Sugar Gliders are small nocturnal marsupials from Australia and New Guinea. The females carry their young in a pouch. Adults weigh 4-6 ounces and measure about 12" from nose to tail. At least half of this length is tail.
Sugar Gliders have a thin membrane that stretches from their wrists to their ankles called the Patagium that allows them to glide from branch to branch, they use their tails as a rudder while they travel and gather insects in flight. They can glide up to 150 feet!
Sugar gliders make wonderful pets, that develop strong bonds with their owners, but they are exotics and as such demand the care, attention, diet and expenses associated with all exotics. They are communal animals that need and crave attention from both their owners and other sugar gliders, how well your glider bonds to you will depend on the time you spend together, a minimum of 2 hours a day is recommended but more is better.
Sugar gliders can live up to 15 years with proper care and so are not a short-term commitment.
Cage Requirements
Sugar gliders require a large cage that allows them to climb and jump, they are very active creatures and a minimum of 4’ x 2’x 2’ should be allowed for a pair. In our opinion, indoor aviaries are the best solution to housing them safely. The bar spacing must be no greater than 1” x ½” to ensure that your gliders do not escape and the cage must be kept away from drafts and radiators to prevent them from catching colds. The best temperature range for them is 18-30 C.
Sugar gliders also need a nest box or pouch to sleep in during the day and protect them from the sun. This is important since prolonged exposure to sunlight can kill a sugar glider. If you mount the nest box up high in the cage, make sure there is room for them to climb on top of it. It is possible for them to tear their thin gliding membrane by rubbing their elbows on the roof, we prefer to hang fleece pouches in the cage and place a nest box on the floor for our expectant mothers to use. Your glider will also require a wheel to exercise… standard wheels designed for rodents, are not suitable for gliders, they have been known to cause horrific injuries. The specially designed Wodent Wheel or Stealth wheel are the only safe options. Gliders love playing with feathers, and many of the small rattles and hard teething toys designed for babies, bird toys and ropes will also be appreciated along with branches for them to climb and chew… Be careful which branches you choose. Toxic branches include almond, apricot, black walnut, cherry, and peach, we use apple in our cages.
Nutritional Requirements
Gliders require a 75% fruit/vegetable and 25% protein diet along with calcium and vitamin suppliments. Some of the fruits and vegtables that our gliders enjoy are: Apples, apricots, bananas, berries, carrots, sweetcorn, figs, grapes, melons, mango, papaya, pears, pure apple juice, raisins, strawberries, sharon fruits and sweet potatoes. The protein sources we use are: Eggs… boiled or scrambled, skinless chicken, Iams 1+ dried cat biscuits, grated cheese and Summer Fruits Bio Pots yoghurt. They are also given a daily staple of Insectivore Fayre and occasional treats of insects such as mealworms and locust, pasta, dried fruit, acacia gum and nectar drinks such as Gliderade.
Sugar Gliders can be quite fussy about what they eat and will quite often refuse to eat one week what was their favourite foods the previous week. Your glider also needs fresh water available from a dripper bottle at all times. When you feed your glider is up to you, but we suggest you offer the bulk of their food i.e the fruit and protein in the evening, removing it in the morning so that it doesn’t attract flies, but leaving the staple food available in the cage constantly in case your glider wakes for a snack!
All foods need to have an overall calcium/phosphorous ratio of 2:1.
Failing to provide the correct diet can result in your glider suffering from many diseases, among the worst, hind leg paralysis. Caused by insufficient calcium in the diet, if left untreated this can be fatal to gliders.
The Bonding Process
How easy the bonding process is will be dependant on the age of your glider. It will be much harder to earn the trust of an older glider that has been moved from home to home or a shop bought glider that hasn’t been handled.
Begin by giving your glider time to acclimatise. He has just had everything familiar to him taken away, so leave him to adjust to the new sounds and scents for a few days (you can speed up this process slightly by carrying a small fleece blanket close to your skin prior to collecting your glider and popping it into his pouch so that he associates your scent with the safety of his pouch!)
After a week or so, start carrying him around in a bonding pouch, talk quietly to him and stroke him gently through the pouch, try offering licky treats on your finger so that he associates your hands with nice things.
How you proceed from here depends on whether you have bought a glider that is used to being handled or not… If your glider is happy to climb onto you and play, then your bonding will be much easier, if however you have a glider that hasn’t been handled, then the real bonding process starts here!!
A small child’s pop up tent is the safest place to get to know your glider, simply take him, still in his pouch into the tent along with some toys and treats (and a book for you may be useful!) allow him to explore and climb over you without trying to pick him up… offer treats and see if he is willing to chase a feather, the more you can interact with him the better, but don’t try to force him to come to you! – Our first pair of gliders were shop bought, we spent almost 5 weeks sat in a tent every night, reading to gliders that seemed to see us as nothing more than a convenient place to pee! But eventually, just as we were starting to despair, they began to take treats from us, then came the feather chasing and finally…. the moment they ran to us when startled by a noise outside!! They will never be as ‘tame’ as our home bred gliders, but that’s fine with us.
Once you have their trust, you can try letting them play in a ‘glider proofed’ room. Gliders manage to find every little nook and cranny, so be sure to block even the tiniest of openings, stereo speakers seem to be a favourite hiding place, but they will curl up anywhere snug and dark and finding them is not the easiest of tasks!
Tuck away all wires and cover any unused plug sockets. Anything they may chew, plants etc. needs to be removed and all water needs to be covered… holes in fish tank hoods need to be blocked and toilet seats kept down!!
Once your certain the room is safe, your glider will have hours of fun exploring, climbing the curtains and gliding down again and if you’re really lucky, you’ll soon encounter the joys of ‘face hugs’!!
