Sugar Glider Diets

Other Sugar Glider Diets

There are almost as many diets out there as there are Sugar Glider breeders. As time passes I've seen one or the other flare into popularity or vanish completely. Lots of breeders feel very strongly about one diet or the other, and they will stick to their choice throughout the life of their gliders, while others will try each diet out for awhile to see which seems to have the greatest and most beneficial effects on their precious gliders.

Its up to you to decide what diet is best for you and your babies, I'm only listing them here to help give you a better idea of what is available. I recommend that you do some research on each of them and maybe visit a good community site like GliderCentral.net to talk to other breeders and get their opinions as well!

Suncoast Diet
BML
The Pet Glider Nutrition System
HPW
PML

Suncoast Sugar Glider Diet
This is the diet closest to what I use here, and I highly recommend it!!

Protein

Offered on a rotation with one item offered from the following list daily:
Gut loaded mealworms - Feed 10-12 small, 7-10 medium, or 3-5 large mealworms per glider
Boiled eggs (without shells) mixed with high protein/low sugar cereal (like corn flakes or Special K) and mixed with either honey or apple juice. One heaping tablespoon is offered per 2 sugar gliders.
Yogurt (blueberry or peach) - 1 heaping tablespoon is offered per 2 sugar gliders
Special Note: Just weaned joeys are not quite ready for the mealworms yet, so substitute Gerber chicken baby food mixed with applesauce or sweet potatoes for the protein portion of the diet. Offer small mealworms weekly until the joey learns how to eat them without any trouble.

Fruits or Veggies

Offered in single portions daily and varied from day to day depending on the time of year and availability of these items. This is merely the list that SunCoast uses and is not intended to be all inclusive. The amount to feed is about the amount that would equal one apple cut into 8 pieces with one piece fed to 2 sugar gliders.
Apples - Pears - Sweet Potatoes - Watermelon - Honeydew - Cantaloupe - Carrots - Kiwi - Mango - Oranges (only once a week and never to joeys) - Blueberries

Vitamin and Mineral Supplements

Vitamins and calcium should be given daily. I recommend Vionate as a well rounded vitamin designed for small animals. To supplement calcium levels, I recommend Rep-Cal Calcium, the phosphorus free without Vitamin D3 added version. Vionate already contains Vitamin D, so you don't need it in the calcium. The vitamins should be sprinkled on the offering of daily fruits or veggies. You will just add a pinch of both Vionate and Rep-Cal. Do not overdose the vitamins. Too many vitamins can be just as harmful as not giving them at all.
I also suggest a third supplementation for breeding sugar gliders. We've found that using a milk replacer product like Wombaroo, sprinkled on the fruit and vegetables has shown beneficial effects to the lactating female. 1/8 teaspoon every day is the amount used by SunCoast. During pregnancy, it is advisable to gear the diet more towards the needs of the female and its OK if the male is indulging in the same foods. If you find the male is getting overweight from this diet, I suggest that you purchase a Stealth Wheel or some other device that will give him access to good exercise.

Staple Food

Offered in the cage at all times. Zookeepers' Secret is the staple food used at SunCoast. From my experience, this is a well balanced formula and sugar gliders like it. This semi-moist protein rich product is a great supplemental food to your gliders fresh diet. It is very important that small animals have access to food continually throughout the day. This is particularly important for breeding animals. There is no commercially available food that I would recommend as the single source of nutrition for your sugar glider.

The Basic BML Mixture

This is a popular mixture because it can be made all at one time and stored in the freezer. I fed it to my gliders for the first two years I had them, but have since decided that they needed more variety for their psychological well being.

1/2 cup Honey, do not use honeycomb, raw or unfiltered honey
1 scrambled Egg
1/4 cup of Apple Juice.
Blend well, Turn off blender, add the next group of ingredients.
4oz bottle PREMIXED Gerber juice with yogurt (Mixed Fruit or Banana)
If you can not find this, you may substitute 2 oz of plain yogurt and 2 oz of mixed fruit juice
1 Teaspoon of Rep-Cal HERPTIVITE vitamin supplement , Blue label
Blend well again, Turn off Blender , add next group of ingredients.
2 tsp Rep-Cal Calcium Supplement non-phosphorus with Vit. D3 Pink label
2 - 2 1/2 oz jar of Stage 1 or 2 Heinz, Gerber or Beechnut Chicken baby food
1/4 cup Wheat Germ
1/2 cup dry baby cereal (Mixed or Oatmeal)

Blend well , turn off blender, Pour into ice cube trays and FREEZE, 1 cube in ice cube tray is approx. 2 tablespoons. It will freeze to the consistency of ice cream.

The Pet Glider Nutrition System

25 oz unsweetened applesauce
4 oz Dannon non-fat plain yogurt
3 oz concentrated calcium fortified orange juice, no water added
3/4 c Old Fashioned Oats (NO QUICK COOKING OATS)
1 T wheat germ, refrigerated (found by the oatmeal in the grocery store)
6 medium to large scrambled eggs or 1.5 lbs boiled chicken (unseasoned)
3 cups shredded frozen mixed fruit
3 cups shredded frozen mixed veggies (carrots, corn, peas, and green beans)*
You will also need to purchase vitamins and cereal from thepetglider.com
*When purchasing mixed veggies, make sure it does not contain Lima Beans... These are toxic to sugar gliders!

First shred the veggies and fruit. I use a Hamilton Beech Change-A-Bowl food chopper with the shredder blade. Next I scramble the eggs or boil the chicken. Once that is done, I put into the blender with the applesauce and orange juice concentrate and blend until it is smooth. I have found that if I don't do this, then my gliders will pick around the eggs and chicken, and won't get the protein that they need. Once the mix is smooth, I pour it out into a large mixing bowl, and add the yogurt, and mix well. Then I add the oats and wheat germ, and mix well. Then I add the fruits and veggies and mix them in well.

Once I have everything mixed really well, I begin spooning it into ice cube trays. I put about 1 tbsp in each cube. It does take several hours for the goop to freeze, so you may want to spoon out into dishes what you will be using that night, and then freeze the rest.
Every morning, I pull out 2 cubes per glider and put them in the refrigerator to thaw out. By dinner time it is thawed out. I mix them up well, and then add 1/8 tsp of vitamins to each glider's bowl and then place in their cage. Do not mix the vitamins into the "goop" and do not freeze the vitamins into the mix.

Every morning when I pull out the dinner dishes, I put in a bowl of the Premium Sugar Glider Cereal from the Nutritional Package that I order from Pricilla, as well as one Monkey biscuit. I pull this out before my gliders get up in the evening... They will eat all of the cereal and biscuit and none of their "goop" if I don't.

I rotate the chicken and egg mixes every night. Every glider gets about 10 meal worms a day, or you could mix up another batch without a protein source, and just give each glider 20 meal worms on the night that you offer the basic mix. I don't do it this way simply because I like to use meal worms as a bonding tool, and trying to hand feed 20 mealies each to my gliders would literally take ALL NIGHT!

This diet makes dinner time a breeze for those of us with multiple gliders. I used to spend at least an hour every night chopping up fruits and veggies for my gliders, now I spend only a few minutes each night adding vitamins, and putting dishes in cages... It gives me more time to spend with my little ones now... And even my picky ones clean their dishes every night!

HPW (High Protein Wombaroo) Diet

2 cups warm water
1-1/2 cup honey
3 scrambled eggs
1/4c High Protein Wombaroo Powder
2 tablespoons bee pollen

Cook Eggs, set aside. In large bowl mix water and honey. Stir until honey is dissolved.
Add in HPW powder, mix well. In blender add in eggs, bee pollen and 1/2 to 1 cup HPW liquid. Blend for two minutes. Add in additional liquid and blend for another two minutes. Pour into a freezer safe bowl with an airtight lid. Keep in freezer. Will freeze to consistency of ice cream.

Feeding instructions.
1-1/2 teaspoons of HPW per glider
1 Tablespoon of mixed fruits
1 Tablespoon of mixed veggies
mealies for treats
Some also offer gliderade twice a week with the rest of their meal.
(if you have a breeding pair or nursing female increase the amount of HPW powder to 1/2cup)

PML (Pocket's Modified Leadbeaters Diet)
1 & 3/4 Cups of Water
1 & 3/4 Cups of Honey
2 eggs- Hard-boiled & Shelled- eggland's-best organic (brown eggs)
1 ounce = 30 grams Wombaroo high protein supplement

Mixing directions
Place water into microwave safe bowl & heat for 2 minutes. Stir honey into warm water until honey is dissolved. Place water/honey & eggs, into blender/food processor mix for 1 minute.
Add 1 ounce (30 grams) of Wombaroo high protein supplement & blend for additional 1 min.
Pour into freezer safe bowl with lid & freeze, I dish out approximately 1 & 1/2 to 2 tbsp for two gliders (do not add honey & Wombaroo to hot water, as it can effect the vitamins in WHPS) If mixed fresh in refrigerator will only last 4 days!