Hey! My name is Ashley and I am a proud owner of two sugar gliders. I have a joey named Harold (LOL! my dad named him!:D) and a suggie girl named Olivia who is about a year and a half. I want to make sure I am giving them the correct foods.

what i typically feed them in is a plastic kids plate divided into three sections from Target.
www.target.com/p/7-3-plastic-divided-kids-plate-pink-pillowfort-153/-/A-53195226

For protein I feed them:
boiled chicken
boiled steak
boiled turkey
scrambled or boiled egg
and if there is a very rare time where i run out of these options, i will give them chicken baby food I don't typically like to give them meat flavored baby foods due to the amounts of salt etc. in them. they also smell pretty bad! I would not even give it to a human!

For veggies I feed them:
squash
broccoli
sweet potato
peas
carrots
green beans
and other sugar glider safe vegetables.

For fruits I feed:
Apples
strawberries
pineapple
blackberries
and again, other safe suggie foods. I also sometimes like to put fruit in the oven to make dried fruits.

Along with their protein, fruits and veggies I give a half ice cube per glider of instant HPW from Exotic Nutrition. I also stay away from pellets as I heard they harm gliders. Is this true?

For treats I give them:
yogurt drops
live mealworms
superworms
calcium worms
or whatever i'm snacking on that's safe for them.

Thanks for reading! I hope you guys find time to reply and leave some suggestions if you have any. Feel free to leave some things your fur babies love!

Hi Ashley

You're doing ok, actually better than most new owners, and it looks like you did some research. There are a couple things I'd recommend though.

No steak, even though it's boiled it's still a meat that is high in fat. There are some folks that will feed it as a very rare treat but not as a part of their regular daily or weekly diet plan.

The other protein, fruits n veg all look fine.

The exotic nutrition on the other hand is not that great. There are few hpw diets out there made by different companies and it can get confusing very fast. The only thing from exotic nutrition i would buy is their cages. The food and snacks are crap.

Critter Love hpw diets are the most widely used of the hpw's, it includes protein, vitamins and minerals in the staple, so you wouldn't feed any extra protein like you are now. There are recipes for salads that are fed along with the staple. All the information for the diets are on the website and you can order a sample of the diet to give it a try and see how they like it. https://www.critterlove.com/

The list of food your currently feeding is ok for a short term diet or if you run out of staple and do a junk food night. But for long term they should be on a more consistent balanced diet that provides calcium, vitamins and minerals gliders need to maintain a long healthy life.


Pellet food is a hot topic usually some promote them in addition to their staple and fruit and veg, but not as their main meal by themselves.

Others, don't like them at all.

Personally I don't feed them, because I feel there is to much of a risk for aflatoxins if the pellets aren't stored properly. But I don't have an issue with anyone that does use them in addition to their balanced diet

If you are going to use pellets in addition to their normal food use a good quality pellet, most recommend Petpro pellets, I believe they are the same pellet Critter love sells on their site.

I hope this helps some and good job so far

Hey Leela! Thank you for replying! Yes, I did do a bit of research

For steak, I always thought the same as you stated in the recommendations. It does end up on their plate. But not too often. I will definitely take a look at those salad recipes and the Critter Love hpw diet.

Thank you for recommending these things! It helped a lot and I will be able to put them on a balanced diet.