LuckyGlider Zippy Glidershorts     TX, USA
5266 Posts
We've been doing a lot of reading on pollen these past few years. What we have discovered contradicts some curious posts we have seen which assert that you can feed gliders "too much" pollen in HPW and other diets that include pollen.
In summary, let me say that the idea of over-feeding pollen based on the amounts in these popular diets is complete hogwash. Sugar Gliders RAVENOUSLY eat pollen in the wild and they metabolize most of it.
The field studies and books we have read all support the suggestion that as hind gut fermentors (enlarged caceum capacity), sugar gliders are not only well-suited to the task of metabolizing pollen, but they in fact thrive and depend on an ample supply of pollen.
Now getting ahold of the books (like Marsupial Nutrition) and the university papers is very expensive. But over the years we have bought enough of them to understand more fully how absolutely essential pollen is in the sugar glider's diet. After reviewing the evidence in all of these field studies it is obvious they are ingesting far more than a few meager grains of pollen a week as one zoo diet strangely suggests.
For example, according the the excellent book "Marsupial Nutrition" by Ian Hume, he reports on observations in the most important field studies on Sugar Gliders: "Pollen, which was available most of the year, appeared to be preferred, even in summer when arthropods were presumably abundant. When visiting flowers, sugar gliders can obtain both protein and energy by foraging on both pollen and nectar." (see footnote 1)
Professor J.L. Howard of New South Whales authored a famous field study quoted in Hume's book in which the scat of gliders was analyzed for pollen grain content to ascertain how much pollen gliders metabolize. The study was conducted at Green Patch, in Jervis Bay Nature Reserve. "On average, 34% of Eucalyptus pollen and 71 % of Banksia pollen in faeces was devoid of contents, indicating that sugar gliders could access the contents of pollen grains as a source of protein." (See footnote 2).
Howard himself in his paper on the subject quotes yet another field study by Henry (1985) in which the field researcher "Regularly found pollen in the faces of P. breviceps inhabiting mature eucalyptus forest in Victoria [ed. Australia]. (See footnote 3)
This discovery was also supported by the field work on sugar gliders done by Ivan Van Tets & Robert Whelan in 1997. They found 66% of Banksia pollen grains in sugar glider scat to be empty. [empty grains means the gliders metabolized it]. (This field study was near Wollongong, south of Sydney).
Clearly the prevalence of digested pollen grains in glider scat indicates they eat a prodigious amount of it. This is no doubtful observation by one errant researcher, but observations that have been repeatedly published by numerous field experts.
What does all this mean? It means gliders eat a lot of pollen and because of their ability to digest the grains, they metabolize most of it.
Based on the observations in these landmark field studies, it is clear that sugar gliders are constantly eating both nectar from flowers and pollen in their constant foraging.
So using a couple of tablespoons of bee pollen in HPW or a tablespoon in a batch of LGRS soup is now in complete context. Simply put: Don't worry. Pollen is good for them and they eat loads of it in the wild. When a tablespoon or two is spread out over an entire batch of HPW diet or LGRS diet for example, they are not getting "too much" pollen.
Incidentally, both the Hume and Howard texts have some interesting graphs in them where they detail the incredible number of hours in a day gliders are observed eating pollen and nectar. It is interesting reading.
Footnotes
1) Ian D. Hume "Marsupial Nutrition," Cambridge University Press, 1999, ISBN 0521594065
2) Howard, J,.L. "Diet of Petaurus Breviceps (Marsupialia Peteuridae) in a mosaic of coastal woodland and heath. Australian Mammalogy, 12: 15-21, 1989.
3) Henry, S. "The Diet and Socioecology of Gliding Possums in Southern Victoria," PhD dissertation, Dept of Zoology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, 1985.
4) Van Tets, I. & Whelan, R.J. (1997) Banksia pollen in the diet of Australian mammals. Ecography 20, 499-505. (Rob Whelan and Ivan van Tets)
LuckyGlider Zippy Glidershorts TX, USA 5266 Posts quote:
Originally posted by Dahlia_2020
Oh, I agree on the calcium bit. But I wasn't sure about the pollen, because even though you use two tablespoons in your suggie soup, your recipe's batch size is larger than the traditional batch size of HPW. Taking that into consideration, do you still think it's a good idea?
Also, what about human grade calcium carbonate in the HPW to bring the ratio up? I can't use the calcium fortified OJ as it's already in all my veggies relishes. Pretty much everything that you have in your suggie soup is in my recipes already, just with the exception of the fly pupae.
I want to do something about the calcium in the HPW, and some people recommend the human grade (NOW brand) calcium carbonate... I was wondering what you thought of that. Again, I can't use the OJ as it's already in all my veggie relishes along with the yogurt and I don't want to use any more OJ than I already have.
Yes I still think it is a good idea. maybe 1.5 tablespoons if that makes you more comfortable considering the batch size. Yes, human grade Calcium Carbonate is OK, if it is phosphorus free and especially with D3 to help in the metabolic uptake. Be sure to watch the nutritional information closely and to check that there is not any significant added iron. you can also consider phosphorus-free RepCal with D3. Another way to get HPW up to par Calcium-wise may be to replace the water with liquified Papaya. Use the calculator to see what the effect would be. I'm sure it will help considering the natural 4.8:1 Ca:P ratio of Papaya. LuckyGlider Zippy Glidershorts TX, USA 5266 Posts quote:
Originally posted by Kazko
Ed, have you any data that might suggest what you would see long term in gliders that have not ever had pollen in their diet?
It's interesting you've asked that question, because in that paper I quote above by Ian van Tets and Robert Whelan, they go into detail on the make-up of pollen. They explain how a pollen grain's exine (outer shell) is comprised of a hard, polymer substance called sporopollenin, which encloses yet another hard, inner shell (intone). Only by penetrating these walls is the metabolism of the protoplast (where the protein and nutrients are) possible. Although the van Tets/Whelan study indicates high popularity in both flower pollen and nectar amongst a variety of mammalia, they do not suggest an enlarged caceum for hind-gut fermentation is absolutely necessary for metabolic uptake. This may be partially explained by the fact that mechanical means of reaching the protoplasm (i.e. chewing) is an augmentation to the enzymatic effect of the hind gut. It is compelling; however, that amongst both sugar gliders and the eastern pygmy possum, their collective feces showed a mean percentage of empty grains up to 66%. Snipes, Snipes and Carrick say: "Pet. breviceps reflects the morphologically apparent voluminous caecum, which may indeed be advantageous for handling the exudate–type foodstuff of its dietary regime (Hume 1999)." (see footnote 1) Interestingly, this trio of researchers don't even touch on pollen in their paper which references the enlarged caceum of sugar gliders. But the Tets/Whelan field study postulates that a large range of mammalia have access to and do graze on pollens. This leads me to believe that sugar gliders depend not only on hind-gut fermentation, but also their teeth, in breaking down the resilent pollen grains for further digestion. There has been scant study on the actual enzymatic and bacterial fermentation process of the caceum itself, so it is open to interpretation as to whether or not the *absence* of gum or pollen to work on would have an adverse (biochemical) effect on the gliders' caceum over time. But this I can say with reasonable assurance.... Pollen is rich in protein and other nutrients - depending on the source plant. If a glider is to subsist on the proteins available in insects, pollen and exudates in the wild, it stands to reason we must augment those rich protein sources in captivity. That is why the LGRS suggie soup diet has pollen, honey (placeholder for sugar-rich exudates), and dehydrated fly pupae in it. So the simple answer to your question is the lack of pollen in a captive glider's diet would have a negative impact if the proteins derived from pollen were not replaced. It is my educated guess that the honey presented in some diets gives the caceum somewhat of a workout, and less so pollen because most people grind the pollen into dust thus eliminating the need for the caceum to break down the hard outer shell of the grain. 1) Snipes, R.; Snipes, H.; Carrick, N. "Morphometric Data on the Intestines of Five Australian Marsupials (Marsupalia)"Australian Mammalogy, Vol. 25 No. 2 Pages 193 - 196, Published 1 June 2003
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