Hello everyone! I am new here, first post. The family has decided to get a pair of sugar gliders. I have put down a hard rule that we wait until March, so we all have plenty of time to field all the information about them for care and feeding, etc.

First up, I know the general rule is to adopt or buy from a breeder if at all possible. However, there doesn't seem to be anything like that inside of an 8 hour drive of me. (Well, except for Sugar Gliders R Us, when they come to Memphis, but I've read some conflicting reports about them. Thoughts?)

I know pet stores have a reputation for not properly caring for the animals, but the PetsWay where I am can order them, and I can pick them up the same day they arrive at the store, thus eliminating the improper care aspect... Is that viable, or am I at risk for not seeing what I am getting, or possibly buying from a mill? I'm not concerned with lineage or anything like that for breeding purposes. They are going to be our babies.

Secondly, With the diet... It seems the most popular diets are BML or HPW. Would that be the accurate assumption? It doesn't seem spelled out too often, but if I'm gathering this correctly, feedings would consist of 1Tbsp BML or HPW, and 1Tbsp of fresh or frozen fruits and 1Tbsp of fresh or frozen veggies. And that's once a day? Aside from various acceptible snacks of fruits or mealworms. Is this right, or am I just getting confused?

Before buying glider from a pet store, I would ask them where THEY get gliders from. Ask if they deal with USDA licensed Breeders - and request a copy of the transfer information from the breeder to the store showing the breeder's license number.


There are a number of widely used glider feeding plans that you might want to consider. Each has its own specific feeding instructions as far as the amount of the staple to feed each night. Most diets call for a wide variety of fruits and vegetables to be fed with the staple. BML allows only frozen mixed vegetables and fruits from a limited list of choices - this is necessary to balance the amount of calcium in the recipe.

I have links on my web page to several widely used feeding plans. My own GliderKids feeding plan is one of the options you may want to consider. Read the directions to each one and decide on one feeding plan you are most comfortable preparing for your glider.

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

You are correct that gliders are fed once each day. Usually the food is placed in the cage shortly before the gliders wake up each evening so they can eat as soon as they wake up. They eat only small amounts at one time but eat several times over night while they are awake and active. Remove the leftovers, if any, in the morning. Most gliders do not wake up during the day to eat. Some folks do leave a slice of apple or a small amount of pellet type glider food in the cage in case they do look for a snack.

That's a great idea. It didn't even occur to me that I could ask where the pet store gets them from. I did know they would need to be USDA licensed.

Thanks for the link to your website. Lots to read up on there. Just based on first glance, I'm kind of liking the leadbetter diet, for the simple fact I believe I could get it all locally. I would need to double-check about the brand of calcium carbonate though.

Ignoring the obviously higher iron content of the leadbetter's, I notice there is quite a swing in sugar content between those diets. Is there a "prime" amount I should be looking for, or it's okay as long as it's not TOO high? I have read about some iron issues with the MLB, but I assume that is accounted for if this is in fact a modified version of that.

Unfortunately, there are no specific guidelines for the amounts of nutrients like protein, sugar, fat, fiber, calcium, phosphorus or iron for us to go by.

I evaluated all of the then popular glider staple recipes when I first got my gliders and found that Original HPW has more sugar than any other staple but the lowest amounts of protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, fat and fiber. BML on the other hand was highest in every thing else except sugar - especially protein and iron.

I felt the amount of honey in Original HPW was too high and believed that the recipe did not contain adequate calcium for my gliders. My gliders did not eat BML - and seemed to dislike anything with the gritty Rep-Cal Calcium added. I also fed other diets used at that time but did not feel they were well balanced either.

I wrote my own staple recipes (GliderKids Staples 1 through 4) so that the values of the nutrients in each glider portion was mid-range between the the BML and HPW Values. I included the GliderKids Leadbeaters for owners that were happy with the BML staple but did not want the restrictions on the fruits and vegetables they could feed with it. My GliderKids Wombaroo staple is intended for folks that have gliders that like the Original HPW but want their gliders to have a bit more protein and enough calcium so the ratios of the fruits and vegetables chosen are not a concern.

Baby cereal is be largest contributor of iron in the BML recipe. I removed it from my GliderKids Staple recipes (other than the GK Leadbeaters) several years ago because of the community's concern over the iron content in glider's diets.