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Feeding sugar gliders

Article · January 1998

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Cathy A Johnson-Delaney

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FEEDING
Sugar gliders
Cathy Johnson-Delaney, DVM
Seattle, Washington
Dr. Johnson-Delaney has studied
sugar gliders and their natural food
sources in Australia. She is willing
to serve as a clearinghouse for clini-
cal information on these and other
captive marsupials: presenting prob-
lems, hematologic and biochemistry
data, diseases, treatments. Send to:
Cathy Johnson-Delaney, DVM
Washington Regional Primate
Research Center
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
Insectivore/Carnivore diets
•Reliable Protein Products
Palm Desert, CA 760-321-7533
•Mazuri brand (Purina Mills),
St. Louis, MO 314-768-4592
•ZuPreem, Mission, KS 800-345-4767
4 1998 PREMIERE ISSUE
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S
ugar gliders (Petaurus
breviceps) are the tiny
marsupials, native to
New Guinea and Australia,
now showing up in increasing numbers
at veterinary clinics.
The most significant recommendation
that one can make to sugar glider own-
ers concerns the captive diet, because
many common disease conditions are
the result of improper feeding.
Free-ranging Diet
In contrast to what their name may
suggest, fruit and other sugars are not
major components of the diet in the
wild. Free-ranging sugar gliders are
omnivorous.
A glider’s natural diet consists of
arthropods, acacia gum, eucalyptus
phloem sap, nectar and pollen, manna
and honeydew.3 During autumn and
winter, plant exudates predominate in
their diet, but during spring and sum-
mer they are primarily insectivorous.
Moths, beetles, insect larvae and spi-
ders are preferred over exudates, possi-
bly due to their increased demand for
protein associated with breeding.
Manna, honeydew, nectar and pollen
are only minor components of the diet.
In all seasons combined, sugar gliders
spent 43% of foraging time feeding on
gum, 11.4% on eucalyptus sap and
27.5% searching for invertebrates.3
Captive Diet
A captive diet based on field research
and consultation with Australian
E X O T I C D V M
Dried gum from E.
polycarpa tree.
Sugar gliders consume
the gum and manna
from the long-fruited
bloodwood tree (Eucalyptus polycarpa), as
well as the insects attracted to the sticky sap.
Gliders utilize the nectar from the Banksia
integrifolia tree in New South Wales,
Australia.
zookeepers, vet-
erinarians and
naturalists has
been used with
success (see
chart). Sugar
glider owners
should feed
fresh portions in
the evening, and chop items together to
reduce only favorite foods being select-
ed. Acceptable treats include meats,
diced fruits with multiple
vitamin/mineral powder, bee pollen,
worms, crickets, various insects
(gut-loaded with high quality cricket
diet plus additional calcium). Treats
should be limited to 5% of daily intake.
Successful Captive Diet
50% Leadbeater’s Mixture*
50% insectivore/carnivore diet
*Leadbeater’s Mixture:
150 ml warm water
150 ml honey
1 shelled hard-boiled egg
25 g high protein baby cereal
1 tsp vitamin/mineral supplement
Mix warm water and honey.
In separate container, blend egg until
homogenized. Gradually add honey/water,
then vitamin powder, then baby cereal,
blending after each addition until smooth.
Keep refrigerated until served.
Further Reading
1. Johnson-Delaney C: Exotic Companion Medicine
Handbook (Supplement). Lake Worth, Wingers
Publishing, 1996.
Order info: 800-981-4782, fax 561-641-0234.
2. MacPherson C: Keeping and Breeding Sugar
Gliders as Pets. Vernon, BC, Wayside Press Ltd.
Order info: 604-766-4823, fax 604-766-4162.
3. Henry SR and Suckling in GC: A review of the ecol-
ogy of the sugar glider. In Smith AP, Hume ID
(eds): Possums and Gliders. Australian Mammal
Society, 1984, pp 355-358.
Order info: +612-960238-88, fax +612-982112-53.