What exactly do you feed the little buggers? Sugar gliders are omnivores. They can eat a wide variety
of stuff including: fruits, vegetables, protein, and breads and cereals. Their diet should consist of 20% - 30% fruits (some
sources say only 5%), 40% vegetables (they tend not to like bananas and citrus fruits can cause diarrhea, canned fruits have
too much sugar, frozen vegetables are ok), 25% to 50% protein (such as monkey chow, tofu, cooked turkey or chicken, hardboiled
eggs, baby chicks or mice, and insects), and 15% breads and cereals (not too sugary or high in fat). Gliders are high-energy
creatures and need lots of carbohydrates which breads and cereals can provide. You can occasionally give them them small pieces
of wheat bread, shredded wheat squares (the kind with the raisin in the middle) or other HEALTHY cereals. Try experimenting
with new foods, and make sure to rotate favorites to keep gliders from losing interest.
In the wild, insects are a regular part of a sugar glider's diet. They really enjoy eating live insects
like crickets and mealworms. However, I prefer crickets over mealworms because they are lower in fat, higher in protein, and
have a better calcium/phosphorus ratio. You could also offer a variety of other insects (just make sure they could not have
been exposed to pesticides.) If you would rather not deal with live insects, Exotics Central sells freeze-dried insects.
There are also a few sugar glider formulations available such as Insectivore Fare (ZooFare) available
from Exotics Central which should be given in addition to fruits & vegetables and leadbeaters mix (it is used by zoos
for feeding insectivores.) The second is Zupreem Omnivore Diet. It is a dry pelleted food. The pellets are large (1/2" x 1")
so it is best to break them up into smaller pieces before serving. This is available from Exotics Central. It is made by Zupreem especially for omnivores. You would feed this diet in addition to the variety of
foods described above. Another dry food that can be given is monkey chow. It can also be purchased from Exotics Central. There is also a nectar supplement called Gliderade which simulates the nectar and sap that is part of
a sugar glider's natural diet. It is available from Exotics Central Gliderade is mixed with water and served in a dish. It is blueberry flavored and sweet and not many gliders
will refuse it.
2 oz. Zoofare Insectivore Diet, Omnivore Diet, 1 tbsp Leadbeater's Mix
or 1 Monkey Biscuit
1/4 cup fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables per glider
1 tsp cooked unseasoned chicken or boiled
1/4 tsp Gliderade mixed with 1 tsp water daily
Calcium supplement and Glider Booster once a week
crickets & mealworms
Keep Omnivore & water available at all times. Feed Zoofare at night, it gets stale if you leave
it out too long. Between 6 to 8 crickets and 5 to 7 mealworms can be fed each night. Only a tiny pinch of a calcium supplement
and vitamins should be given once a week. This diet is good for beginners and people who want to spend more time playing with
their gliders than trying to figure out what to feed them.
|What some people feed them:|
6 pellets monkey biscuits (broken up)
1 inch cubes of cooked potato,
sweet potato, or squash
Two or three kinds of fresh fruit and vegetables
About 2 tbsp. mixed frozen vegetables (they
go for this first)
a few pieces of lettuce or other greens (something called organic spring mix)
3 tsp. fruit juice
+ 1/8 tsp. honey + 1 tsp. yogurt + 2 tsp. babyfood (varying kinds) + enough mixed baby cereal to thicken it (measures are
approximate.) I give this mixture every other day, alternating with Gliderade.
1/2 tsp. Gliderade powder mixed with 1
tbsp. water served in a little dish every other day.
2 tsp. Modified Leadbeater's mix
3 to 5 Gut-loaded crickets and 4 to 6 mealworms each
1 tbsp cooked chicken, turkey, fish, tofu
or other protein.
Occasionally I will give them pieces of melon and other fruits and vegetables when available, honey
(with supplement mixed in), waxworms, cooked chicken, and sometimes a little sample of what ever I happen to be eating.
DO NOT feed your sugar glider:
candy or junk food
onions or foods with onion powder
(it is toxic to pets)
wild insects (they could have parasites or pesticides on them)
houseplants (not even if they are
distilled water http://www.wwonline.com/rona/distwtr.htm
Things that SHOULD NOT be a regular part of their diet:
Seeds or nuts (only as occasional
cat or dog food
ferret food (It's extremely high in fat)
Any foods with a lot of fat or refined sugar
If you would like to know more about the nutritional content of the foods you are feeding your glider
try looking them up in the USDA Nutritional Database. For nutritional information of crickets, mealworms, and other feeder insects, click here.
Sugar gliders should be fed about 1/4 to 1/2 cup food per glider once a day. They may be fed at night
or early in the morning whichever is more convenient for you. Make sure you remove any uneaten food after several hours. If
your glider eats everything, that probably means you are not providing enough food.
All foods need to be as low in fat as possible, gliders don't handle fat very well. If you are breeding
them, too much fat in the mother's diet can cause white spots on the baby's eyes. This means limiting the number of seeds
and nuts you feed your glider, maybe only reserve them for treats. Also, stay away from artificial sweetners and preservatives.
Many of the low-fat foods are also artificially sweetened. Take special care to avoid these and get only those sweetened with
sugar or honey. Aspartame (Nutrasweet) contains phenylalanine which causes brain lesions and lowers the body chemicals that
prevent seizures. Saccharin causes cancer in lab animals, this *probably* includes sugar gliders.
There is some controversy over the use of yogurt. The concern is that gliders might be lactose intolerant
and also fat content. However, yogurt contains bacteria that digest the lactose. As long as you use no-fat plain unsweetened
yogurt, there should be no problems. Please look at Caroline McPherson's article "Are Sugar Gliders Lactose Intolerant?" if you are still skeptical.
You must provide a supplement high in calcium to prevent hind-leg paralysis. Hind-leg paralysis is
caused when the glider becomes deficient in calcium or vitamin D3 (necessary to process calcium) or has too much phosphorus
in relation to calcium in their diet (phosphorus prevents absorbtion of calcium) and the body takes calcium from the bones
until they become brittle and break. They can recover from this, but it usually results in death. Calcium supplements are
especially necessary if you are feeding them alot of fruits or vegetables. Fruits and veggies are high in phosphorus and low
in calcium, this is also true for a lot of the food commonly fed to sugar gliders. Reptile supplements such as Rep-Cal are
for a similar affliction in reptiles, but will do for a sugar glider. It is phosphorus-free and contains natural oyster shell
calcium and vitamin D. Another vitamin supplement is Chaparral Zoological Vitamins (Glideamins, Glider Booster.) It is available
from Exclusively Sugar Gliders. If you get a powdered supplement, try mixing a small amount into yogurt, baby food, or honey. One of
the best ways is to feed the supplement to your crickets and mealworms. You can buy high-calcium cricket food or you can mix a little supplement with baby cereal and feed to the insects for a couple of nights before
they are eaten. Supplements should be given no more than 1-2 times a week. The main vitamins and minerals you need to supplement
are calcium, vitamin D3, and vitamin E.
Fruit flies tend to be a problem when you leave food out too long. Since you shouldn't use any poisons
to kill them, getting rid of them can be difficult. Several things help to keep their numbers low. First, take out uneaten
food as soon as possible. Also, you can clean their cages every week. You can hang Fly Strips or try spraying the flies with
a water/dishwashing soap/isopropyl alcohol mixture (limited results). The best way I have found so far is to pour a little
dark cider vinegar, red wine, or beer into the bottom of a jar. Then cover it with plastic wrap, securing with a rubber band
and poke 6 - 10 fruit fly sized holes in it. The fruit flies climb in but can't get back out. If the flies get really bad
and nothing else works, you can use a pyrenthrin based insect spray. Be sure to take your gliders and their cage as far away
as possible when you try this. Then rinse the cage with a very weak bleach solution to kill any larvae.