I am only a kid now so this hypothetical question might not become possible for a few years; but, I was wondering what the pros and cons of becoming a breeder...

Start by reading this ENTIRE WEB SITE

http://www.suzsugargliders.com/breedingsugargliders.htm

There is much you need to know about gliders in general.

You need to be prepared to purchase gliders with lineage (family tree) so that you can very carefully check to make sure gliders you pair for breeding do not have any common ancestors within 3 or more generations. Gliders with lineage can be very pricey especially if you are breeding for specific color traits.

Care of a rejected joey is a 24/7 job with round the clock feedings every few hours if the joey is to survive.

You will need room for MANY CAGES - one breeding pair per cage.

Finding good homes may not be as easy as you would expect. If you keep the joeys there is the additional cost of neutering all male joeys before they are 4 months OOP - or housing them away from all female gliders because they will mate with their mothers or sisters if kept in a family cage.

You will also need cages for female joeys past 4 months of age because they cannot be housed with their father or brothers. They should not be paired with a mate until they are at least 11 or 12 months OOP to prevent breeding too young.

I know your not on Facebook, but if you decide to join there is a fantastic group of breeders who have a non drama group to discuss breeding, answer questions and teach you how to breed responsibly. I've had gliders for 2 years now and I still don't know the ins and outs of breeding. I'm learning, but some of is it very complicated. I have recently made the decision to breed for myself, I'm not getting into breeding full time or for selling. I have an intact male with lineage and his potential mate is coming in a few weeks.

It was not a decision made lightly, but it's going to be the only opportunity I have to experience responsible breeding. My other gliders are non lineaged, rescues and rehomed gliders they should not be bred and I will not breed any of them.

To answer your original question there is A LOT to consider as Candy mentioned.

Will you breed non lineaged gliders? if yes, the community will not be very accepting of you it is frowned upon and they will ostracize you in the blink of an eye.

If you breed and sell you will need licensing here in fla with usda and the fish and wild life.

There are state requirements for cages in fla, they are unrealistic but it is the law. If you get licensing they are supposed to do an inspection before granting it.


will you sell or keep them

if you sell will you ship them

are you financially able to provide cages, neutering, extra set ups

Know your area, meaning are there a lot of breeders in fla and yes there are loads of them. Are there a lot of gliders in your area , rehomes, surrenders, abandoned ... yes Fla is severely over saturated with gliders that need homes.

what are you breeding for? colors, to extend your own colony, personality, furthering a lineage line... some breeders breed for specific things, some just breed to breed, some breed to make money, some lose money on breeding....

will you get a proven breeding pair, or a pair that have never bred before. The risk factor is about 80% for losing first set of joeys for new parents. Other factors can make that percentage go up even higher.

will you emotionally be able to handle joey losses, cannibalism, rejected joeys?

There are many more questions you will need to ask your self before making this decision. The best place I found was the breeding 101 group. There are long time breeders in there that will give you even more questions to ask yourself to help you decide if breeding is really for you. They will also share their personal experiences with you. Knowing your state laws is another major thing when considering breeding and selling. https://www.facebook.com/groups/breeding101/

Yeah, the Florida Statues state sugar gliders must be housed in a 4 foot by 4 foot by 4 foot cage for TWO Gliders. I think the legislation assumed that gliders would be kept outdoors in such an enclosure.

I wrote Florida Fish and Wild Life years ago and explained that this cage size requirement was unrealistic for pet gliders for a number of reasons including:

There are no commercially made cages that come close to this size.

Such a cage would be unmanageable for CLEANING because it could not be moved outdoors for a soap and water scrub down and hose rinse - not many home doorways are 4 feet wide.

No Human has arms long enough to reach into a cage that large for cleaning so it would by necessity need to be a walk in cage.

Keeping sugar gliders outdoors in Florida would expose them to our weather extremes - heat and rain and also make them targets for predators like snakes.

They never bothered to respond to my letter.

There are a lot of Florida laws on the books that are not worth the paper they are printed on - like the fact that it is illegal to purchase fireworks except for the specific use of scaring birds away from crops or fish farms. Funny how many "farmers" we have with bird problems in July each year. Folks do not think twice about LYING by signing the forms at the road side Fireworks store.

No one out there including the USDA License inspectors is enforcing the cage size law in Florida.

Oh I agree, unrealistic and not enforced, even when complaint calls are made.

But we should still know what our local, state and federal laws are regarding gliders whether your getting into breeding or not.

What states are legal and what aren't, rehome fee's are illegal in fla unless your licensed, you can legally sell a cage for what ever price you want and include a free glider but you can NOT charge a rehome fee.... That last one is sort of a loop hole but one I rarely see being used thank god. In Georgia you can't sell a glider without paper work from the breeder ( I think ) there are a lot of things you need to be aware of when buying, selling, breeding and owning gliders...

I also just learned, and I hope I state this correctly... If you have 3 female gliders even if they are pet only, you are legally supposed to have the usda breeders license because you CAN potentially breed those 3 females.

I think most of us are unintentionally breaking the usda law on this one lol I have 4 females that are and always will be pet only. But some people aren't ethical nor responsible breeders and could and would breed them regardless. This is even if you have neutered males and no intact males, the potential is still there.

Fla laws will be being discussed at the fla gathering in September

Thank you guys so much! Y'all are so smart. When it comes to suggies I look up to you two <3

I do have fb I just can't access it XD

MUAH