The new favorite in the pet field is the sugar gliders. Many people think they are handsome after seeing the gliding videos of sugar gliders on social media, or they buy them on impulse because they think they are cute when visiting the pet market. Of course, some people like sugar gliders and buy them after fully understanding and learning, but most people still don’t understand them, resulting in a mess of raising them and dying of diseases!
What kind of animal is the sugar glider? Is it a rodent? What are the characteristics?
1. Sugar glider (scientific name: Petaurus breviceps), belonging to the class of mammals → the class of the next class of animals → the order of kangaroos (dual-tooth order) → the family of the glider → the genus of the scorpion, is a marsupial animal native to Australia.
2. Rodents are the collective name of rodents in the order of eutherians, while gliders belong to the group of post-animal mammals. It seems like a mouse because of convergent evolution.
3. Sugar glider ≠ flying squirrel. The class of Eustaceans, rodents, and Squirrels are referred to as Flying Squirrels. Because of convergent evolution, they are similar to sugar gliders, but there is no relationship between them.
4. The sugar glider is a primitive animal, and the pregnancy period is concise. There is a baby red bean. The bag won’t stay in the bag until it’s free. When the mother’s belly is large, the baby will not come out, but it is still in the bag.
5. The sugar glider’s eyes are large, and its ears are small. These are some of the characteristics of nocturnal animals. It is irreversible and completely nocturnal.
6. Gliders are social animals. Unlike hamsters, if you only keep one, there is a chance of depression and self-harm. However, two males cannot be raised together, and it is better to raise polygamy or monogamy. You need to pay more attention to take care of it if you only have one.
7. Australia is the original birthplace of the sugar glider. It likes warm things rather than cold things. The ideal living temperature is between 25 and 30 degrees. The temperature goes into a dormant state, curled up in a ball, and will die if the temperature is lower. It’s essential to keep the temperature stable in winter.
8. The sugar glider has wings on both sides of its body, so it is not allowed to wear tiny clothes for the sugar glider and can glide short distances. The sugar glider is timid by nature, and gliding is not flying. Unless it is forced or stumbled, it will not take the initiative to glide until it sees its foothold and calculates its gliding angle and distance.
What mental preparation do you need to do before raising sugar gliders?
You may feel that the sugar glider is novel after understanding its identity and classification. After viewing the cute pictures and videos of the sugar glider, you feel like you want to raise it. You should read this article if you want to get the vaccine. It is the consequences of raising sugar gliders that you may not be able to bear, which is the psychological preparation that needs to be made. This is important, and I will explain it before feeding methods.
1. Gliders are nocturnal animals and cannot be forced to reverse so they will be very noisy at night. Climbs cages, turn somersaults, chases, and fights, and occasionally learns to bark (one of the bark types of sugar gliders, similar to a puppy’s bark, is not knowing how to bark).
Some say people can still get jet lag if they don’t sleep at night and play during the day. The body characteristics of the sugar glider are only suitable for night action, not emotionally and psychologically. It’s essential to raise sugar gliders to keep their standard of work and rest. Forcibly reversing the jet lag will cause a lot of trauma to the sugar gliders. The light ones will cause a weak and sluggish body. Or be dead.
2. Whether a sugar glider bites or not depends on its character and its relationship with its owner, but scratching people with their claws certainly does. You can trim the glider’s nails. But the sugar glider is relatively tiny, so be careful when cutting their nails and not to cut the bloodline. And even if it is cut, it will still have a specific lethality.
3. The smell of the sugar glider is very strong. The scent on the top of the male sugar glider’s head and chest makes them smell when they are sexually mature, and when they lose their hair, they will become bald. There is nothing that you can do to improve this. Unless the male sugar glider is sterile, there isn’t any chance of removing the odor glands in a bath.
Female sugar gliders are not allowed to bathe. Sand and bathing don’t work at the same time. I have seen a lot of sugar gliders that died from bathing because the water and sand in the pouch will cause inflammation. It is possible to wipe its body with a wet paper towel, but this is only psychological comfort. There will still be some smells, and you can only brush the tray of the cage every day and wash the cage and the nest from time to time.
4. Gliders must eat insects, such as mealworms, barley worms, Dubia, and crickets. Many people don’t feed sugar gliders for fear of insects and instead provide them with chicken breast and dried mealworms. They are not useful at all!
5. Sugar gliders are not suitable for students to keep in the dormitory and are not suitable to be kept secret before negotiating with family members or cohabitants!
6. Those who feel that it is acceptable to be noisy in the middle of the night, smelly, scratch people, disturb people, and even keep bugs, I respect you as a strong person and then read on.
What do you need to prepare before raising a sugar glider, and what can’t be used?
1. Before raising the sugar glider, you must prepare a bunch of utensils. Never bring the sugar glider home without buying anything (in theory, this is the case with any pet).
2. Large cages with trays, small cages, some locks or hooks, cloth nests, food bowls, water bottles, and small towels are some of the materials to be prepared early. Some things can be added if conditions permit, such as ceramic or metal toys.
Don’t buy any pads at all. If you see bedding materials like sawdust, corncob, paper pellets, vermiculite, cat litter, bath sand, and other items in your sugar glider cage, please throw them away. There are many cases of sugar gliders dying from accidentally eating bedding. Don’t say that the bosses in the pet store put sawdust, and those second-order dealers don’t know how to keep them. They buy in as long as they sell the pets! Gliders do not need bedding, and they are not hamsters.
Cage: It must be a cage with a height of more than 1.2 meters and a distance between the railings of less than 1.5 cm. The minimum size should be at least 1.2 meters, in theory. The online store has the words “group birdcage” or “tall birdcage.” If your home is large, it would be better to have more groups of bird cages since small cages are used to divide cages temporarily.
I want to point out that sugar gliders should not be in boxes. The higher the cage, the better it is for sugar gliders since they are accustomed to climbing and jumping in nature. The box is used to house animals. If you put toys in the sugar glider, it won’t work. Billing bacteria in the box is easy, and it’s not suitable for raising sugar gliders.
Some people keep sugar gliders in the winter with a heating lamp inside in wooden boxes. I saw at least three cases where the ears of the sugar glider were scalded by this method, and the feet were covered in thorns and white stubble of a wooden box. No matter the weather, sugar gliders should never be kept in wooden crates. Prepare a thick cotton nest, buy a nest that can hold warm babies, and turns on the home air conditioner.
Locks or hooks: What do pins and locks do? It’s used to lock the cage. The sugar glider’s ability to slip and pick locks is top-notch, and there are endless troubles after the escape, so be sure to buy a small lock or the kind of hook on the key chain that hangs on the belt.
Nest: The nest of the sugar glider should be a cloth or cotton nest, and use a sturdy fabric such as canvas to hang in the cage. As long as you search for keywords such as sugar glider cotton nests in the online store, it is no need to say more.
The wooden nest isn’t appropriate for sugar glider use. The wooden toys in the package can’t be used in the cage. It also includes wooden ladders, chains, and strips, all of which will not work for the same reasons as wooden boxes. The sugar glider is easily rude, chewing out a lot of wood thorns and hurting limbs.
Sometimes the sugar glider rubs urine on it to mark the smell. It is smelly and not easy to clean after a long time. If you wash it, it will puncture your hands. It is better to keep it simple because too many things in the cage could affect the sugar glider.
What do sugar gliders need to eat, and what can’t they eat?
Sugar gliders are strictly forbidden from feeding processed foods humans eat, such as candy, chocolate, potato chips, rice, fried vegetables, spicy strips, etc.
1. The sugar glider is a marsupial, so don’t keep it as a mouse. The main food of the sugar glider in the wild is nectar, variegation, fruits, twigs and leaves, insects, etc. However, pet sugar gliders are generally artificially bred for many generations. It does not mean that we will feed whatever we eat in the wild as if we should give dogs and cats dog and cat food and various snacks.
Sugar glider has exceptional brewing food, including hpw, bml, tpg; the full name is unimportant; remember the abbreviation. These staple foods. You can buy hpw and bml honey-brewed grains made by many shopkeepers online, but you need to be careful when buying them. Ask the shopkeeper about the ingredients. You can search for the recipe and make it yourself, of course. (There is a product called Rocky that sugar gliders eat on the Internet, don’t buy it)
2. Besides the staple food of brewed food, the sugar glider also needs to eat various fruits, vegetables, and live insects.
Fruits: Gliders can eat most fruits, some are allergens, and there are substances that are harmful to them. The fruits that cannot be eaten are lychees, grapes, mangoes, avocados, oranges, oranges, grapefruit, etc. Also, the pits of all fruits should not be fed to sugar gliders.
Vegetables: The vegetables that sugar gliders can eat are mainly green vegetables, such as lettuce, cabbage, cabbage, lettuce, lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, and carrots. Vegetables that cannot be eaten include eggplant, spinach, onion, ginger and garlic, and sweet potato (sweet potato).
Snacks: Besides the staple and non-staple food, sugar gliders can also eat a little snack. You can eat: honey (eucalyptus honey is the best), goat milk products, yogurt (yogurt, yogurt balls, yogurt bars, old yogurt), boiled chicken without any seasoning, and boiled shrimp can give a little. You can’t provide the following:
- Melon seeds.
- Peanuts.
- Other things like roasted seeds and nuts.
- The items you can’t give above.
Live Insects: Gliders must eat insects! Hey, I forgot to add this one to the mental preparation one. I’ll go back and make it up first.
……All right. Why is it necessary? Because sugar gliders like to eat insects, whether, in the wild or the home, their digestive systems are also very suitable for eating insects. Real case: I have a few friends who raise sugar gliders because they are afraid of bugs, so they use boiled chicken breast and boiled eggs instead of bugs, thinking they can also supplement protein.
The result is that after the female sugar glider gives birth, it is eaten by the male sugar glider. Some mothers eat their honey. Because they have never eaten live worms, their bodies need them, so they don’t recognize them when they give birth, and they eat them like worms. Later, the owner overcame his fear and started feeding live worms, but he stopped eating the cubs later.
Of course, I can’t say that eating pups is necessarily the result of not eating worms, but it must be one of the reasons. Because the sugar glider is not a hamster, not a rabbit, it is a social animal that lives in groups and rarely eats it because the environment is unstable or the owner touches the cub (unless the relationship with the owner is terrible).
Also, can dried mealworms be fed? Yes, but it’s useless. If you look closely, you will know that the dried mealworms are empty shells, and there are not many nutrients left, so any food cannot replace live worms. It should also be noted that if you catch a fly, mosquito, cockroach beetle, or something, do not feed it to the sugar glider; it is too dirty and will carry bacteria and viruses. So you must buy mealworms or barley worms from regular breeding farms online, preferably Dubia. What is Dubia can go to search to find out?
What should be paid attention to in the breeding of sugar gliders?
1. The sugar glider belongs to the post-beast class, and the latter category, the marsupials, is relatively primitive in physiological structure. To ensure the reproduction rate, the male sugar glider has evolved two slender penises, while the female honey bag has two slender penises. Gliders also have a corresponding twin uterus, and each time they mate, two penises will enter their respective uterus so that there is a double reproductive success rate. Here is a more exciting point of knowledge.
If both uteruses are successfully conceived simultaneously, then one side will enter dormancy, and the other will develop embryos. After the cubs are out of the bag, the dormant side will wake up and start embryo development. This is also why some people found that their mother honey gave birth to a cub, and the mother honey’s belly grew bigger not long after the cub came out of the bag.
2. The gestation period of the sugar glider is concise, only 12 to 16 days, and one or two cubs are bred each time. The female sugar glider will remain lying and sitting during production. After birth, the sugar glider cubs will climb down the belly into the pouch, continue to develop while feeding, and will not come out of the pocket after 60 to 70 days. Eyes open about ten days after the bag is released, but the baby has not been weaned and will continue to put his head into the nursery bag to eat milk. After about a month after weaning, you can eat other foods.
Female sugar gliders should be supplemented with more nutrients during pregnancy and lactation than usual. For example, ten mealworms should be fed daily, and 20 to 25 mealworms should be fed daily during lactation. The nest should be placed at the bottom of the cage during lactation. The owner should try to disturb the sugar glider as little as possible and not catch the cubs. The cubs should be contacted after they are out of the bag (preferably after opening their eyes).
3. More than 20 days after the hatchlings are out of the bag, you can choose to start artificially assisted breastfeeding. This can help the mother reduce the burden and allow the cubs to adapt to milk powder gradually, and at the same time, it can cultivate the closeness of the cubs to humans.
Before the cubs are weaned, rice flour should be mixed into the milk powder they are fed (it’s baby food rice flour! Not Guilin rice flour! Not snail rice flour! Nor fried rice flour!), but pay attention to the ingredients list, if the rice flour contains milk powder ingredients Can not purchase.
After the cubs are weaned from breast milk, they continue to be artificially fed with milk powder + rice flour. After two and a half to three months, the cubs can be allowed to eat hpw staple food, vegetables, fruits, and live insects together with the adult sugar glider.
Regarding the milk powder for feeding sugar gliders, if you have the conditions, you should buy imported milk powder for sugar gliders. If you can’t buy it, you should use a reliable brand of lactose-free baby milk powder or a big brand of puppy goat milk powder (some inferior goat milk powder). It will also cause milky diarrhea). Remember, never use lactose-containing milk powder!
4. For some reasons (the cubs are naturally too weak, the mother’s honey is not nutritious, and they are overly frightened, etc.), the female sugar glider may abandon the breeding behavior and leave the cubs aside without caring and breastfeeding. There are also cases where no male sugar gliders (for example, taking your female honey to breed with other people’s male honey and then getting it back).
What should I do in this situation? Only the owner can artificially raise it, the so-called “hand raising” in the pet circle. After discovering that the mother honey has indeed abandoned the cubs, you should take them out as soon as possible and put them in a small pet take-out bag with a zipper or a plastic box with a lid and air holes. If you use a box, put it in the box Into coral flannel. Choose lactose-free infant formula for feeding, and feed it with a dropper or a syringe that injects a needle. Remember to pull the hand out.
The temperature should also be kept at 28~30 degrees, feeding every 2~3 hours (including the night, so set an alarm clock to provide), and rinse milk powder with warm water. Do not rinse too thin when feeding or just after feeding. Use A warm, wet cotton swab that gently rubs against the anus of a sugar glider pup, simulating a female sugar glider to stimulate defecation. If you can’t poke it out, you will try again later, don’t force it to end.
Are you tired and feel like you’ve become a mother ahead of time, right? But the sugar gliders brought up by yourself in this way will be very dependent on their masters, which can be regarded as a comfort.
What are the consequences of free-range sugar gliders?
Why is this a separate article? Because this is so important, I’ve found that many people keep sugar gliders free-range. This is a foolish move and highly irresponsible!
(What I’m going to say next may be irritating, but I’m here to reason with those who keep sugar gliders free!)
1. sugar gliders need to flick and move up and down, so I emphasized that a large cage must be used, but this does not mean that sugar gliders can be kept free-range. For over two years, if there is a problem with raising sugar gliders, I have privately messaged myself, and at least one-third of them have issues with free-range breeding. With radiant and holy hearts, these breeders told me that “the sugar gliders are pitiful in the cage.
They are pleased when they are kept free.” Then, crying and chirping when something goes wrong, does it help? Just like walking a dog on a leash, the leash is not the rope of restraint but the rope of life. For sugar gliders, the cage is not a cage for imprisonment but a warm harbor to protect life!
2. What can go wrong with free-range breeding? First, sugar gliders are naturally lively, with greedy hands and mouths, and want to grab and eat everything they see. So if you keep it free, can you guarantee that your bed is cleaned daily, free of dirt and bug carcasses?
Can you ensure your plug sockets are high off the ground and out of reach of the gliders? Can you ensure you don’t have wires and drains on your ground? Can you ensure you don’t roll over and crush the gliders into honey sacks while you sleep? You can’t! So if you think the cage is small, please change it to a giant cell so as not to harm the life of the sugar glider. Why don’t you keep the fish in the house?
3. I will list here the methods of death of the free-range sugar gliders I have seen: being crushed to death by the owner’s sleep, rolled over by the owner, accidentally trampled to death by the owner, poisoned to death after eating snacks on the ground, touching the socket Kong was electrocuted, pooped and urinated on the bed and was beaten to death by the owner, fell out of an open window and fell to his death (gliders can glide, but if they are too high and the concrete floor is below, they will die), fall into the toilet and climb Do not come out to drown.
4. So please never keep sugar gliders free! Of course, under the full supervision of the owner, it is no problem to release the sugar glider from the cage to play and climb for a while. It is not called free-range breeding. Just be sure to keep the sugar glider in the owner’s line of sight the whole time, and don’t go to places that are too dirty or messy.
Can you take the sugar glider with you every day?
This question is said to be possible in the textbooks written by many people. But my version of the breeding manual tells you: no. It is up to you to choose whose version you believe.
It has been said several times that the sugar glider is nocturnal and irreversible. If you carry it out to play or work in your pocket or bag daily, it can be devastating to the glider’s sleep and health. Once again, the physiological characteristics of honey gliders are born for nocturnal travel, and letting them fall into jet lag is also serious harm to their health. Therefore, the honey glider must sleep, rest in the cage during the day, and play with it at night.
What should you do if the sugar glider is sick?
Of course, sugar gliders can also get sick, but as long as they are appropriately raised and raised according to what I said above, there will be no problems. Here are some common symptoms of sugar gliders.
1. Diarrhea. Diarrhea in sugar gliders is more common in novice owners who are improperly reared. The reason is nothing more than catching a cold and eating bad food. If it is hard, pay attention to the heating if you eat bad things, such as expired, moldy staple foods and fruit or dairy products that contain lactose.
When this happens, stop feeding the staple food, boil the apples with water for the sugar gliders to eat, and replace the water in the kettle with the water for cooking apples, improving diarrhea. If it still doesn’t work, buy Mommy’s love for babies, dilute it with water and feed it to the sugar glider.
2. Hair removal. Gliders occasionally shed their hair. It should be noted that male sugar gliders will shed hair on the top of the head and chest after sexual maturity, which is a normal phenomenon. If hair loss occurs in other parts of the body, it is sick. Most cases are skin diseases caused by fungal infections, which have much to do with the breeding environment.
The litter is not washed or changed all year round, and there are wooden toys in the cage, which may lead to fungal infection of the sugar glider. First, improve the breeding environment and clean the cage. If the sugar glider cannot heal on its own, you can use a pet-specific dermatological spray to dilute it and spray it on the affected area. At the same time, put an Elizabethan ring on the sugar glider (that is, the horn-shaped headgear, which can be found online. buy or make your own) to prevent sugar gliders from licking the wound.
3. Burns, frostbite. This is not much to say, be careful not to let the sugar glider touch hot things. Scalding is common in owners who raise sugar gliders with wooden boxes and tanning lamps. Select the corresponding pet scald medicine to apply, disinfect the environment, and wear an Elizabethan ring for the sugar glider.
4. Self-harm. This is not a lot, but it still exists and needs to be said. Sugar gliders are social animals. If only one is kept and the owner has little time to accompany the sugar glider, it may become self-mutilating. Too much boredom, depression, and marital discord can lead to this.
There is nothing to do with depression. You can only accompany the owner. If the self-harm is severe (such as plucking your tail hair or biting off your JJ), please seek medical treatment in time. However, there are currently very few hospitals in China that can treat sugar gliders, but in the case of trauma, you can still choose a pet hospital that can treat small pets such as squirrel chinchillas for treatment.
Last words to say
This guide is about as close as it covers all the issues of keeping sugar gliders. You are seeing that now. I believe that you will know more about the sugar glider. You may think this is a worry-free little pet, but if you still want to keep it, go for it.
Scientific feeding is the most critical thing in keeping pets. Only love is not valid. If you don’t feed them properly, you will kill them. If you fully understand them, you will fall in love with them during the raising process.