Hi everyone,

I had asked a couple of questions in my last forum post, but the thread has kinda gone cold. I figured starting a new one would be a better way to get answers.

Anyways, my two questions:

1) When I receive my HPW starter kit in the mail, is it okay to use liquid egg whites instead of whole eggs in the mixture? My boyfriend and I buy the egg whites in a carton usually, and I wanted to know if they're good enough. If not, I will certainly buy regular eggs too!

2) My boyfriend and I LOVE to cook with onions. Often we saute them, and they create quite the smell. It's yummy to us, but since gliders cannot have onion would the smell of them cooking bother my baby at all? I don't want to poison him via cooking aromas!

Thanks in advance for your informative answers!

Hi, I'm no expert, but I believe that I read somewhere you should never have your gliders with you while you are cooking in the kitchen (too many hazards). It's probably best to keep your gliders in a separate area when you're cooking onions or anything for that matter.

Ah, the infamous egg debate. The Whites are bad for you... the yolk is bad for you... not sure we will ever get a definitive answer to that one. But I would say that the whites-only out of the carton should be fine. (Personally I weigh towards the 'whites are a healthier option' anyway... so that would be my preference as well.)

As for the onions, I don't imagine that the smell of onions would bother them. How close is their cage to your kitchen? A lot of the foods and spices that are bad for them to eat tend to have a pungent aroma. Besides onions, garlic comes quickly to mind. I think that if the smell of these things had a detrimental effect on them, it would have come to light by now, what with glider owners across the globe joining in forums like this one to share on information. :)

Thanks for the responses.

I live in a small studio apartment, so everything is in one room for the most part. The only room that is separate is the bathroom. Everything else is all the same air space (and is about 13x15ft in size).

We cook with garlic a lot too! I'm glad to hear that these smells are most-likely not detrimental to their health. I was worried!

There are a lot of people who only use the whites. I, personally, use whole eggs but then again I have an issue paying more for something to have someone take something out of it. (Does that make sense?) Also, gliders LOOOOOVE hard boiled eggs. They make a gigantic mess but boy do they love it. I give them as an extra protein about once to twice a week. So either way should be fine.

As for the onions and garlic...as long as they aren't eating it you are good. However, just a precaution...if you really do cook with it a lot (like I do) you might want to designate a "glider only" set of utensils and bowls etc. I have a knife set that no one else had better touch or they might have it used on them. That way I know that I didn't cut garlic or onions with it. I also have a separate cutting board that only gets used for glider food so I don't have the chance of contamination. I'm a little extreme but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

I've wondered the egg thing myself but nowhere does it give information on how many grams to use if using egg whites. I just used an egg. You should contact Peggy for that question. I wouldn't let the studio wreak of onions and garlic. I'd try top air it out or keep a window open while cooking. I doubt the aroma would hurt them but I'd err on the side of caution.

I think just the aroma shouldn't be toxic, but I believe cooking with a certain type of (non-stick) cookware can be. That's another good reason not to have gliders near the kitchen. My house is very small, basically living, dining and kitchen are pretty much open, so we can't keep gliders in living or dining room, we have a small hallway off living room leading to the 2 bedrooms, bath, & laundry. We have my little dragon in our bedroom, so only have 1 room left to keep gliders, luckily bedrooms are on opposite side of house from kitchen 'cause I use the non-stick cookware.

Using the egg whites instead of whole eggs will alter the amount of protein and fat in the HPW Diet. That changes the entire nutritional balance of the mixture. Check with Peggy to see if increasing the protein and decreasing the fat in HPW is advisable or not.

I personally would not make that alteration to the recipe.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by TJones09</i>
<br />I think just the aroma shouldn't be toxic, but I believe cooking with a certain type of (non-stick) cookware can be. That's another good reason not to have gliders near the kitchen. My house is very small, basically living, dining and kitchen are pretty much open, so we can't keep gliders in living or dining room, we have a small hallway off living room leading to the 2 bedrooms, bath, & laundry. We have my little dragon in our bedroom, so only have 1 room left to keep gliders, luckily bedrooms are on opposite side of house from kitchen 'cause I use the non-stick cookware.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Could you explain the non-stick issue further? Do you mean that there is an aroma/material that is put into the air when cooking with non-stick cookware? Or, are you merely saying not to cook anything that the glider will eat with non-stick cookware?

I believe the NS cooking refers to older issues with birds....

http://www.starlingtalk.com/warning.htm

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by JeremyLexie</i>
<br />I believe the NS cooking refers to older issues with birds....

http://www.starlingtalk.com/warning.htm
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Yes it does refer to birds, but I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that it applies to sugar gliders. It may be misinformation but I take caution when in doubt.