IN THE WILD:

Distribution
Sugar Gliders can be found across most of Victoria as well as New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland, and New Guinea. They have also been introduced into Tasmania.

They are found in most types of open forest and woodlands where trees have hollows in them but are most common where there is a mixture of Eucalypt species and larger acacias or wattles.

Home
Sugar Gliders live in colonies in tree hollows where they build bowl-shaped nests, usually from green leaves. Colonies usually consist of between two and seven male and female adult gliders, but have been known to contain up to 30 individuals. Gliders are very social animals, and will play together. Sugar Gliders are very active but, amazingly, their nest always seems to stay perfect with a smooth, spherical center.

Territories
A male Sugar Glider defines the territory of his group by marking the boundaries with scented secretions from glands on his head and chest. Both females and males can also mark their territory with their saliva. The dominant male in each group uses the glands on his head and chest to mark the other members of his group, as well.

Breeding
Sugar Gliders breed between June and January each year. It takes 16 days for the babies to be born. Each female usually has two young. The babies are very small. They remain in their mother’s pouch, which has four nipples, for about 70 days and then they can be left in the nest for about 50 days before they are able to head out on their own.

Sugar Gliders usually live for four to five years, but can live for up to nine years in the wild.

Feeding
Sugar Gliders generally forage alone at night. They eat a wide range of foods including:

• invertebrates
• acacia gum
• eucalyptus sap which they obtain by scraping bark off trees
• nectar and pollen
• manna

Auatralian Glider Cam link:

please click HERE for link

AUSTRALIAN BASED MARSUPIAL GLIDER INFO (includes "other" types of gliders with info and photos)... please click HERE.


Photos:

IN CAPTIVITY:

LEGALITY
Please remember that it is ILLEGAL to own sugar gliders in some parts of the United States. CLICK HERE for information on the legality of owning gliders in your state. Because some towns, counties, and municipalities prohibit owning sugar gliders within states where it is legal to own them in other places, please DO NOT obtain gliders as pets without FIRST checking your local laws concerning sugar gliders.

CAGE REQUIREMENTS
Sugar Gliders should be kept in a cage or reptarium. The dimensions of the cage or reptarium should be NO LESS THAN 18 inches by 18 inches by 24 inches for a JOEY CAGE and 18 to 24 inches deep by 24 inches wide by 36 inches tall for 1 to 3 adult gliders. Larger is always better, keeping in mind that height and width are both important for the gliders. If a cage is used, the bar spacing should be NO GREATER THAN ½ an inch and horizontal bars are even more important than vertical ones.

ENRICHMENT
Toys are essential for the enrichment of a captive glider’s life. All toys your glider comes in contact with should be safe for him or her to play with without risk of injury. A safe rule of thumb to follow is that if it is safe for a human baby, it is safe for a glider. Many toys commercially sold for use by birds are often toys a glider will enjoy playing with. Some suggestions are:

·          Foragers (these allow a glider to search for and find “treats” you have hidden for them and then try to figure out how to get the treats).

·          Hanging toys (anything from bells to barrels of monkeys)

·          Bridges and vines (These can be artificial decorative vines OR special-made “fleece” vines. Remember: all vines should be SAFE for your glider. If you choose to use vines with leaves on them, such as from a craft store, ALWAYS use the ones with NO wires inside them!)

·          Wheels (Hamster wheels are NOT safe for gliders! Glider- approved wheels include the Wodent Wheel, the Stealth Wheel, and the Custom Cruiser Wheel, all of which are safe for your glider to use with lowered risk of tail damage, other injury, or death).

·          A small pop-up tent big enough for you to get into with them for playtime that can be set up in a room inside your home or a COMPLETELY glider-proofed small room inside your home is a GREAT idea.

·          POUCHES (both “bonding” pouches which you wear on your person to bond with your glider AND the SLEEPING pouches, which hang in their cages, should be made of glider-safe fabrics such as FLEECE or FLANNEL and have NO loose threads ANYWHERE.

QUARANTINE, INTRODUCTIONS, NEUTERING, AND NUMBER
It is also important to note that sugar gliders, while they can be kept as single pets, have a greater chance at a full, happy life if they have a BUDDY. Getting your glider a cage mate is best done by acquiring two glider joeys at the same time from the same breeder. If you acquire a male and a female, remember that the male needs to be NEUTERED by 14 weeks of the time the glider came “out of pouch”.

** Female gliders can NOT be spayed or they WILL die **

Getting two females, for instance sisters of the same age, is fine. Getting two males may require you to neuter BOTH of them by 14 weeks OOP (Out Of Pouch date). If you get a single glider and later decide to obtain a cage mate for him/her, it is essential that you follow these rules:

·          New gliders should be kept in a separate cage, in a separate room in your home for THIRTY (30) DAYS after you get the new glider. It will be necessary to WASH and SANITIZE your hands and CHANGE CLOTHES after handling glider(s) from one room BEFORE you go into another glider(s) room. This is called QUARANTINE and is ESSENTIAL to making sure your old and new gldirs do not transfer communicable diseases between them.

·          At the BEGINNING and the END of the quarantine time, BOTH old and NEW gliders should be checked by a VET for any illnesses or parasites. IT is NECESSARY to do it BOTH times.

·          Once they have all received a clean bill of health, it is time for introductions.

Introductions are important. NEVER place gliders unfamiliar with one another in a cage and "just let them fight it out" or assume "they will get along fine" and just walk away. This could result in the DEATH or DISMEMBERMENT or at the very least the SERIOUS INJURY of one or more of your gliders!!

Start out by putting one glider's "blanket" from a sleeping pouch intot he other gldier's sleeping pouch and vice cersa for 2-3 nights and then switch the whole sleepign pouches between the two cages every other night for 10 nights to get your gliders accustomed to one another’s scent.

·          Spend another 10 days switching cages every other night… put the gliders from cage “A” into cage “B” and the gliders from cage “B” into cage “A” for the night.

·          After that, put the cages next to one another (about 8 inches apart) for a few days. No closer, please- gliders CAN and WILL injure one another between cages if placed too closely before they are ready!

·          Then begin face to face “introductions”. This means take ALL the gliders to a glider-safe room or tent inside your home where NEITHER of the sets has EVER been before so that the intros happen in an area “unclaimed” by any of the gliders. Allow them to interact and get to know each other but BE PREPARED to intercede if a fight breaks out. You will PROBABLY be bitten while breaking up the fight, but it will also probably save the life of one of your gliders.

We highly recommend the "vanilla bathtub method" of intoduction. In this method, (for which you may want to have a second person on hand to help if necessary), you place a small bowl of water in the center of your bathtub first. Then you place a single drop of vanilla extract between the shoulderbaldes of each glider being introduced and place the gldiers at opposite ends of the tub. The vanilla scent masks their individual scents some and also is a gldier attractant. They may spend time grooming themselves or each other as they meet. The bathtub location is important as it smells like neither glider so it is "neutral" territory and it is a bit of a strange surface for them to walk on so it is also something of a distraction. If a fight breaks out that you cannot separate, pick up the fighting "ball" of gliders and dip them slightly into the bowl of water which SHOULD distract them enough to make them let go of one another. REMEMBER TO COMPELTELY DRY THEM BEFORE PUTTING THEM BACK IN THEIR CAGES!!

·          Once they are getting along during playtime for a few nights, try putting both gliders into a new or recently deep-cleaned cage (so it is not "teritory" already "claimed" by one or the other) for a few hours but NOT OVERNIGHT and keep an eye on them. Once you feel certain they are NOT going to fight or harm each other, it is now safe to keep them in one cage from then out.

HOWEVER, you will need to keep SEPERATE food dishes and WATER BOTTLES at DIFFERENT HEIGHTS on OPPOSITE sides of the cage to discourage either glider from hogging all the food and keeping the other from eating or drinking enough, just in case.

HYGEINE
Because an un-neutered male glider WILL mark his “territory” with his scent glands, cleaning is essential. There IS a “scent” associated with sugar gliders, particularly with intact males. Neutering WILL lessen the scent. Cleaning of the cage should be and done at least once a month with a solution of 1 part bleach to 4 parts water or a steam cleaner. It will be necessary to empty the bottom of the cage of refuse collected there and to replace or clean the “liner” you are using in the bottom of the cage at least every other day. (Commercially made fabric liners are available and other options include newspaper [no color ink] or waxed paper).

BREEDING
Sugar gliders with unknown family history should NEVER be purposefully bred AT ALL. The reason is that if you do not know where they came from, you do not know their genetic history and one or both gliders may carry genetic dispositions for deformities or other illnesses. If you do decide to become a breeder, we encourage you to speak to other reputable breeders about your plans and about obtaining proper, none-line bred stock.

FEEDING
Sugar Gliders generally prefer to eat at night. However, they do occasionally come out during the day to get a drink or a snack. There are MANY diets approved for sugar gliders. NEVER, EVER feed your glider ANY of the following items:

·          Cat food, dog food, bird food, or rodent food

·          Chocolate

·          Garlic

·          Onions

·          Insects that are not purchased specifically for feeding to animals (they may have come in contact with pesticides which could sicken or kill your glider)

NOTE: There are SOME types and amounts of DAIRY PRODUCTS that are OKAY for your glider... yogurt, yogurt drops, or milk used to make homemade treats, for instance, are OKAY in MODERATION... but, as a general rule, you should NOT give dairy products to your gliders.

Approved diets for sugar gliders include:

v HPW (High Protein Wombaroo)

v BML (Bourbon’s Modified Leadbeaters)

v Darcy's Diet

v Candace Otte's Blended Diet

v Judie’s BML

v A combination of Glide-R-Chow, fruits & vegetables sprinkled with vitamins and wombaroo powder, and occasional treats

v PML (Pocket’s Modified Leadbeaters)

Which diet you choose may depend on availability of ingredients and ease of preparation. Be prepared for your gliders to decide for themselves that they don’t care for your choice. It MAY be necessary to change the diet to something they eat more agreeably. Diet links and recipes are located on our Diet and Treat Recipes page, or you can just click HERE.