Hi!

Getting straight to the point, my neighbor moved to California and had somebody arranged to take his gliders but they canceled last minute. He knows I own small animals (guinea pigs and hamsters respectively) and trusted me with his 5 sugar gliders. The whole thing was very, very last minute and I didn't get his contact information. I've been doing my share of frantic googling and I just cannot figure out their diets. I understand that they need a large variety of fruit, protein, calcium, supplements etc but it feels like there's no clear information on what I need to feed them, how often, and when. There's smoothies, I've seen things like kibble and special vitamins, and then also sugar water? it's very overwhelming I just have no idea what to do.

If anybody could provide a schedule/plan on what I need to feed them how much and how often it would be so appreciated while I figure the rest of this out.

Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy.
-Izzy

Welcome to the world. :)

First and foremost, get them eating anything. That is clear. Gliders are fussy eaters, meaning that they will go for the sweet yummy always over the plain veggies and whatnot. The concept of the "smoothies" and most any nectar is not much different than how you might feed a baby in that the paste ends up tasting good enough to eat and you hide all the veggies within.

I fed mine a lot of ground turkey and mixed frozen veggies as a staple. The fruits are to be fed less and arent that important. You wont need to purchase sugar glider specific boxed/prepared foods but it looks like many such things are popping up now days.

www.sugarglider.com/gliderpedia/index.asp?KazkosDiet

It is fun to watch them eat shrimp for the first time.

in your case I would do this.
1. feed them at night when they wake up, ONCE a day, about 7 to 9pm at night
2. go to critterlove.com and make up one of their salads (fruits and veggies) freeze it. apples, pears, papaya, peas, green beans, berries, veggie mix, butternut squash (I buy butternut frozen not fresh.) kale.
3. protein - for now you could give them a hard boiled egg or boiled chicken
plain. for the long term you need to either go with OHPW diet or BML is popular.
I think BML you can get stuff at the store. OHPW I order wombaroo and have to
get raw honey and bee pollen. or you can order ohpw from critterlove.

www.sugarglider.info/category/diet/

this website has lots of diet info and instructions and videos.

also go to store and get dried mealworms, petstore or walmart in bird section.
you can get live mealworms at petsmart/petstore. glider love these and will
get some fat and protein from them. I buy the kaytee brand usually.

I have 6 gliders and have bought an extra freezer put in the garage for all
the glider stuff I freeze plus ice cream!