding process works. Now, I know how anxious you must be to have new little babies all friendly and bonded – so they are just like some the adults you’ve probably already played with – but it’s important to remember that bonding is a PROCESS that takes time – and it doesn’t just happen overnight.

The bonding process itself is actually one of the most fun and rewarding things you’ll ever go through with your babies. However though, at times it can also seem to be the most frustrating. Right off the bat, it’s very important to understand that bonding with a baby sugar bear can take anywhere from a few days – up to a few MONTHS – so it’s really important to be very patient and have realistic expectations. Sometimes, one of the most frustrating parts is that while you will probably start to fall in love your little guys right away the first day – it will almost ALWAYS take them quite a bit longer to learn to love and trust you.

So, with that in mind, let’s cover a few IMPORTANT ideas on how to get your new baby Sugar Bears to become your BEST FRIENDS!

First off, it’s important to note a couple things. First off, ANY sugar bear – no matter how stubborn they seem- can (and WILL) bond with its caretaker as LONG as they are persistent and patient enough to follow through with the bonding procedures we will be laying out for you. The second thing you need to know is that it’s MUCH easier to bond with a baby sugar bear that is 8-12 weeks old – which is why we ONLY adopt them out at this age – and strongly recommend against buying animals from any other sources who often lie to unsuspecting new owners about an animal’s birth date.

Now, the third thing that determines how well your Sugar Bears will ultimately bond to you is how much time you spend with them during the bonding process. In fact, this part is so important that I’m going to repeat it…

Again, how WELL your Sugar Bear will ultimately bond to you is largely determined by how much time you spend with it during the bonding process.

Now, if you are just bringing your new baby(ies) home for the first time, we strongly suggest that you do NOT even TRY to hold them for the first two days they are with you. Instead, when you get home, just set up the cage exactly like it says in the free Special Report entitled: Cage Setup. Then, holding the pouch inside the cage, unzip it and gently fold it inside out so that the babies are pushed out into their new cage WITHOUT ever touching them. From there, just let them “settle in” for the next two days so they can start getting used to all the new smells, sights and surroundings in their new home. This really helps them to kind of “de-stress” before you start bonding with them. During these two days, all you have to do is just make sure they have food and water – and READ through as many of the Special Reports and emails that are located in the Family Circle Section of our website. By doing this, at the same time your baby is “de-stressing”, you will be arming yourself with a tremendous amount of knowledge that will greatly speed up the entire bonding process and make you much more prepared for anything and everything you can encounter. 🙂

Now, and please don’t take this the wrong way, but after placing over 50,000 baby sugar bears in homes all over the US for more than 15 years now, the simple truth is that NOBODY knows more about how to effectively bond with baby sugar bears than we do – nobody. Therefore, before the first 2 days of de-stressing are over (and more specifically BEFORE you EVER take your babies out of their cage), it is absolutely necessary that you read AND study, the bonding email we will be sending you entitled: “Mastering the Nitty Gritty of Bonding.” This email is also available to you right now inside the Family Circle section of our website – and it lays out every step of what you’ll be doing over the next few days, weeks, and months to bond with your new little babies. It will teach you, step by step, how to avoid stressing your little darlings out, getting bitten and how to make your baby sugar bears a loving part of your family for many years to come.

Now, since it’s going to be a couple days before you start physically interacting with your new pets, the single most thing right now is for you to clearly understand the reasons behind why our bonding process is so effective – and more specifically why your baby is probably going to be so scared of you in these early stages of bonding.

Over the years, every once in awhile we get a call or email from someone who – in the beginning – thinks at least one of their babies is evil and hates them. Well, first of all, I can GUARANTEE you no matter what that your baby is not evil – and while it certainly doesn’t “hate” you – it is most likely TERRIFIED by your presence. Now, for somebody “new” who doesn’t take the time to look at it from the BABY’S point of view, it can certainly seem like they might not like you – but that’s just not the case. For example, you have to keep in mind that – in the wild – sugar bears are pretty much the bottom of the food chain; and instinctively they think that EVERY other living creature out there is probably trying to kill and eat them.

Now, when you look at it from that point of view, would you really blame them for being scared? On top of that now they are going into a whole new environment, with new smells, new sounds, and obviously new people (very often with other pets as well who are also curious about the little sugar bears). Needless to say, when you add all that up – their fear is completely understandable.

Now, if you were listening carefully, a second ago I made the statement that people sometimes think that “ONE of their babies is evil and/or hates them.” As I said earlier, a typical baby sugar bear can take anywhere from a few days to a few months to bond, and because they all have unique individual personalities, (just like human children), when you get more than one baby – one will almost always bond much faster than the other.

Now, since you – like most of our new “mom’s & dad’s” – have probably never had sugar bears before, you don’t know what to expect. Therefore, if one baby seems a lot more scared than the other, it’s very natural to just assume there is something wrong with it, or it just hates you. The bottom line is – like I said earlier – that “ANY sugar bear – no matter how stubborn they seem – can (and WILL) bond with its caretaker as LONG as they are persistent and patient enough to follow through with the bonding procedures we will be laying out for you.

In a nutshell, the first goal of the bonding process is simply to show your babies that you are not trying to kill them; but instead you are here to protect them from danger.

Now, the best way I’ve ever found to explain this to new parents like you is just to compare this whole process to the story of “King Kong”. I wish I could take credit for this great analogy, but it actually comes from a very wise “glider whisperer” friend of mine by the name of Lori Hackworth (Bourbon). The reason why this comparison is SO easy to understand is simply because it puts you right inside the mindset of a newly adopted little sugar bear in just a couple seconds.

For example, even if you’ve never seen the movie “King Kong”, inevitably you’re familiar with the storyline – and more specifically you can immediately picture in your mind what King Kong himself looks like.

Now, imagine you’re just laying in your bedroom…curled up in bed under the covers… and all of the sudden King King – this GIANT beast – is standing right in front of your house. Now imagine that he jams his arm right through your front door into your bedroom – snatches you up in his hand – and pulls you out; holding you 10 stories above the ground as he stares you!..

Now, if you’ve seen the movie, you know that King Kong is really just a gentle giant who doesn’t want to hurt anybody – but if you suddenly found yourself in THAT moment I think you’d agree you’d probably be absolutely TERRIFIED.

Heck, even if you’re a generally calm and gentle person, in that moment you’d be screaming your head off and struggling to get away – and probably even try to kick, scratch, or even bite King Kong’s hand just to get free, right?..

Well, guess what?… This is EXACTLY what happens to a new baby sugar bear who’s all curled up in their bedroom/cage – when you, a giant “King Kong” like creature (no offense) sticks your hand in and picks them up. Well, once you put yourself in their shoes – it’s pretty easy to understand why a lot of baby Sugar Bears tend to scream – and sometimes maybe even bite – when they go through this process the first few times.

Now, imagine this same scenario, (being held against your will in his clutches high above the ground, etc,) but the whole time he’s holding you, he doesn’t inflict any harm – and eventually puts you back in your home “safe & sound”.

On top of that, later that day, he comes back to your house and drops off a nice dinner & dessert for you to enjoy… You would probably taste it, eat it, and trust him just a LITTLE more… BUT

Nevertheless, the next day when he comes back and picks you up AGAIN, you’re probably still going to be ALMOST as scared as you were the day before. In other words, learning to really trust – is going to take some time. 🙂

The point of this whole story is simply that as this same process occurs every day for weeks or even months, EVENTUALLY you’re going to learn and realize that King Kong means you absolutely no harm – and you’ll actually get to the point where you look FORWARD to seeing him everyday!

The point is that some people will get used to this faster than others – but as long as King Kong never hurts them – eventually EVERYBODY get there. For example, some people in this situation might actually get comfortable after being picked up just a few times. Most people, though, will take a little longer getting used to this crazy situation… and some people (who are just a little more anxious generally speaking), might take a lot longer to grow completely comfortable jumping into the gentle giant’s hands.

Well, this is exactly the same “process” that your little SugarBear(s) are going through right now… While some will settle down and bond with you in just a few days, most will take longer; and some will take up to a few months. Having raised literally tens of thousands of these little guys over the last few years, if I had to guess I would say that the average time to “total bonding” is right around 4-6 weeks. For better or for worse, some animals will show little signs of progress along the way, and others will learn to trust you practically overnight; but eventually they ALL get to the point where they totally love and trust you – as long as you don’t give up on them. 🙂

The important thing to keep in mind as you go through this process is that every animal has it’s own unique personality and there’s no way to tell you EXACTLY how long it will take for your animal to learn to trust you. The good news is that I can tell you with great authority is that EVERY animal will bond eventually if given the opportunity.

Fortunately, after many years of experience we know a bunch of great “tips & tricks” to make sure it happens as quickly and effectively as possible. The more familiar you are with these “shortcuts”, the easier and less frustrating this process will be.

Now, even though you’re not going to take your little babies out of the cage for the first 2 days, we’re gonna start you right off the bat with an incredible little “trick” that you can start right away – and it DRAMATICALLY helps speed up the whole bonding process.

To begin with, you need to understand that your babies are going to get to know you initially based MAINLY on your smell. So to make the most out of this, here’s what I want you to do…

Go into your dirty laundry, and pull out a small piece of your clothing, like an old t-shirt, and put it in the cage with them on the heat rock. Generally speaking, since you want your babies to get used to your scent as quickly as possible, the more this piece of clothing SMELLS like you the better, so you could say that in THIS case, “body odor” can actually be a good thing!

Now, when it comes to this little trick, keep in mind that this works for EVERYBODY in your family, not just you. Generally speaking, as long as the articles are fairly small pieces of cloth or clothing that won’t UNRAVEL, it’s a good idea to put a little something in the cage from everybody in the family. This way they get a head start on trusting everyone – and no, the different scents will not in any way “confuse” your baby.

Now, you’ve got to use common sense here, so don’t just pack their cage full of dirty laundry – but the general idea is that the more your new baby Sugar Bear can smell the people who make up its new family, the faster and easier it will be for them to start bonding with the family. Also, if you decide to use the special cage blankets that are available in our online store – just rub it all over every member of your family (including other pets). These blankets are specially-designed to hold the scents of several individuals for a long period of time – so really rub them in.

Well, like I said at the beginning of this report – this is just a very basic overview of how the bonding process is going to work. With that in mind, in about 2 days you will automatically get the “New Mom and Dad Email” from us on bonding called “Mastering the Nitty Gritty of Bonding.” Now, keep in mind that we will automatically send all your daily emails to whatever address you initially registered with us. However, the best part of all this is that you do not need to wait for this email – or ANY of our emails – to arrive in your inbox; because you can read and print them all out right now simply by logging into the private, Family Circle section of our website at www.SugarBears.com. By printing these emails out – and putting them all in one 3-ring binder, you can literally get ALL your studying done in 2 days while you are letting your new little darlings settle in – and you’ll be 100% ready to start bonding. And remember, if you stop right now and do the T-shirt trick I just showed you a minute ago, you’ll already have a HUGE head start.

For now, study as much as possible – and don’t forget to enjoy the journey 🙂 A little patience now – means a LIFETIME of loving companionship – and it’s more than worth the wait!

Good Luck!
The PocketPets Team