Natural Diet


The following information was compiled from .....

Different Species of Gliders have particular adaptations associated with the physiology of their digestives systems relating to their different diets,

A Sugar Gliders diet include:

Live Foods
Spiders, Moths, Insects, Beetles, Small Birds and their eggs, Small Mammals.

Honeydew
A white, carbohydrate rich sticky sustance that is secreted by aphids and some scale insects found on Eucalypt leaves.

Lerps
Small bugs that live on gum leaves

Manna
A sweet tasting, honeydew like liquid secreted by sap-sucking insects, that when dried forms manna;


Fungi

Eucalyptas Sap
This is obtained by stripping of the bark.

Pollen
The powdery substance found on a flower's stamen.

Nectar A sugar rich liquid produce by flowers. Favourite nectar rich flowers of the Sugar Glider are Bottlebrush, Grevellia, Flowering Gum, Banksia, and Grass Tree(flowering stem).

Acacia (Wattle) Gum
The Gum is produced in response to damage or wound to the Acacia tree. Sugar Gliders chew the trunk of the Acacia tree to stimulate the flow of its gum, which they then consume. Wattle Gum is not easily digested because of its high Tannin properties. But, because Sugar Gliders consume a great deal of wattle gum they have an enlarged ceacum, larger than other, similar feeding species. The enlarged ceacum helps to faciliatate microbial fermentation of these types of foods.

Acacia (Wattle) Seeds

The digestive tract of the sugar glider is shown in the picture below.



  Last Edited March 16, 2008



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