Pet Sugar Glider

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 fruit, 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 protein from meat, vegetables, fruit, other foraging foods, and the occasional nut for a treat. Their nightly diet should consist of around 50% protein, 25% fruit and 25% veggies. They are essentially lactose intolerant, 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, anything with added preservatives or chemicals, and fat. 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 because this could lead to vitamin deficiency.

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 or yogurt. 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 in the the areas with half-eaten food. 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 your gliders can easily grasp it in their hands. For instance, you can serve corn kernels shaved off of the cob. Another good idea is to freeze fruits, 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.

MEAT / PROTEIN
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 veggies with a rough surface need 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!
Various flowers such as baby's breath, bamboo, blue spruce, butterfly bush, cacti(with the thorns removed since they could harm your glider), dandelions, forget-me-nots, forsythia, hibiscus, lavender, lilac, money plants, petunias, protea, quince, roses(with the thorns removed), snap dragons, sycamore, willows, and yucca.

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)