welcome to gu@n's photoblog: 11/30/08

Photo by gu@n

A sugar glider is a small nocturnal marsupial native to Australia and Indonesia.

Introduced into the United States approximately 20 years ago as domesticated housepets, today sugar Gliders are an extremely popular companion pet in Malaysia too.

The Sugar Glider is a popular domestic pet because of its lively and inquisitive nature; with plenty of attention (a minimum of 1-2 hours of daily human interaction), it bonds well to human companions. Where legal, the Sugar Glider is not difficult to breed in captivity under the right conditions.

SugarGliders eat a varied diet in the wild and feed through out their own teritory. In Australia although common along the eastern coast they are rarely seen. Their natural diet consists of insects, native fruit, flowers, and sap.
Diets will often include protein from meat, vegetables, fruit, other foraging foods, and the occasional nut for a treat. Their nightly diet should consist of around 50% protein, 25% fruit and 25% veggies. They are essentially lactose intolerant, but still need calcium.

MEAT / PROTEIN

Meal Worm
shrimp
brisket
beef / hamburger (drain all fat)
chicken
ham (use as a treat, high in salt)
cooked egg (any form w/out butter)
tofu chunks

FRUITS AND VEGGIES

grapes halved
tomatoes halved
raw corn kernels, sliced loose (small amounts)
cooked potato chunks
green bean
carrot
cantaloupe / melon
apple
Kale
Blueberries
Strawberries (they are ok for them, however, be careful with cleaning them. They have a very hard surface to clean. Any fruit or veggies with a rough surface need to be cleaned very well before feeding them to prevent the suggies from getting sick.)

and so forth, whatever your pet likes and whatever is in the fridge

OTHER

Yogurt (vanilla or sweetened with honey)
Soy Yogurt with cultures added after pasturizing
Clean Water!
Various flowers such as 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(with the thorns removed), snap dragons, sycamore, willows, and yucca.

Suggestions on what NOT to feed Sugar Gliders

Chocolate (could kill them like it does to canines)
Eggs with butter (use a non-stick pan or cook in microwave to make eggs)
butter (to hard on their digestive systems to digest)
processed sugar (ie: marshmallows)
Anything high in Salt (ie:nuts with salt, best to serve non-salted ones)
Baby food with spices or onion powder (the best is the plain meat or plain vegies)
Bread (it is a filler, may cause them not to eat the good stuff. Some people say it causes problems for them in the digestive tract also)