My glider Keera had a great time at Pet Epicure’s opening day on the 18th of January. She caught the attention of many visitors, even did her gliding and jumping routine for people to see. She even tried to smuggle into a lady’s handbag. Cheeky girl, my Keera is not afraid of strangers at all!
The photographer of the day took some cute pictures of her.
Keera enjoyed hiding in this girl’s hood and also on the girl’s mom.
It was a hot day so Keera took a long drink from someone’s cup.
Have you ever heard of Pet Epicure? It’s a little cozy petshop with white washed walls that sits in Taman Melawati, the same row with the Post Office. Let me tell you about Pet Epicure.
This pet boutique is a family business that doesn’t believe in selling pets. Yups, this pet boutique sells mainly pet products and does the normal grooming, boarding, advice. I frequent this place a lot that I treasure their friendship. What I see are not people in the business for money making but to help pet owners and unwanted pets. Pet Epicure runs their own rescue program. Their shop houses strays that they have rescued, nursed back to health and are awaiting adoption. Good huh?
So do they offer any sugar glider goodies? Why yes! Glider pouches from SuggieStuf are also available as well as my product, GliderSLURP. Soon there may be cages for sale. I’m also there once a week, so anyone who needs some glider advice can come over to meet me. Free nail trimming too!
Their new address is :
No.16, Jalan Bandar 2, Taman Melawati
Contact: 03-41072973 and our email address is petepicure@gmail.com
New Opening Hours
We are now closed on Mondays
Tuesday to Friday 11.00am – 7.00pm
Saturday and Sunday 10.00am – 4.00pm
Visit them at http://www.petepicure.wordpress.com
Nuts? Seeds? Can gliders take these? This question pops up once a while, but then petshops and some breeders or keepers frequently pratise feeding nuts and seeds to their gliders. I have come across petshops that offer a large container of sunflower seeds, with a side of low quality dog kibble and the odd rotten apple or dried up ear of corn. Pitiful diet, right? Why do they practice this diet?
Sunflower seeds are easy to find, easy to keep. It won’t go bad fast but inproper keeping can lead to a weevil infestation in the seeds. Petshops see sunflower seeds as an easy feed. Same goes to kibbles. Low quality dog or cat kibbles are cheap and it gives protein to the gliders. The one problem with low quality kibbles is that the meat value is poor because it uses offal or by-products of animals and also grains like corn or wheat as a filler. Not healthy at all and worst is that the sodium level in these cheap kibbles can lead to kidney stones or urinary tract infections. The apple or corn is only there to give the animal some moisture. Now let’s get back to the seeds and nuts topic.
Firstly, gliders are not rodents. Sugar gliders have specially designed teeth that can rip and tear bark, their teeth doesn’t grow on and on for gnawing like rodents. The back teeth of a glider looks very similar to a dog’s teeth structure, the front would obviously look a bit rodent. So don’t be fooled by those sharp front teeth. It’s just made to rip bark and chew on blossoms and insects. It is not meant to chew on hamster food. It’s not surprising to have petshops advising people to buy hamster food for gliders. Nuts and seeds are not natural in their diet.
Sunflower seeds is very fattening. This is another reason why some people think that feeding sunflower seeds is good. Fat gliders! Once a while, a sunflower seed is fine, but a huge bowl everyday is going to give the glider poor health. Fatty liver, impaction, blockage in the gut….. the list can go on with seeds and nuts. I would just limit to sunflower seeds, cashew nuts and brazil nuts. Grains like millet seeds, wheat grains, dried corn….. these are not good to feed as it is hard for them to digest or chew properly. Almonds are best to avoid too since not many animals can tolerate almond seeds.
So if you are thinking of feeding nuts or seeds, think about the effects overfeeding it. Give as a treat. I only give my gliders 1 seed or nut each once a month or when I have the food stuff at hand. Otherwise, I just omit it because it is not a must in their diet.
The year of the Rat ended and the humble Ox begins. What a year it would be. Astrologers and fortune tellers and even Feng Shui masters predict that this year won’t be a good year. Let’s just hope that all goes well, just hope for the best.
New year started off in my home with the usual routine of house visiting. Even my sugar gliders had a small treat of mandarin oranges, but since it is acidic, they only get a tiny amount just for taste.
From SuggiesAtHome, I would just like to wish every reader Gong Xi Fa Cai. Happy Chinese New Year 2009 to everyone.
Being a suggie parent is like being a parent to a little kid. We always want what is best for them and provide what is recommended for them. When we need to get cloth material for our gliders, the safest cloth materials would be our cotton t-shirts or fleece.
Usually I take old cotton t-shirts and cut them into usable pieces as a blanket or tie the ends to the cage to create a hammock. Now fleece on the other hand is normally used for making pouches and cage accessories. Why fleece?
Fleece is a material of synthetic wool fiber. Not real wool! It was created to mimic wool but the weight of this material is certainly light. Polar fleece, as it is known in the US, is a recommended material for glider pouches because it is soft, breathable and most importantly, the material doesn’t snag and get caught around the glider’s limbs or claws. If it does snag, it won’t cause much damage as to how a fluffy bath towel would.
Where can it be found? Well, fleece is normally made into blankets. It provides warmth and it is a good alternative for people who are allergic to wool. I have seen fleece blankets sold at Carrefour, Jusco, IKEA and even the local pasar malam or night markets. Usually in blanket form, prices vary and I think IKEA sells a light blue one for less than RM18. I saw it for sale once at RM12. Comes in many colours and patterns, the one for kids are normally printed with cartoon characters.
In material shops, there is another type of material that can be used. It’s not fleece, but it is a mixed cotton material that people use for blankets. It’s called flannel. Lighter and it comes in more colours. Being mixed cotton, this material is absorbent and soaks up pee and water well while fleece usually just let water roll off. In Malaysia, our country is warm and humid. Fleece may be suitable for gliders living in a cool air conditioned room but it would be terribly uncomfortable if the weather was too hot. So for fleece pouches, it is made using a single layer while flannel pouches are double layer.
Here are the advantages and disadvantages of fleece from Wikipedia
Advantages of fleece are that it is:
So, I’ll just repeat the places where Fleece is available.
Carrefour
Jusco
IKEA
Night markets@Pasar Malam
You may also be able to get it at certain Kamdar and Giant stores.
Ok, this is a late post but happy 2009! Suggies At Home has been online since May 2008, and it has progressed till today to be an informative blog that has helped many people in Malaysia to give quality care to their gliders.
It has been tough for me, as many things have happened, especially with 2008 but I would like to say thank you to all that supported me through my hard times.
