So I'm really thinking about getting a pair of gliders, and the last thing I need to know is about their diet. I've been reading and watching a lot of controversial arguments about this. So I was wondering if I could have just a day by day schedule of what you feed your gliders? It would make research a whole lot simpler by just asking owners what they eat and not the science behind it, if you know what I mean. (Although I'm well aware about their calcium/phosphorus/protein needs, it's just still all confusing)
Ex.
Mon - Fresh fruits and veggies (what kind)
Thanks!

The best way to provide for your glider's nutritional needs is to choose one of the widely used glider feeding plans and follow the directions for that specific plan.

Most glider diets have a recipe for a nectar like staple that provides the protein, vitamins and calcium gliders need daily. This staple is fed with fruits and vegetables each night.

The BML diet has a restricted choice of fruits and only allows frozen mixed vegetables (corn, peas, carrots & green beans) to provide the additional phosphorus needed to balance the amount of calcium supplement contained in the staple recipe.

Almost all other diets recommend a wide variety of fruits and vegetables to be fed with the staple. Each fruit and vegetable is rich in some vitamins and poor in others so offering a wide variety (think colorful) covers the full spectrum of the vitamins and minerals they contain.

I have links to several diets on my web page to help you locate the recipes and instructions. My own GliderKids Feeding Plan is one option you might want to consider.

http://www.gliderkids-diet.com/Staple-Recipes.html

Most staple recipes call for a 1 TBS per glider serving of the staple with 1 TBS fruits and 1 TBS vegetables served each evening. My GliderKids Staple recipes call for only 2 teaspoons per glider because the mixtures contain less liquid than most recipes.


Many folks cut up all of their fruit and vegetables and make a large mixture to feed every night.

I prefer to feed one fruit and one vegetable each night - but different ones each night so my gliders get at least 7 different fruits and 7 different vegetables each week.

I rotate through frozen green beans, mixed vegetables, peas & carrots, broccoli, okra, sugar snap peas fresh cucumbers, and fresh or frozen spinach or other dark greens.

The fruits I offer are watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, papaya, black berries, blue berries, mango and cherries.

I offer other fruits and vegetables when they are in season or I happen to buy them for the family.

It's encouraging that you're asking your questions and doing your 'homework' before getting a pair of gliders. Thank you!

Diet, especially when you're looking at it BEFORE having gliders and seeing how it works, is sometimes a very overwhelming topic. It doesn't have to be and by following one of the widely recognized 'approved diets' it will take the guess work and concern out of the picture for you. With these, the research has already been done for you and they have been proven over very long periods of time to produce thriving happy gliders.

It will be difficult for some, because there are a variety of these diets that people here use, to tell you a specific mon-sun break down. So, just to try to answer your question just from my own personal routine here's sort of a basic run down.

Priscilla Price (The Pet Glider Fresh Diet).
I keep 2-3 batches (or half batches) of the staple in rotation, making a fresh batch a couple weeks apart. I can chose nightly from one batch or mix different 'cubes' together. While this particular diet is complete in it's staple form as written, I offer fruits and veggies each night for them to forage for or nibble on to keep them active and occupied during the night. These could be anything I have on hand that I would be using in my usual human meals...as long as they are on the 'safe list' of f/v for gliders. You'll be able to find that by entering it in the search bar on this site. For example, this week on different nights I've offered (fresh) a couple of the following: bok choi, green beans, carrot, papaya, watermelon, cantaloupe. Each of their staple batches has at least 4 types each of fruits and veggies and I try to make each batch a little different for variety. Then of course there are the various little treats during play time, meal worms, yogi drops, a couple sunflower seeds, etc.

Thanks for the info!

After reading these diets, I came up with a question -- how much do you spend on their food per month? What is the cheapest, but still high quality, food you can buy?

I'm completely aware about how important their diet is, but it's always something to consider before purchasing, right? :P

Thank you!

It's VERY important, and good for you doing your research beforehand.

This is how diet works: Staple, fruits, veggies, occasional treats. Fruits, veggies, and treats are straightforward - treats may include dried mealworms, bits of boiled chicken, bits of almond, dried superworms, yogurt, corn, etc. Things that gliders enjoy but should not be fed regularly for various reasons. Corn is on this list even though it is a vegetable because almost all gliders will eat corn before anything else, may fill up on it and not eat their other foods as well, and it has a very low Ca:P ratio. Staple is what varies; there are quite a few staples you can choose from. Original HPW, HPW Complete, BML, Priscilla Price, etc. They're all different. The only one I've heard anything negative about is Instant HPW, because it is powdered honey and eggs and many gliders do not feel satisfied after eating it. It hasn't caused harm, it simply isn't filling enough for some gliders.

I feed Original HPW + fruits + veggies each night, and sometimes a treat as well. For Original HPW and many of the diets in general, the glider gets 1 TBSP of staple each night. Regardless of diet, each glider should get 1 TBSP fresh fruit and 1 TBSP fresh veggies each night, VARIED. Variation is highly important. Frozen fruits and veggies can be used as needed, but canned are not recommended at all.

Original HPW is wombaroo powder, which is made for marsupials like gliders, bee pollen, which provides some valuable nutrients, eggs, and honey. You blend it all up then freeze it and spoon some out each night. Knowing that, here is a sample schedule (I'm assuming you're a visual person for asking that!) This is PER GLIDER. If you have two, which you should, then this is doubled. It is recommended that you use two separate bowls to discourage one from hogging all the food.

Monday:
1 TBSP Original HPW mixture
1 TBSP fruits (split up into 3. So, approx 1/3 TBSP apple, 1/3 TBSP raspberry, 1/3 TBSP banana).
1 TBSP veggies (split up into 3. So, approx 1/3 TBSP cucumber, 1/3 TBSP spinach, 1/3 TBSP carrot).

Tuesday:
1 TBSP Original HPW mixture
1 TBSP fruits (1/3 papaya, 1/3 grapefruit, 1/3 banana)
1 TBSP veggies (1/3 kale, 1/3 broccoli, 1/3 carrot)

Wednesday:
1 TBSP Original HPW mixture
1 TBSP fruits (1/3 apple, 1/3 papaya, 1/3 watermelon)
1 TBSP veggies (1/3 cucumber, 1/3 kale, 1/3 green bean)

Thursday:
1 TBSP Original HPW mixture
1 TBSP fruits (1/3 banana, 1/3 kiwi, 1/3 blackberry)
1 TBSP veggies (1/3 spinach, 1/3 carrot, 1/3 peas)

Friday:
1 TBSP Original HPW mixture
1 TBSP fruits (1/3 apple, 1/3 papaya, 1/3 raspberry)
1 TBSP veggies (1/3 carrot, 1/3 broccoli, 1/3 kale)

Basically, rotate your fruits and veggies. If you buy a pack of raspberries, you can use raspberry for a few days. A whole apple can last like a week, but you don't have to offer it every night. Just try to vary it as much as possible. If you're ever worried about calcium intake or vitamin D, give a small splash of calcium and vitamin d fortified orange juice, and it can count as a fruit. Some gliders are picky, so you might have to work with a handful of things yours like or something. It all varies. Just offer foods with close to 2:1 ratios as often as possible, like spinach, kale, papaya, raspberry. I try to do one leafy green per day only because i feel like they don't just want to eat a bunch of leaves all night... haha! Good luck.

As for your question, for two gliders, Original HPW per month would probably be $10-15. They offer a sample pack on thepamperedglider.com/supplements.htm which is the wombaroo powder and bee pollen for $6.45 plus free shipping. I would say it would last a month for two gliders, maybe even more. With that you would need to buy about $5 worth of honey and need three eggs to mix it with. If you always have eggs on hand it won't matter. A 6 pack of eggs is less than a dollar. If you buy the larger sizes, it comes out to quite a bit cheaper per month than the sample pack is. For fruits and veggies, it depends on how often you eat them. We eat tons of fruits and veggies, and eat them every day. I am always buying them. The gliders eat bits of what I buy for us. Ideally, any person eats enough fruits and veggies that most of their gliders' f/v can be shared from theirs. A bag of spinach is $2, that lasts us up to a week. A container of raspberries is $2, that lasts a couple of days. An apple is 50 cents and we use it for them for up to a week. A cucumber is 60 cents and it lasts about 3 days. A banana is like 20 cents and can be used for 2-3 days. A bag of carrots is $1 and will last about a month in the fridge, so you can feed carrots every couple of days. You can buy frozen mixed berries for about $4, keep the bag in the freezer, and rotate berries each night. You can give berry every night if you want, just rotate which one. That would last a month or two. You can get a bag of mixed veggies for $1, of which you can give them frozen peas one night, frozen green beans the next, or thaw it out under warm water, or boil a handful and store it in the fridge and feed it for a few days at a time. Mixed veggies do usually have corn, so make sure you limit corn accordingly. Gliders eat very tiny amounts, so what they eat costs very little. If you for some reason don't eat fruits and veggies, it will cost more because you need some for them every night.

All in all, for two gliders each month, I would say $12 HPW mix, and maybe like $5-10 per week for fruits and veggies each. You can buy cheaper items like bananas and cucumbers, and buy reusable items like a bag of carrots and frozen fruits, if you're concerned about cost. If you are low on money, remember to always have a vet fund available for emergencies, and/or at the very least find a vet that accepts care credit and get approved for it beforehand. If you have no money and your glider is sick, it's probably the worst parent feeling ever.

Good luck!!

Interesting question. I've never really thought much about the cost for feeding the gliders. My dog on the other hand, I recently switched her to the finest quality food I could find after tons of research (she's sensitive)...I have a sticky note with the date the new food was started on the bin to break down the exact cost of $60/bag food. What we do for our fine furry friends!

For my girls though, the supplement is $22 which lasts me 3 months (per 2 gliders). Everything else is grocery store items, all of which are incorporated back and forth between human/glider diet so that all of the ingredients are always on hand. The only thing 'extra' that I would buy to make a batch is the extra applesauce as it calls for 4 cups per full batch. The dog eats raw veggies too. In fact, after looking into glider diets, pre gliders, I thought they fit nicely into how we as a family should be eating as well. Fresh and healthy.