Food
SugarGliders eat a varied diet in the wild and feed through out their own teritory. In Australia although common along the eastern coast they are rarely seen. Their natural diet consists of insects, native fruits, flowers and sap.
Gliders are "sap suckers" by nature and cannot be sustained by dry foods and off-the-shelf food pellets that are designed for other small animals such as hamsters. Sap suckers chew their food to extract the liquids and then most often spit out the remains. A simple way to look at it is that they need squishy, wet, naturally sweet and quickly perishable foods.
Diets will often include proteins from meats, vegetables, fruits and other foraging foods, and the occasional nut for a treat. Their nightly diet should consist of around 50% protein, 25% fruits and 25% veggies. They are essentially lactose intolerant and cannot digest milk, but still need calcium. A lot of owners will add calcium to their food. I have never done that and have managed to keep healthy gliders by feeding a healthy diet. To that end, a diet should be low in salt, low in anything with added preservatives or chemicals. It is wise to use natural whole foods. Packaged baby food can be a good source if you would like it already prepared, otherwise, collecting fruits and vegetables at your neighborhood grocery or natural grocery store will become a weekly ceremony. It is also wise to give them a varied selection of food at every feeding. Do not always give them their favorites or too much of one thing.
I feed my animals every night just after they wake up and just before I go to bed. This allows me to spend a little time with them and hand feed them a few treats such as pecans. I suggest removing all food in the morning after they go to sleep. It is bad for them to nibble on wet foods after they are a day old, and gliders are notorious for littering their areas with half-eaten food waste. I make sure to remove all the bits and pieces every morning so they do not rot and smell and so they wont end up eating something rotten.
A good practice for feeding is to prepare all food so that it is in small size chunks so they can easily grasp in their hands. For instance, serve corn kernals shaved off of the cob. Another good idea is to freeze fruits and veggies and even completely prepared meals. You can defrost the meal during the day in the fridge or you can simply put the frozen meal or items in the cage before bed and they will thaw out during the night as the glider is active and feeding.
The following list contains foods that my animals eat. There is also some suggestions on what not to feed them. I try to vary the nightly feeding with random items that happen to be in the fridge as well as any leftovers from dinner.
MEATS / PROTEINS
- Meal Worm
- shrimp
- brisket
- beef / hamburger (drain all fat)
- chicken
- ham (use as a treat, high in salt)
- cooked egg (any form w/out butter)
- tofu chunks
FRUITS AND VEGGIES
- grapes halved
- tomatoes halved
- raw corn kernels, sliced loose (small amounts)
- cooked potato chunks
- green bean
- carrot
- cantaloupe / melon
- apple
- Kale
- Blueberries
- Strawberries (they are ok for them, however, be careful with cleaning them. They have a
very hard surface to clean. Any fruit or vegies with a rough surface needs to be
cleaned very well before feeding them to prevent the suggies from getting sick.)
- and so forth, whatever your pet likes and whatever is in the fridge
OTHER
- Yogurt (vanilla or sweetened with honey)
- Soy Yogurt with cultures added after pasturizing
- Clean Water!
Suggestions on What NOT to feed Sugar Gliders
- Chocolate (could kill them like it does to canines)
- Eggs with butter (use a non-stick pan or cook in microwave to make eggs)
- butter (to hard on their digestive systems to digest)
- processed sugar (ie: marshmallows)
- Anything high in Salt (ie:nuts with salt, best to serve non-salted ones)
- Baby food with spices or onion powder (the best is the plain meat or plain vegies)
- Bread (it is a filler, may cause them not to eat the good stuff. Some people say it
causes problems for them in the digestive tract also)
See Also
Search for Food on all of Sugarglider.com.
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