hi all after seeing other posts get critiqued on diets I figured I should put mine up to keep my boys healthy.
my mix I freeze:
2 cups water
1.5 cups regular honey
3 scrambled eggs
1/4 cup zoo pro protein (exotic nutrition) reads the same as wombaroo powder anyway
1 tablespoon bee pollen

fruits
blueberries rasberries blackberries- going to remove these don't get touched
apples-they love them
cantaloupe -love it
kiwi - cant tell if eaten or just mashed up
peaches- they will eat sometimes


veggies:they eat all of the following
collared greens
green beans
cucumber
tomato

others ill add to fill in any gaps in the bowl(all baby food is stage 1)
baby food peas
baby food sweat potato
either hard boiled egg or boiled chicken (one of these two every night)
babyfood mix veggies
tried babyfood squash and never touched for the week trial

treats (this is the hardest believe it or not)quantities are not what I offer its just all they take before losing interest

yogurt drops Flake will have 1-2 a day Niko wont touch them

live mealworms Flake will have 2-3 a day Niko will not take them from me or plate, may take one from Flake

tried any and all dried fruits....no go for both of them

unsalted sunflower seeds- wont take as a treat but one or both of them eat the hidden ones in the cage since I have shells in the pan in the morning

marshmallow -Niko will eat until he explodes , Flake may or may not take one from Niko but not from me or a plate




as for an update I'm coming up on the month mark.
as of yesterday I stopped using the tent since its too hot(for me) and they really don't leave me or the felt I put out on the bed. Niko may jump off but immediately will run back up my leg scared to death it seems. Mostly they will just sit on my shoulder while I'm watching tv or sit in the pocket of my sweatshirt(not Shure how they will react when I wash this nasty pee filled thing haha.


any advise is appreciated

My diet is almost identical except I use High Protein Wombaroo Supplement Powder instead of the zoo pro. I give a variety of fruits and vegetables but mine don't like the berries.

As far as the baby food, I only give chicken occasionally. I tried baby fruits and veggies but they wouldn't eat them. I'm also wondering if, because they are pureed, they are forced to eat the fiber that they would normally spit out. Not sure about that because they wouldn't even try it. When they eat the baby chicken they spit out little half moon pieces after sucking the juice out.

of course they love boiled or scrambled egg and chicken leg on occasion!

They are picky about their treats. Most of them like almond slivers, pine nuts, plain cheerios, yogurt drops and mealworms, live and dried. They don't like dried fruits, marshmallows or any treat from Exotic Nutrition

To be honest, with the high protein supplement (HPS) mixture (with: water, honey, eggs, & bee pollen), regardless of the brand; you don't really need to add another protein source nightly. If you want to use the boiled chicken or hard-boiled egg, I would skip your protein supplement mix occasionally for that. Maybe offer the alternate protein source once a week, alternating between the chicken and egg.

I currently feed HPW Original recipe (which has been renamed Critter Love Original-using Wombaroo brand HPS). I give them non-fat vanilla yogurt mixed with honey about once a week instead of their nectar mix (HPW formula).

thanks for the replies
if the mix is enough I will totally cut out the chicken since I don't care for making or shredding it, and ill just do eggs as a treat now and then.

I didn't think of the fibers in baby foods, ill have to look into that some more, maybe that's also why it was mentioned to me that if I do use them to only use stage 1 foods

morning

Hpw diets aren't my strong suite so I can't contribute much about that, but I do have other information on specific foods.

Dark leafy greens, such as collard greens, radish greens, spinach etc... all are very high in oxalates which is very hard on internal organs kidneys and livers especially. They also usually have a very high iron level as well, also hard on the kidneys and livers.

For these reasons I would only suggest feeding them in moderation every once in a while for a treat.

tomatoes are very acidic, and can cause runny poo any citrus/high acid foods should be fed in moderation ( oranges, grapefruit pineapple, tomatoes, etc) these foods are also usually very high in vit c, which makes the body utilize iron the most efficiently. So if you reduce the amount of iron and offer foods rich in vit c even though they are getting less iron, the iron they are getting is being utilized at a much higher rate, again hard on the internal organs.

baby food fruits n veg aren't necessary, gliders have 42 teeth, designed for compression. They are more than capable of juicing their own foods, that is how they eat.

Think of a counter top juicer, you put fruit n veg in, it compresses it and spits out pulp, and keeps the juice. Thats exactly how gliders eat, the teeth compress all the juices out and they spit out the insoluble fiber that they can't digest.

The only baby food suggested to feed gliders is chicken babyfood for Bml. And even feeding that they will spit out particles that they have sucked all the juices from.

Fresh or frozen fruits n veg is really the way to go. They will eat the parts they normally eat, and leave what they can't digest behind.

The complications that arise from giving them blended foods with insoluble fiber are very big. One of the hardest things to watch is a glider with intestinal blockage or compaction because of indigestible food the glider has eaten. It's a helpless feeling, and there isn't a lot you can do to relieve the glider. Their cloaca's swell, can become infected, their tummies can bloat, they can't pee or poop they become dehydrated, when a glider is dehydrated they're more susceptible to seizures. It's not pleasant to sit and watch an owner trying to comfort their baby praying the glider will poo or pee even just a little bit to give the glider some relief, many gliders don't recover from it.

I am not trying to scare you, I don't believe in scare tactics, but I am speaking from experience and can show you pics of gliders that have suffered this unnecessary fate.

Seeds and Nuts. Are also indigestible for gliders. Back to the teeth, the teeth are not designed to grind, they are designed to compress. Nuts and seeds do not break down enough by compression, they also don't break down from saliva which means they also cause intestinal blockages and compaction, probably at a faster rate than insoluble fiber from fruits n veg.

If you would like some documented pictures that show what I'm talking about I'd be happy to share them, but they are graphic and really quite sad.

This is not an uncommon issue.

no thank you on any bad images...

but thanks for the information on some of the foods, the only reason I ever picked the collared greens was I read they are high in calcium.
tomatoes I eat like apples,and a lot of them , ill reduce giving them my leftovers.

im asking all this (besides to keep them healthy) im going to a really nice farmers market this weekend and want to stock up on proper items for these guys

this may be a dumb question but if I give veggies such as sweet potato or squash or any veggie we would cook to eat... do I cook it for them? or just peal and slice?

I fell into the same thing when I first started with gliders, I looked at the calcium/phosphorous levels of foods because that is what is so often stressed in the community and on forums.

But we also need to look at the other factors, nutritional values, what those vitamins and minerals affect, how the body utilizes them and what the down side is.

Try to look at everything, and research what it all means and does. I'm certainly not a dietitian and I don't understand all of it or know what the domino affect from say vit D will be to the over all diet... But I am a cook, and have some food knowledge and I understand that one vitamin or mineral can affect many things down the chain.

When I say try to look at everything I don't mean literally every food...Look at the downside not just the benefits.

You don't have to know each and every food or vit and mineral, but it sounds like your interested enough that you might look at the foods your feeding and do some digging for yourself for instance if you look up foods high in oxalates like the greens you will see that these foods contribute to kidney stones... People with kidney stones are advised to avoid foods high in oxalates.

Raw or Cooked isn't a dumb question.

Most foods for gliders are fed raw, there are two exceptions.

Sweet potatoes should be cooked because they have an enzyme that is a protein inhibitor in the raw form, that prevents the body from utilizing protein properly. That isn't just for gliders, that stands for humans as well. Once cooked the enzyme is neutralized. You can bake or boil or microwave them no seasonings or oils butters etc... ontop of neutralizing the enzyme cooking also adds some much needed moisture to sweetpotatoes, in the raw form they are very very dry. Moisture content in food for gliders is important to keep their digestive tracks flowing and their hydration levels up.

On a side note about sweetpotatoes some will disagree with me, you may see some folks feed them raw and believe they are just fine. Personally, I don't eat them raw so I don't feed them raw and MY research is what I base my decisions on, not other peoples opinions who aren't versed in nutritional facts.

Lima beans in the raw form are toxic and have high levels of cyanide in the raw state. Once cooked the cyanide is released rendering them safe to ingest. Again, not just for gliders but for humans as well. They are so toxic you will not ever likely see lima beans in the raw state unless you grow them yourself. I'm 46 yrs old and have never seen a lima bean in the raw form and I had some pretty large gardens in my time.

Lima beans that are frozen, are fine. They have gone under a process called blanching before freezing, boiled for 3 min then shocked in cold water for 3 min. then freeze.

Leela, does that mean I should not be giving my babies pine nuts and almond slivers?

That's up to you. Personally, I used to feed pinenuts all the time but once I learned about the nuts and seeds, I stopped giving them. Now that I have seen first hand what intestinal blockages and or compaction can do... I have no regrets for not feeding them as treats. All of my babies loved them, but there are other safer treats they love as well and that's what they get.

The other issue with nuts and seeds are the fat content, they are usually high in fat which is hard on the liver and kidneys. Feeding treats with high fat content ( including avocado ) leaves fatty deposits on the organs, that has medically been proven via necropsies.

Bummer! I just came back from WalMart with almond slivers and pine nuts!

you say "regular" honey.
On the critterlove website they highly recommend RAW honey. if you look at the website, raw honey is very good for people and gliders, while pasteurized honey is basically sugar.
I get honey locally that is raw.

I offer pine nuts as treats on occasion, so if you don't offer regularly, it should be okay now and then.