So I'm potentially a soon-to-be glider owner, and I have a few questions about diet. The two I'm going to get are on tpg and according to current owner doing well, so I was planning on leaving them on that since it's one of the accepted "good" diets and they are already used to it.

For experienced glider owners, how did you go about deciding which diet to feed your little guys? What was the deciding factor when you were going through the different currently accepted diets and chose one?

When I first started out diets really stressed me out because of so many conflicting opinions and contradicting information online. I did allllllll the wrong things and it seriously took me a few months to figure out. (I'm sorry Leela n Simon )

Since then, I have learned more and understand them much better I have my own personal opinions on diets. I won't say what diet I'm using because really it's not going to help you decide what will work best for you. So here are some questions that should help you more.

The deciding factor is almost always going to be the gliders, but there are some things that can help narrow it down.

1. order online or buy ingredients locally. If your ok with buying stuff online, tpg, critter love, hpw's are fine. If your not ok with buying stuff online Bml is pretty much your option. That one question alone can narrow it down in a hurry if you don't want to order online or don't have paypal or a credit card.

2 what you can afford. Depending on how many gliders you have some diets can get pretty expensive. Feeding 2 isn't so bad, feeding 9 + it gets a little pricey. Choose a diet you can afford to feed consistently. For Tpg I believe it's 22.00 for a month supply of supplements for 2 gliders. That is on top of all the other ingredients in the recipe, fruits n veg chicken etc.... For me, 11 gliders... it's not very affordable.



3 Realistically, how much time do you have to make the diet. Some diets require a lot of chopping and prep work on top of the making the staple diet, especially if your feeding more than 2 gliders. Read the recipes, see how much prep work is involved and consider your daily routine to see if you think it will fit your lifestyle.

Is it better to spend more time prepping all at once, or spend 10 minutes a day doing it. What I mean by that is Tpg can take some time to make a batch but serving it is probably quicker because you only have to put the tpg on the plate and sprinkle the supplement on it. Other diets lets say Bml, you have less prep all at once, to make the staple and put in freezer it takes about 15 minutes, but you need to put the staple, a fruit and a veg on the plate to serve because the fruit and veg are not in the staple so most people prep the fruit and veg nightly.
So one diet may take longer to make and less time to serve and vice versa.


4 freezer space. Sounds silly I know.... but my freezer isn't much bigger than a 6 pack cooler. I can not fit a huge batch of tpg or the salads for critter love. So for me, freezer space is a factor to be considered. Honestly the only human food in my freezer right now are some pop-cycles So if you have a lot of freezer space big batch diets like tpg and critter love salads that go with the staple are great, if not Bml is more freezer space friendly.

5 what the gliders will eat, and eat consistently. The best diet on the planet will do them no good if they don't eat it. So while the first 4 questions may be considered and factored in to narrow things down, you still may end up changing diets if the gliders don't eat the one you chose.

So yep ultimately it's the gliders that are the biggest deciding factor. Thankfully mine co operated with my freezer space and budget lol

There are other variables I could include as questions but I've found that those 5
keep it simple and straight forward for new owners to consider and really does narrow things down.

I've used Tpg in my response because its what you said you may go with since that is what the gliders are currently eating. It is not one of the diets I personally promote or suggest to new owners. I usually suggest Critter love or Bml.

yes it's a widely used diet and well within the "acceptable glider diets" There are just a couple things I don't like about it. But again it is just my personal opinion from what I have learned and researched over the past few years. If that is what you decide to feed... that's cool We all have to make decisions based on what we know and what works for our gliders, what works for my gliders may not work for yours. I hope these questions help and congrats on your new babies

I did initially consider BML, but decided against it because of various concerns I had read about it. The tpg vitamins are a bit pricey, especially if you've got a lot of gliders, but these two are neutered males so I'm in no danger of them multiplying, haha, at least not without me purposefully going out and getting more. The boys are picky about their protein as well and will only eat chicken and insects, so a diet that would be unbalanced if chicken was the protein source is out. (I'm still going to offer them a bit of egg now and then. Never give up!) I think I'll stick with tpg for now, they like it and it fits my lifestyle (and in my freezer).

We ended up on OHPW with fruits and veggies and some happy glider cereal on the side.
They love the taste of it, we tried it along side instant powder.
the cost for a large colony is more economical then our first pick the instant powders. Although with only 2, instant is easy to make and not to costly.
I would go with critterlove complete if I used an instant mix.
The fruits and veggies do take up a lot of freezer space for a large colony with a large batch made. So we had to invest in a $160 small stand alone freezer. so yes, the gliders have their own personal freezer.

We have gotten a good bill of health from vet. they are all under the max weight listed by purdue university vet teaching hospital, 160 grams males and 130 grams female.