Tips for Feeding Sugar Gliders
October 10th 2009 14:44
When feeding sugar gliders, you want to make sure that you get all four categories in a sugar glider's diet. You want to have a protein, fruits and vegetables, a staple food, and vitamins and minerals. It is very important that you feed your sugar glider a high quality, varied diet daily. This is one reason why they do not make the best pets for everyone. It can be time consuming to prepare the meal daily.
As for the protein, you can use gutloaded superworms or mealworms, sticking to about
10-12 small, 7-10 medium, or 3-5 large per sugar glider. Or, you can offer 3-5 gutloaded crickets per sugar glider. Boiled eggs without the shells mixed with a high protein/low sugar cereal, such as corn flakes or Special K with just a little bit of honey or apple juice mixed on top can be a great source or protein; offer about one tablespoon per 2 sugar gliders.
Other forms of protein that you can consider includes shrimp, brisket, beef/hamburger drained of the fat, chicken, ham (as a treat only), and tofu chunks.
For younger gliders, you want to offer turkey baby food mixed with applesauce and sweet potatoes instead of mealworms or crickets because they're just not ready for them yet.
As for fruits and vegetables, you want to make sure that everything is fresh and pesticide free. You want to offer single portions daily. Because gliders do not eat that much, you want to make sure that you do not offer too much (or even too little). It's recommended to offer the amount that would equal 1 slice of apple if it had been cut into 8 slices. This will be a good amount for 2 sugar glider.
You can offer the following fruits and vegetables as available by the time of season: apples, blueberries, cantaloupe, carrots, grape halves, green beans, honeydew, kiwi, mango, oranges (only once a week and never to joeys), pears, raw corn kernels (washed and sliced off the cob), sweet potatoes, and watermelon.
As for a staple food to offer, you can use the commercial sugar glider foods, but you want to make sure that it is a high quality food. Do not use cat food, which is what many people opt to use as a staple; it just doesn't offer nearly the nutrients that your glider needs. Cats are strict omnivores, and their food is just not formulated right for sugar gliders to eat as a staple food.
Other foods that you can offer include vanilla or honey yogurt, or a soy yogurt, as well as various flowers to include the following..
Baby's breath, bamboo, blue spruce, butterfly bush, cacti(with the thorns removed since they could harm your glider), dandelions, forget-me-nots, forsythia, hibiscus, lavender, lilac, money plants, petunias, protea, quince, roses(without the thorns), snap dragons, sycamore, willows, and yucca.
As for supplements, you want to use a calcium supplement, such as rep-cal that does not have D3. Vionate is a good mineral supplement that is recommended, as well. You can find Rep-Cal in the reptile department, and Vionate can generally found in the puppy vitamin area.
You do not want to add too many vitamins to the food. Just ad a pinch. You can overdose your gliders on the vitamins.
Also, make sure that you have fresh water daily.
As for the protein, you can use gutloaded superworms or mealworms, sticking to about
10-12 small, 7-10 medium, or 3-5 large per sugar glider. Or, you can offer 3-5 gutloaded crickets per sugar glider. Boiled eggs without the shells mixed with a high protein/low sugar cereal, such as corn flakes or Special K with just a little bit of honey or apple juice mixed on top can be a great source or protein; offer about one tablespoon per 2 sugar gliders.
Other forms of protein that you can consider includes shrimp, brisket, beef/hamburger drained of the fat, chicken, ham (as a treat only), and tofu chunks.
As for fruits and vegetables, you want to make sure that everything is fresh and pesticide free. You want to offer single portions daily. Because gliders do not eat that much, you want to make sure that you do not offer too much (or even too little). It's recommended to offer the amount that would equal 1 slice of apple if it had been cut into 8 slices. This will be a good amount for 2 sugar glider.
You can offer the following fruits and vegetables as available by the time of season: apples, blueberries, cantaloupe, carrots, grape halves, green beans, honeydew, kiwi, mango, oranges (only once a week and never to joeys), pears, raw corn kernels (washed and sliced off the cob), sweet potatoes, and watermelon.
As for a staple food to offer, you can use the commercial sugar glider foods, but you want to make sure that it is a high quality food. Do not use cat food, which is what many people opt to use as a staple; it just doesn't offer nearly the nutrients that your glider needs. Cats are strict omnivores, and their food is just not formulated right for sugar gliders to eat as a staple food.
Other foods that you can offer include vanilla or honey yogurt, or a soy yogurt, as well as various flowers to include the following..
Baby's breath, bamboo, blue spruce, butterfly bush, cacti(with the thorns removed since they could harm your glider), dandelions, forget-me-nots, forsythia, hibiscus, lavender, lilac, money plants, petunias, protea, quince, roses(without the thorns), snap dragons, sycamore, willows, and yucca.
As for supplements, you want to use a calcium supplement, such as rep-cal that does not have D3. Vionate is a good mineral supplement that is recommended, as well. You can find Rep-Cal in the reptile department, and Vionate can generally found in the puppy vitamin area.
You do not want to add too many vitamins to the food. Just ad a pinch. You can overdose your gliders on the vitamins.
Also, make sure that you have fresh water daily.
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