Ok hello everyone! I'm a soon to be sugar glider mom and I'm looking for some advice. I have decided to use the BML diet and I've read that you can only use the listed fruits and veggies because they are low in calcium which balances out the high amount of calcium in the staple. I was just curious if I am able to go through and use different fruits and veggies that have similar Ca:Ph ratios to the ones listed in the diet?

The creator of the Bml does not advise doing that. The Bml diet test results are based on the specific ingredients of the entire diet including the fruits and veg.

The lower calcium level is not the only reason those fruits n veg are used for bml, they also have specific vitamins and minerals that are factored in to balancing the diet. Other fruits and veg WILL have different levels of those vitamins and minerals there by throwing the balance off.

Why are you wanting to substitute them ? for variety?

Ok, that makes sense. Ya I was just thinking variety.

I've been feeding bml for a while now. Once upon a time when I didn't know any better I gave them different fruits n veg , and modified things to get them to eat it etc... I also wanted to give them variety.

What I learned is this, variety isn't as important as a consistent balanced diet. Even when I was offering a veryyyyyyyyy wide range of fruits n veg for variety, I always came back to the fruits and veg listed for bml because that is what my gliders eat the best. They showed me they really don't require variety and don't eat variety as well. I could seriously give my glider bml, watermelon, and mixed veg every day for 2 weeks and they would eat it just fine.

However, I also learned that I can give variety by offering the allowed fruits and veg in different ways. Example menu for my 4 cages ...

Sund Bml, mixed veg, watermelon
Mon Bml, peas, grapes
Tues Bml, corn, cherries
Weds Bml, carrots, apples
Thurs Bml, mixed veg, cantaloupe
Frid Bml, peas and carrots, honeydew
Sat Bml, green beans and peas, blueberries

Just alternate what your allowed to use and mix it up. This way they are getting variety and the diet remains balanced. I don't do this all the time, I usually give watermelon a 3 or 4 nights a week and mixed veg a lot and they pick out what they want sometimes its more peas some times its more beans etc...

This diet takes all the guess work out of it for you, it's really stupid simple if you follow the recipe exactly and follow feeding instructions

Thank you so much! You have been most helpful :) What about as far as treat? Am I able to give them a little something different every now and again?

yw yes you can lots of people offer fruit or veg during the day for treats rather than sugary treats. There are some fruits my gliders love that aren't on the bml list like rambutan and jack fruit these can only be found seasonally so when I see them they get that for treats during the day but not to often

Awesome, that's what I like to hear! How often would you say that you offer them?