I'm looking into perfecting my gliders' current diet. I have 2 sugar gliders. Currently, once a night I feed them 1 cubed portion of the original HPW, 1 cubed portion of a SSG fruit/veggie mix relish that I got from the sweet sugar gliders website, along with 2 servings of fresh fruit, 2 servings of fresh veggies. Typically I mix the fruit/veggie relish with the HPW and they eat it right up, along with their fresh fruits and vegetables. I have recorded what I feed them every night for the past 2 years, so I have a pretty decent record log of their diet. However, I am looking into updating their diet to get the max amount of nutritional value they need. I was currently looking into the LGRS suggie soup mix to replace my SSG fruit/veggie mix. I am unsure how old the SSG relish recipe actually is since the website was first created in 2009, so maybe it's time to update their diet and switch to the LGRS soup mix. Does anyone have an experience or opinions in doing this? They've been doing quite well on the SSG relish, in fact they've gone through 2-3 batches of it. I've had no problems feeding this. Now it's time to whip up some more relish, but I'm considering switching recipes. Any thoughts? Replies would be much appreciated. I was thinking switching to the LGRS soup would make configuring calcium to phosphorous ratios easier, in addition to balancing the correct calcium/phosphorous ratios in their extra servings of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Has anyone had experience using the fruit/veggie relish posted on the sweet sugar gliders site? I currently use the SSG Fruit & Veggie Mix 1 recipe. This is what the recipe calls for:
• 4 cups butternut squash
• 2 cup cantaloupe
• 1 cup orange
• 1 cup frozen blueberries
• 8 cups papaya
• 2 cups mango
• 1 cup frozen snow peas (in the pods)
• 6 cups spaghetti squash
• 6 cups bok choy

They get 1 cube of this SSG relish every night, mixed with their HPW portion. Along with 2 servings of fresh fruit and 2 servings of fresh vegetables every night. I alternate these servings to give them a different fruit and vegetable every night.

Some examples of the vegetables I feed are: collard greens, butternut squash, romaine, kale, peas, carrots, sweet potato, broccoli, green beans, pumpkin, bell peppers, asparagus, etc.

Some examples of the fruits I feed are: papaya, mango, watermelon, cantaloupe, green melon, clementine orange, prickly pear, dragon fruit, kiwi, raspberries, black berries, blueberries, banana, pineapple, peaches, strawberries, pears, etc.

For reference, the LGRS suggie soup recipe consists of:

• 1 cup of canned Mango juice or liquefied fresh Mango
• 1 cup of canned Papaya juice or liquefied fresh Papaya
• 2 cups of Calcium & Vitamin D fortified Orange Juice
• 2 cups of Filtered Honey
• 1/4 cup of Plain, Low-Fat Yogurt (kind with 12g protein per half pint)
• 1 small scrambled egg
• 1 Tablespoon of Trader Darwin's Vanilla Flavored Soy
• 1 Tablespoon of powdered, Dehydrated Fly Pupae
• 2 Tablespoons of powdered Bee Pollen

Currently, this is what a typical meal would look like each night:

You have done a lot of homework, and that is very commendable. Your record keeping is awesome!

I am currently feeding CLO, which is Critter Love Original, formerly known as OHPW. I've used this type of diet, many brands and formulas.

If you are offering HPW (CLO), I recommend going to Critter Love Diet Center and just follow the recipe and serving instructions given. Diets are formulated to be made up and served a specific way to ensure the ratios and nutritional needs. This diet as been among the most studied diets thus far, and had gone through extensive studies in the creation/perfecting of the diet. I use "perfecting" because due to ongoing studying, the creator of this diet, Peggy Brewer as put forth, has formulated specific salad mixes of fruit and vegetables that will balance the meal when following instructions. She as a variety of mixes that can be made up.

When I first started the OHPW diet, it was said that a wide variety of f/v should be offered with meal. I personally struggle trying to follow any of the exact salad recipes, because I often cannot find an ingredient or two in any one of them, also my gliders do not care for berries. I've offered berries for a length of time, but gave up mixing them in salads, but I do add a few in here and there sometimes.

Also, it has been shown by studies that it is better to not blend f/v. I used to serve as relish as well, but the gliders do better extracting what they need, then spit the fiber and stuff they don't. When blending like a relish, this prevents them from doing so.

So, I suggest, unless you want to change diet completely to one or the other diets, to just try to follow the HPW diet as given on website link above. Now SSG or LGRS should be offered along with it.

Thank you for the reply and the links!

I always liked the idea of relishes, primarily because I am able to make such large batches that I can portion out and freeze for later. Those typically last me 3-4 months before I have to make another batch.

Now just to clarify, do the salad mixes need to be served along with fresh fruit/veggies on the side? For example, I currently feed them the HPW, SSG relish, with 2 servings of fruit, and 2 servings of vegetables on the side. Now this salad mix you recommend to me would take the place of the SSG relish I currently feed correct? If I am feeding them this salad mix, do I need to provide extra fruit and vegetables on the side as I usually do? How often do you switch up these salad mixes? I see that there are 4 mixes, but how often should I vary them if I choose to serve them?

Anyone have any suggestions? I'd really appreciate it. I'm running out of HPW, so I'm hoping to get some input about this topic before I go out and buy all the ingredients. Thanks.

The salad mixes are the f/v portion needed along side of the nectar, that's it, nothing else needs to be added. If you wish to serve the pellets (PetPro Happy Glider are a good quality) as a side, that is fine. I serve pellets in forage toys mostly.

You can make large batches of salad and freeze, maybe won't last as long, but mine last 5-6 weeks.

You can switch around as you please. If you wanted to make a super large supply, try making up 2 different salads and alternate them.

I used to break the fruit up between three mixtures, one batch had the melon, one had the apple/pear, and a third with the berries. I alternated them, these lasted several weeks, about 8. I stopped doing that though because mine don't care for berries. Now I throw I some berries from time to time to offer them and see if they'll eat them, but they usually don't.

Awesome. Thank you!