On December 29th Anthony and I officially adopted our sweet little boys!! Romero and Clive are doing great, they're bonding very well to us, and they seem to have been affected just about as mildly as possible by the huge change in their little lives.

However, the info Anthony got from the breeder seems pretty much, well... bulls***. She's given us quite a lot of this dried food that, if it is made from all the stuff it says it's made from, does sound pretty good for them. It's called Happy Glider, you may be able to find it online but I hadnt checked before I posted this. She has instructed that we should feed this food for just about 3/4 of their diet, and the remaining 1/4 should be "nutritious treats". Considering how little the boys eat this doesnt leave a whole lot for fresh fruits and veggies... it seems to equate to about a gram of apple or some other fruit and maybe an eighth of a baby carrot for each of them. This just doesnt seem right to me.

Also, she's instructed us to feed them in the mid morning, sometime around 10:30. She said to give them "an eighth of a coffee cup" (what the hell kind of a measuring distinction is that???) in this little dish of the dry food and then during play time hand feed them the treats. The daytime feeding isnt going too well. She said to flip them out of their pouch and give them the food. At this point they usually give us a look like "You flipping morons we were sleeping and we dont care about that dried crap right now" and crab at us furiously. They might eat a pebble or two and then go back to sleep, but thats all. We changed the feeding time to when they first wake up at night, and that seems to be going better but we dont want to really screw this up.

Can anybody help us with what might be going very wrong with this diet plan? We've looked up the BML diet and that seems to look pretty good but we dont want to switch right away because the boys have been through so much this week. Then again, we also dont want to make them sick by not getting a proper diet.

Is what we're doing wrong? What do you suggest? Thanks much!

Yes, I think your breeder needs to do some diet research!!!! Please dont wait to change their diet. A combination of bad diet and stress from a new home can equal a sick suggie.

Most who frequent this site dont feed BML - but I wont go into that.

Here is the link for the High Protein Wombaroo (HPW) mixture:

http://www.gliderdad79.com/hpw.php

Here is where you can purchase the HPW powder and Bee Pollen:

http://www.toandfrogliders.com

Calcium is very important to a gliders health, so you want to try to maintain a well balanced calcium to phospherous ratio. Gliders love corn, but it is high in phosperous - and phosperous depletes calcium. So whenever you give them something high in phosperous - you want to counter act that with a food high in calcium - like papaya. I know this doesnt make much sense at first... But it will.

Here is what I feed my girls everyday: Try to stick to 50% protein, %25 vegetables and 25% fruit.

HPW mixture

Protein Baked chicken (see Skia's Chicken Suggie Bake) scrambled or boiled egg with no seasoning. Suggie Omelet made with 1 egg scrambled - parsley - and veggies . Make just like an omelet. They love it! And boiled shrimp - which my girls love! If you are wanting to flavor their food - use fresh herbs instead of seasonings. Herbs like parsley, rosemary, sage and thyme. Never use garlic or onion. or salt and pepper.

fruit - which they arent very good at eating. So I smash their fruit and stir in a little bit of the HPW mixture - sometimes adding baby food applesauce. They really like this mixture. I serve them blueberries, cherries, melons of any kind,mango, papaya, kiwi, grapes, oranges - sparingly (can give them diarihea), pomegranite, apples, pears, star fruit.

veggies - For veggies, I try to stay away from corn. Corn is a treat every now and then but not an everyday food. They get carrots, green beans, peas, sugar snap peas, sweet potatoe, either cooked or raw (shredded, fresh kale, mixed greens (purchased at Walmart called Spring Mix) and I sprinkle Seseme Seeds on top for some extra calcium. They can have avacado as a treat.

Yogurt They love a little bit of plain or flavored yogurt. Just stay away from artificial sweetners.

Mealworms - They love live mealworms as treats, Maybe 5-6 of them a day - but not before dinner. I come home for lunch everyday, so that is when they get their mealies. It gives them something in their tummies to tide them over until dinner. And they are not to full to eat.

Here is what my girls had for dinner tonight (Im feeding 3 adult girls):

1/2 boiled egg - chopped up. 3 small pieces of baked chicken. green beans, corn (couple of pieces each), peas, carrots - all sprinkled with parsley flakes (another source of calcium). And they got a dish of HPW Mixture and a dish of mixed greens with seseme seeds sprinkled on top - again for calcium.

For snacks - they can have a sliver of almond, one pine nut each, yogurt they lick off of your finger or baby food they lick off your finger, Yoggie Drops are a huge hit with them and of course, meal worms!

Hope this helps you. Any questions, dont hesitate to ask. Im really tired while Im typing this so I hope I didnt leave anything out...

Oh - and fresh water everyday!!! I use the Glass Lixit's bottles and have never had any problems with them leaking... And have used them for well over a year.

For food dishes, I use the creme brulee oval bowls from Linens N Things. They are just the right size for 3 of them to eat - plus they look nice. I usually use at least 3 bowls each night - one for their HPW mixture, one for the chick/egg/veggies mixture and a third for their salad of spring mix topped with seseme seeds.

Im so tired right now and hope this makes sense to you. If not - let me know and Ill retype it when Im rested. Hope this helps you!

Happy New Year!

While you're deciding on a set diet, at least stick with 25% veggies, 25% fruits and 50% proteins. What you heard from the breeder is better than what I heard if you can believe it. I just don't get it...

so we have two boys 9.5 weeks OOP... Clive will eat veggies but he wont eat the fruit, and Romero will eat the fruit but just give me a funny look about the veggies. how can we get both boys to eat both? we're thinking mashing both up together? and how much of the hpw mix and how much protein and fruit and veggies? romero will eat the dry food till its gone but clive just picks at it...

oh and you guys feed your suggies at night too right? cuz that seems to be the only time they really eat.. i try to give them maybe a random treat during the day if they're stirring while we're bonding but thats it they dont really seem to into eating while they're trying to sleep

Just to give you another option I feed mine a diet called "The Pet Glider Diet". It is also called "Percila Price Diet"...anyhow I find all the items in my grocery store and a batch usually amounts to 3-4 weeks of food.

I also feed them glider cereal, which is what I think you have...I keep it in the cage and rarely see my furbutts eat it... but oh well...I keep it in there as staple food.

I give them mealies and crickets but at tent time so they bond with me.

Hope this helps...:)

Ohh...one more thing, try cutting up the fruit and veggies into smaller pieces and mixing it up in the food so that they eat it in combinatio with the rest of the meal. Mine would pick out what they liked until I mixed it up for them, now they eat everything! Little pigs! lol

Sugar Gliders do sleep most of the day, so no wonder the poor little things give you dirty looks!!!

I usually put their food in the cage around 9:30 to 10pm. They usually come out to have a little dinner at that time - but they eat off and on all night. I remove their dishes in the morning before I go to work.

You give 1 1/2 teaspoon of HPW mixture per glider per day. I always put it in the microwave for about 5 to 10 seconds to knock the chill off. (I have this thing about putting a bowl of frozen food in their cage!)

To get my girls to eat their fruit, I put a teaspoon of the HPW mixture and a little bit of babyfood applesauce, along with whatever fruit I want them to eat that night. Then I warm it in the microwave and "snoosh" it all together.

To get them to eat their vegetables - I use Skia's Suggie Baked Chicken Recipe. You bake the chicken with the vegetables on top, which gives them flavor.

Here is a post that has the baked chicken recipe along with lots of other hints and tips for making suggie ownership a little less time consuming:

http://www.sugarglider.com/glidergossip/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=10132

You can stick with the happy glider, but you're gonna need more fruits and veggies! I feed the happy glider free-choice(I go to the hedgehogs by vickie webpage and get the "rainbow sampler"-they send you a bunch of different flavors in one pound bags and I mix it all together) and about 1 tbl fruit and 1 tbl veggies per glider every night. Then you can give mealies for treats. And you don't need to wake them up during the day to feed them!