quote:
It is all very well to claim that everything we feed here is garbage.
I have never proclaimed everything that people feed is garbage. Fresh fruit and veg with added protein is a very good place to start. It's the procalmation that many diets become popular yet have no scientific or nutritional background that concerns me and yet people rave about how good they are. Yes we all should be concerned about what we are feeding our gliders and I make no apologies for that. Its seems that the evidence of gliders getting sick time and time again from these dieys yet that information is swept under the carpet.
This is the Healesville Sanctuary diet that was developed by an animal nutrtionistalong with the vets at the native animal Zoo,
HEALESVILLE SANCTUARY
DIET SHEET
SPECIES: SUGAR GLIDER: Petaurus breviceps
NATURAL DIET: Insects, pollen, nectar, sap, lerps.
AD LIB: Water.
DAILY DIET (per animal):
1 Dog chow/Advance.
6g Fruit, chopped (1tbspoon).
3 ml Nectar mix.*
1g Fly pupae (¼ tea spoon).
5g Corn (¼ thin slice).
2g Sprouted seed.*
2 Mealworms.
SUPPLEMENT: 5 Pollen grains – once per week.
3 Sultanas – 3-4 times per week.
2 Sunflower seeds – once per week.
1g Pet Health Food (small cube) – once per week.
1 Almonds - once per week.
Insects – 3-4 times per week (eg. moths).
Acacia, eucalypts, other blossoms as available.
NECTAR MIX - To Make up:
Nectar Mix 2 Litres 4 Litres 6 Litres 8 Litres
Honey 700 ml 1.4 Litres 2.1 Litres 2.8 Litres
Hot Water 1.0 Litre 2.0 Litres 3.0 Litres 4.0 Litres
Eggs 3 6 9 12
Soluvet 20 g 40 g 60 g 80 g
Calcivet 20 ml 40 ml 60 ml 80 ml
Cold Water 250 ml 500 ml 750 ml 1.0 Litre
Cereal 70 g 140 g 210 g 280 g
Dissolve the honey in the hot water.
Blend together:
Eggs – hard boiled – shelled.
Soluvet
Calcivet
Cold water
Once blended, add mix to the honey and water, together with High
Protein Baby Cereal.
It is essential that the vitamin supplements are thoroughly mixed to ensure even
distribution throughout the mix.
This mix needs to be made fresh on a daily basis. Remaining contents of each day to
be discarded.
The mix can be made up last thing each afternoon and placed in the fridge.
Sprouted Seed Mix
Composition (as specified on Diet Sheet)
40 % Fine seed mix
40 % Wheat
10% Sunflower seed
10% Mung Beans
Method
1) Place required amount of seed into container, and cover with water and Aviclens
(5ml Aviclens to 10L of water).
2) Soak for 24 hours.
3) Then place the empty soaked seed into seedling trays to a maximum depth of 2cm
and rinse thoroughly using shower spray.
4) Place onto heat pad in Autumn, Winter and Spring until sprouted (usually 24
hours to 48 hours ) additional rinses may be required if conditions are particularly
dry.
5) When sprouted remove from seed trays and place in refrigerator.
6) Thoroughly clean all equipment. Scrub with detergent, then rinse in sodium
hypochlorite at (3ml/L of water).
Plastic lids will need to be used only when conditions are Dry and or Cold to maintain
warmth and humidity . Use in warm humid weather will promote mould growth,
please use own judgement.
Hygiene
1) Conditions required to sprout seeds are also ideal conditions for the propagation of
a wide range of fungus and moulds, some of which are highly toxic.
2) For this reason it is vitally important that all equipment is kept clean, scrubbing of
all equipment needs to be carried out at completion of every cycle.
3) If any mould is detected (black spots, grey filaments, mouldy odour), discard the
whole batch and clean trays thoroughly with sodium hypochlorite (3ml per litre of
water).
The Heat Pad
1) Use of the heat pad will need to be adjusted according to the conditions.
2) In autumn, winter and spring only turn the heat pad on at night.
3) Leave the heat pad off in summer unless the temperature falls below 13oC.
4) The seed raising mix should not get warmer than 23-25oC, as he heat pad raises
the temperature on the mix approximately 10oC above the ambient temperature it
not required at ambient temperatures above 15oC or it will promote growth of
contaminants.
Healesville Sanctuary Diets
August 2006 This document in under constant review and is modified continuously.
170
5) To assist with decision making a max/min thermometer should be kept at the seed
sprouting station.
6) Please refer to the adjacent sheet from the manufacturer for full instructions.
I do not use thsi diet but base much of whta I feed from this diet. The biggest problem I see with translating this in the states is the availablity of teh High protein babay cereal. I would substitute this with either rice flour which is done by roflmbo2 or grind up oats. The Cacivet and soulavet are bird vitamins and are readily available on line. The Health pet loaf is just a source of protein so any meat substitute would be fine like chicken, I make my own meatloaf and freeze it.
Acacias are easy to grow but these are an added bonus to the diet. The Gliders tend to suck the nectar but don't actully eat the blossums. Same goes for the eucalyptus they don't actually eat the leaves. they do eat the lerps found on the leaves. I cannot bring myself to the fly pupae but apparantly they are high in protein, still makes me sick.
Notice no apple juice nor yoghurt in this diet yet BML is ment to be closrly constructed from this nectar mix.
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