Sugar Gliders

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Sugar Glider

The Sugar Glider is around 6 to 7.5 inches in length, with a tail almost as long as the body and almost as thick as a human thumb, and weighs between 90 and 150 grams (3 to 5.3 oz). The fur is generally pearl grey, with black and cream patches on the underbelly and black or grey ears. Other colour variations include leucistic and albinorecessive traits. The tail tapers only moderately and the last quarter of it is black, often with a dark tip. The muzzle is short and rounded. Northern forms tend to be brown coloured rather than grey and, as predicted by Bergmann's Rule, smaller.

The most distinctive features of its anatomy, however, are the twin skin membranes called patagia which extend from the fifth finger of the forelimb back to the first toe of the hind foot. These are inconspicuous when the Sugar Glider is at rest – it merely looks a little flabby, as though it had lost a lot of weight recently – but immediately obvious when it takes flight. The membranes are used to glide between trees: when fully extended they form an aerodynamic surface the size of a large handkerchief.

The gliding membranes are primarily used as an efficient way to get to food resources. They may also, as a secondary function, help the Sugar Glider escape predators like goannas, introduced foxes and cats, and the marsupial carnivores, such as quolls, the Kowari, mulgaras, and antechinuses that foxes, cats, and dingos largely supplanted. The ability to glide from tree to tree is clearly of little value with regard to the Sugar Glider's avian predators, however, in particular owls and kookaburras.

Although its aerial adaptation looks rather clumsy in comparison to the highly specialised limbs of birds and bats, the Sugar Glider can glide for a surprisingly long distance — flights have been measured at over 50 metres (55 yd) — and steer effectively by curving one patagium or the other. It uses its hind legs to thrust powerfully away from a tree, and when about 3 metres (3 yd) from the destination tree trunk, brings its hind legs up close to the body and swoops upwards to make contact with all four limbs together.
         

                -Wikipedia

Rocky!

Our first Sugar Glider a white face boy

I love to cuddle all day!

Being nocturnal sugar gliders are sleepy all day. They will nap in your cupped hand or in their pouch all day. This makes them great for people with office jobs, just wear the pouch under your cloths and the will sleep all day. They will tolerate being pulled out and played with for 5 min every hour or so, but any longer and they get crabby.

Bonding

Properly Bonded Sugar Gliders Make Great Pets, Not properly bonded sugars make bad sometimes mean pet. As soon as the sugar joey is “out of pouch”, i.e. old enough to come out and be handled (about 1 month old), to bond properly you should make frequent visits to get the young glider used to your smells and sounds.  This will ease the shock of being brought into a new environment. When they are two months old they are old enough to eat on their own, and old enough to separate from their mom.  This is the time when they are ready for their new home and will form a tight bond with their owner if proper bonding techniques are used. Some bonding techniques include: Caring them around in a bonding pouch(Above), also when in the pouch cuddle up with them with your hand (this makes them less "pouch defensive"),  letting them use you as a jungle gym, feeding them treats (sweet fruit at first then meal worms or crickets) and just plan spending time with them and talking to them.  When they are young and scared they my bite. This can be very discouraging but don’t let them scare you away. If they think that biting gets rid of you, they might keep doing it, so show them who is boss by continuing to try and cuddle and play with them even after a bite. Never Hit, Flick, or Yell Loudly. Try making hissing noises every time they bite, or I even heard of ringing a bell every time they bite. There are many anti-biting techniques suggested all over the internet. And always do your research before getting a non-domesticated pet.

Rocky on his favorite perch

I pull Rocky out of his cage around 10PM, his morning, plop him on my shoulder and play video games on the computer. He will sit on my shoulder for any where from 10 min to 2 hours, depending on his mood and how awake he is. Treats help to keep him comfortable.

>>>   Wheels        Wheels       Wheels

When sugars get cornered they can get defensive and noisy. This can be very disheartening when you’re trying to play with the little guys. But if you have a young one you just keep playing and cuddling and bonding and they will form an unbreakable attachment to you. The following video is Rocky getting defensive in his wheel.

Diet

A sugar glider’s diet is seasonal in the wild, consisting of mostly insects in the summer and switching over to the sugary sap in the winter. There are many options for captive sugar’s diets, just seach the net and you'll find lots of the. Since we have started breeding we switched to the HPW Diet:

HPW (high protein wombaroo diet) Diet



2 cups warm water
1-1/2 cup honey
3 scrambled eggs
1/4c High Protein Wombaroo Powder
2 tablespoons bee pollen

Cook Eggs, set aside.

In large bowl mix water and honey. Stir until honey is dissolved.
Add in HPW powder, mix well.

In blender add in eggs, bee pollen and 1/2 to 1 cup HPW liquid. Blend for two minutes.
Add in additional liquid and blend for another two minutes.

Pour into a freezer safe bowl with an airtight lid. Keep in freezer.

Will freeze to consistancy of ice cream.

Feeding instructions.

1-1/2 teaspoons of HPW per glider
1 TABLEspoon of mixed fruits
1 TABLEspoon of mixed veggies
mealies for treats
I also offer mine gliderade twice a week with the rest of their meal.


(if you have a breeding pair or nursing female increase the amount of HPW powder to 1/2cup)

 

Another great resource for us has been from our breeder: Terri and Jeff (terrispettingzoo.com)

 

I feed the HPW/fresh food diet to my gliders:

Fruits:
Gliders love lots of fruits, and they like plenty of variety. Most fruits are fine for them, you should feed any one or two of these nightly: melons, mangoes, papayas, grapes, apples, plain unsweetened applesauce, kiwis, peaches, pears, starfruit, any berries, apricots, nectarines, plums. They like to eat bananas, oranges, and pineapple, but don't give them these fruits more than once a week. Too much of those will give them upset tummys. Some people buy frozen fruit, but none of my gliders will eat fruits unless they are fresh. They do not like grape skins, so they may not eat them unless you cut them open.


Vegetables:
You should feed one or two veggies every night. They can have: raw yam, fresh tomatoes, green beans, peas, carrots, brocolli, cauliflower, spinach leaves, romaine lettuce, squash, turnips, beets, or mixed vegetables. Corn is only acceptable in small quantities due to it's high phosphorous content. Most of those can be bought frozen or fresh, either is fine but microwave thawing does reduce the vitamin content. They do not like tomato skins, I recommend cutting them open.


Proteins:
You should offer one protein nightly. Good sources of protein are HPW (see the vitamin section for more info), hardboiled or scrambled eggs (no milk), mealworms (up to 10 per glider), and plain no-fat yogurt. They will eat plain yogurt, but I prefer blending in some fresh fruit. I don't trust the pre-flavored yogurt, some of them have strange chemicals that might be bad for a glider. Some people (not me) feed them pinkie mice, which are nutritious but gross. There are many varieties of prepared glider food that are a good source of protein, including Zoofood, Insectivore Fare, Glider Complete, Glider Diet with Eucalyptus, monkey biscuits (mine will only eat the orange flavor), anything off this page is good. They like all of these pelleted foods, but they should not be used as a substitute for fresh fruits and vegetables.


Vitamins:
Gliders should get some vitamins regularly. There are three choices for vitamins:

Option 1: HPW is the high protein wombaroo diet. It is made from honey, eggs, bee pollen, and wombaroo powder (a protein supplement). HPW is easy to make, stores in the freezer, and is very good for gliders. I feed mine a couple spoonfuls every night and they always lick the bowls clean!

Option 2: A small amount of 50/50 mix of Glider Booster MultiVitamins and Glider-Cal Calcium supplement sprinkled onto their food every other night. These can be ordered online here. I recommend stirring it into something sticky, like applesauce, yogurt, or onto a moist fresh fruit so you know they are eating it.

Option 3: A small amount of 50/50 mix of Repcal Herptivite (blue label) and Repcal Phosphorous-Free Calcium with VitD (pink label) sprinkled onto their food every other night.


Treats:
They love honey, and you can drizzle a little over any food to make it into a real treat. You can also put a little apple juice in with their food, they like that as well. They will eat eucalyptus leaves and branches, and enjoy chewing on raw sugar cane. You can also offer your gliders Gliderade or Nutra-Glider (from here) which are nectar and bee pollen supplements. It isn't neccessary but they do get this in nature, it is very good for them, and they love it! They can have yougurt drops, dried fruits, and anything on this page that says it is for gliders.


Water:
Keep a small rodent-style water bottle in the cage at all times, make sure it is fresh daily. Do not put vitamins into their water, they don't drink much because they get a lot of their fluids from juicy fruits.


Don't feed list:
These are things you should NOT feed your gliders: beef, refined sugar products, wet or dry cat food, chocolate, fruit pits, seeds, bread, avocados, rhubarb, nuts, cottage cheese, salt, and any milk products.


Other diet options:
There are many other approved diets, such as BML, that will fulfill the dietary needs of a glider. I do not choose to use any of those diets as most of them can be fattening, my gliders do not like them, and I think they are gross. I have a large glider colony eating the HPW/fresh food diet, and all my gliders are very healthy, well colored, and fluffy. I have never had a sick glider, and have not had any underweight or rejected joeys since I began using HPW.


Special needs:
If you have a glider that is underweight or malnourished, they should receive an improved diet to help them recover. A bit of extra HPW or vitamins is helpful, as well as extra servings of proteins and fatty foods. I found a recipie for something called Glider Crack that is good for putting weight onto skinny gliders:

1 tsp Wombaroo protein powder
6 oz plain canned chicken
1/2 an avacado (I know this is on the "never feed" list, but only because it is very fattening)
1 scrambled egg
Rinse chicken well, and use enough liquid to mix ingredients. Blend all ingredients into a puree or chunky mixture and serve one or two spoonfuls every couple nights.

Sugar Gliders Banned in St. Paul, MN

"Any person keeping any prohibited animal identified above may have it seized immediately by animal control."

- Chapter 198 of the Saint Paul Legislative Code

A miss informed preemptive strike was taken by the St. Paul city council the day after Christmas 2008. The city council was mislead by the head of the animal control in St. Paul who claimed sugar gliders are “high maintenance, smell” and have the potential of becoming an invasive species, a misnomer that is laughably erroneous. Sugar Gliders originate from the tropical and subtropical regions of Australia and surrounding islands to the north. Acclimating to a MN winter is not something tropical species are able to do. If we are to start banning animals for their smell, there are a lot of other pets that smell worse than a sugar gliders. And there are numerous pets that take more time and effort than a sugar glider, a dog to name one. Sugar gliders are smart, cute little creatures that need an average amount of attention for pets. That being said, if you live in St. Paul, no sugar for you.

 

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