Suggies At Home

Recently I have been asked to write up a bit more on diets. Many do ask me,

“Hun, are you sure your gliders eat everything you give them?”

My answer, yes they do eat everything I give them but they do not finish everything fully. It is normal for gliders to have left overs after a meal. I also still get the very basic question of “What do sugar gliders eat?”. So I will share a quote from a website,

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.

Gliders are “sap suckers” by nature and cannot be sustained by dry foods and off-the-shelf food pellets that are designed for other small animals such as hamsters. Sap suckers chew their food to extract the liquids and then most often spit out the remains. A simple way to look at it is that they need squishy, wet, naturally sweet, and quickly perishable foods.

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.

Read more at http://www.sugarglider.com/gliderpedia/index.asp?Food

Hopefully that would clear up the question. Gliders need to have a proper varied diet in order to stay healthy. A diet that consist of only 2 or 3 types of fruits and limited protein can cause vitamin and mineral imbalance, which may lead to premature death. I have heard of many who told me their joeys die all of the sudden. Why? An imbalance diet and also maybe separated too young from it’s mother.

I have been researching alot on diets. Some websites would advice 75% protein, some breeders practice 50% protein with 25% veggies and 25% fruits, while others would practice on 75% fruits and 25% protein. Which is the correct one? The whole time I have been giving 40% protein and 60% fruits and veggies as it works for me. I would not follow the 75% fruits and 25% protein ratio as it doesn’t make sense if you look at a glider’s teeth.

This photo here is from http://www.americanheadhunters.com

It is a sugar glider’s skull. Hopefully you can see the teeth, the molars at the back look very much like a cat’s back teeth while the front looks like a rodent.

http://www.harrisinwonderland.com/sugar-gliders/index.shtml

From this website above, one can find useful information on sugar glider care. There is even the author’s menu for his gliders, which I found interesting. Dried mango and dried papaya, I believe he could not get hold of the fresh stuff. Anyway, I was surprised that the author also feeds raw eggs. Now not chicken eggs since raw chicken eggs are loaded with bacteria, but quail eggs. I may give this a try since I actually give parrot eggs once a while to my gliders.

OK, let’s get back to the topic. So which food percentage should we follow? I would follow the 50% protein and 50% fruits and veggies as this makes sense for us. A higher protein percentage to breeding gliders would be good. Now do not be disgusted with insects. Gliders need these. A few crickets and about 5 to 8 mealworms a day is good. But is the protein enough? Not really. You have to include cooked eggs, chicken meat, even a bit of cooked meat is ok too. What do I give my own gliders? I feed them my own GliderSLURP of course, as well with additional stuff like Innova Evo kibbles but that is only a few kibbles to 1 glider. Mealworms and crickets and cooked shredded chicken meat.

How about fruits and veggies? We can feed a wide variety. http://suggiesathome.wordpress.com/2008/05/28/my-gliders-make-me-go-shopping/

Veggies can be those salad greens we have. Celery, a bit of red and yellow bell peppers, carrots, frozen green peas, sweet snow peas, cooked sweet potato, cucumber, very small amount of corn, lettuce leaves, cherry tomatoes… the list goes on but do check on the calcium and phosphorus ratio. When feeding fruits and veggies, it is wise to sprinkle some calcium powder on top of it. I would just feed a GliderSLURP or a BML mix or any mix for gliders that have added calcium. Just get hold or do what you can do.

Now keep the daily diet as varied as possible. You can have 3 type of fruits with 1 or 2 types of veggie, some cooked chicken meat, a small spoon of yogurt and a piece or 2 of high quality kibble. I also found out you can feed Shredded Wheat cereals to gliders. Anyway, each glider is different when it comes to eating. Some can be pigs, some can be picky. Usually they would attack their favourite food but then they can become bored of it quickly. I found a way where you can make food interesting to your gliders. Cut them in different sizes and shapes. This would get them to eat more if they see different shapes. Weird right? Rotate the fruits and veggies given every few days. If you have trouble finishing whole fruits, you can always visit a cut fruit stall and get a few different types of cut fruits. With berries like strawberries and blueberries, you can freeze them in the freezer if you are afraid it would spoil.

Now if your glider wouldn’t eat fruits and veggies because it would only want mealworms, then turn their diet around. Give mealworms 1 time a day and at a period where it is taken as treats. Leave fruits and other healthy foods in their cage and let them try out new food. Do not be alarmed if your glider did not eat any food as they will when they are hungry. But if your glider goes off food completely for a whole day and appears to be sleeping and inactive, you would need to get some glucose water and give it an energy boost.