Fluffy Gliders

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Sugar Glider Diet

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Diet is one of the more controversial subjects when it comes to sugar gliders.  There is much debate over which diet is "best" for the gliders, but honestly, I believe that many diets are acceptable as long as the key is variety.  

There are things which you should never feed your glider, which includes caffeine (chocolate, soft drinks, coffee, etc.), all outdoor insects (many are toxic, others are either dangerous in themselves or are infected with pesticides or parasites), catnip (beware all cat toys, even if they do not say they have catnip on the label), and garlic, among other things.  Rule of thumb: if in doubt, throw it out.  

Some foods are okay in small amounts, but not recommended.  I never feed nuts or crickets, because of the risk of aflatoxins, and because nuts in particular are not part of a sugar glider's natural diet.  They are fattening, as is corn and avocado.  Baby food is fine if fresh foods are unavailable; just make sure that the ingredients do not include garlic or onions.  Some glider owners feed pinkie or fuzzy mice to their gliders as a protein source.  I myself have a few times as an experiment, but I no longer feed them for several reasons.  Please, please, NEVER feed live pinkies or fuzzies to your glider.  I fed the frozen ones a few times, and I had to cut it open before they would eat it the first time, and the second they wouldn't touch it.  Live ones may stimulate them to eat, but it is a cruel and unnecessary practice.  The babies are not swallowed whole as is the case with snakes: they are ripped apart and chewed with vigor, and the baby mice scream horribly.  I have also heard that it may cause mothers to cannibalize their young, but I am not aware of any solid evidence to this rumor, although it seems to be based in logic.  Joeys look stunningly like baby mice when they are still furless.

Another controversial subject is pellet food.  Personally, I always have a high-quality pellet food sprinkled with vitamins available in the cage, just in case they need a snack, or if something were to happen and I couldn't feed them, they wouldn't go hungry.  I have been attacked for this view- some owners claim that gliders never get up during the day to eat, but Suncoast Gliders, a reputable breeder, claims otherwise.  However, pellet foods are NOT to comprise a glider's diet.  They need fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as other foods in order to be healthy and happy.

Now we get to the diets themselves. There are several accepted diets, among the most popular of which are BML (Bourbon's Modified Leadbeaters), HPW (High Protein Wombaroo), The Pet Glider Diet, and The Suncoast Diet.  I find that the HPW diet works well for me; it provides a good staple while also giving me flexibility as far as which fruits and veggies to feed.  However, all of these diets are perfectly acceptable, and you just need to find the one that works best for you and your glider. 

 

Note: These recipes are excerpted from their respective websites, so use of the words "I" or "me" refer to the original author.  Anything in brackets [ ] is my addition.

 

Of all the diets, BML probably has the most variations.  I have put up one recipe here, although there are plenty more to be found.

The Basic BML Mixture
 
  • 1/2 Cup Honey: do not use honeycomb, raw or unfiltered honey. Most store bought honey is the one to use unless it uses one of the 3 words listed. [Some of us actually use raw honey, because it is not artificially enhanced, and contains all of the natural nutrients that honey should have.  Beware that this also carries a slightly greater risk of some sort of food borne disease]
  • 1 Egg (boiled or scrambled)
  • 1/4 cup Apple Juice
  • Blend Well, turn off blender add next group of ingredients
  • 1 4oz bottle Premixed Gerber juice with yogurt
  • 1 teaspoon of Rep-Cal Herptivite vitamin supplement.
  • Blend well again, add next group of ingredients
  • 2 teaspoons Rep-Cal Calicum Suppliment non-phosphorus with vitamin D3.
  • 2   2 1/2 oz jar of Chicken baby food.  The jar will either say Chicken with gravy or Chicken broth.
  • 1/4 cup Wheat Germ
  • 1/2 cup dry baby cereal

Blend well, turn off blender. Then you pour into a tupperware bowl or ice cube tray and freeze. This should feed one glider for about a month, feeding about 1 tablespoon per glider.

Do Not mix Fruits or veggies in before freezing

1 tablespoon of BML; then also give them 1 tablespoon fruits or 1 tablespoon veggies. (Example Monday, Wednesday and Friday they get fruits. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday they get veggies.)  Feed them mealworms 8-10 per day of the small ones.

 

HPW is becoming quite popular because of the reputed softness of the glider's fur, and the lessening of the "glider musk".  I love HPW; it's easy, healthy, and convenient; most of all, the gliders love it.

HPW Diet

 

  • 2 cups warm water
  • 1-1/2 cup honey [yep, you read right: lots of 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 consistency of ice cream.  Do not thaw.


Feeding instructions.

  • 1-1/2 teaspoons of HPW per glider
  • 1 TABLEspoon of mixed fruits (or fruit smoothie, see below)
  • 1 TABLEspoon of mixed veggies (or veggie relish, see below)
  • mealies for treats
  • gliderade a few times a week

 

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

 

Here are the recipes for veggie relish and fruit smoothies.  Follow them to the letter, and your gliders will lick the bowls clean each night.  These are made for HPW, but can be adapted for any diet.

 Veggie Relish:

1 - 32 ounce bag of mixed vegetables, defrosted (green beans, sweetcorn, carrots and peas) Birds Eye Classic is the best.
*NO lima beans! *NO salt!

4 - fluid ounces of white grape juice

4 - table spoons of honey

Put half of everything into blender and blend until consistency of relish, do same with other half and mix together.
Freeze in ice cube trays and give 1 cube per glider.

 

Fruit Smoothie:

5-6 pound bag of mixed fruit,

4 oz baby white grapefruit juice(or almost any other juices)

2-4 tablespoons of honey,

1/2 cup of Dannon French Vanilla Yogurt

Just defrost your bag of fruit (if frozen) & drain the juice, and then place in blender & blend until smooth. Pour into ice cube trays and then serve 1/2 cube to 1 cube per night per a single to a pair of gliders.

 

 

The Pet Glider Diet

  • 25 oz unsweetened applesauce
  • 4 oz Dannon non-fat plain yogurt
  • 3 oz concentrated calcium fortified orange juice, no water added
  • 3/4 c Old Fashioned Oats (NO QUICK COOKING OATS)
  • 1 T fresh ground flax seed or wheat germ, refrigerated

In a large mixing bowl, with a wooden spoon, mix the applesauce, oats, yogurt, wheat germ and orange juice. Divide into two equal portions. To portion one, add: 3 small or medium eggs, scrambled. To portion two, add: 3/4 lb unseasoned, unsalted, broiled shredded chicken.

Add 3/4 cup various chopped or precut fruits and vegetables to each portion. Freeze flat in quart size freezer bags (1/2" or less thick). If you choose to use pre-cut frozen produce, do not use vegetables which have a high ratio of phosphorus, such as corn.

Break off a frozen piece of the basic mix.

Feeding schedule should be:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday: Basic Mix

Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday: Basic Mix Plus Mealworms (about 20 per glider)

Don't feed beef, seeds/nuts, or cottage cheese to your gliders. These are high in phosphorus. Avoid feeding anything with preservatives, sugar, or color additives. Keep the diet low-fat.

Daily exercise is vital. Exercise helps bones absorb calcium and stimulates bone thickening.

Always try to aim for a high Calcium to Phosphorus ratios.

Daily Staple:

Monkey Biscuits

Sugar Glider Cereal

Enrichment Supplement:

Pure apple juice diluted with half purified water 3-4 times per week.  

Daily Vitamin/Mineral Supplement

"The Pet Glider Complete" Multivitamin, sprinkled on food.

 

 Suncoast Diet

 

Protein

Offered on a rotation with one item offered from the following list daily:
Gut loaded mealworms - Feed 10-12 small, 7-10 medium, or 3-5 large mealworms per glider
Boiled eggs (without shells) mixed with high protein/low sugar cereal (like corn flakes or Special K) and mixed with either honey or apple juice.  One heaping tablespoon is offered per 2 sugar gliders.
Yogurt (blueberry or peach) - 1 heaping tablespoon is offered per 2 sugar gliders
Special Note: Just weaned joeys are not quite ready for the mealworms yet, so substitute Gerber chicken baby food mixed with applesauce or sweet potatoes for the protein portion of the diet.  Offer small mealworms weekly until the joey learns how to eat them without any trouble.

Fruits or Veggies

Offered in single portions daily and varied from day to day depending on the time of year and availability of these items.  This is merely the list that SunCoast uses and is not intended to be all inclusive.  The amount to feed is about the amount that would equal one apple cut into 8 pieces with one piece fed to 2 sugar gliders.
 Apples - Pears - Sweet Potatoes - Watermelon - Honeydew - Cantaloupe - Carrots - Kiwi - Mango - Oranges (only once a week and never to joeys) - Blueberries

Vitamin and Mineral Supplements

Vitamins and calcium should be given daily.  I recommend Vionate as a well rounded vitamin designed for small animals.  To supplement calcium levels, I recommend Rep-Cal Calcium, the phosphorus free without Vitamin D3 added version.  Vionate already contains Vitamin D, so you don't need it in the calcium.  The vitamins should be sprinkled on the offering of daily fruits or veggies.  You will just add a pinch of both Vionate and Rep-Cal.  Do not overdose the vitamins. Too many vitamins can be just as harmful as not giving them at all. 
I also suggest a third supplementation for breeding sugar gliders. We've found that using a milk replacer product like Wombaroo, sprinkled on the fruit and vegetables has shown beneficial effects to the lactating female.  1/8 teaspoon every day is the amount used by SunCoast.  During pregnancy, it is advisable to gear the diet more towards the needs of the female and its OK if the male is indulging in the same foods.  If you find the male is getting overweight from this diet, I suggest that you purchase a Stealth Wheel or some other device that will give him access to good exercise.

Staple Food

Offered in the cage at all times.  Zookeepers' Secret is the staple food used at SunCoast.  From my experience, this is a well balanced formula and sugar gliders like it.  This semi-moist protein rich product is a great supplemental food to your gliders fresh diet.  It is very important that small animals have access to food continually throughout the day.  This is particularly important for breeding animals.  There is no commercially available food that I would recommend as the single source of nutrition for your sugar glider.