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It is
essential for Sugar Glider owners to know what they should feed their pets.
Without a balanced diet, people can put their Sugar Gliders at risk of many
health problems. Here we explore what Sugar Gliders eat in the wild, then
relate this to a recommended captive diet.
In the
wild, Sugar Gliders spend most of their time foraging for insects, Acacia gum (a fluid exuded by trees),
and Eucalypt
sap (a sugary liquid also exuded by trees). The break up of time spent
foraging for each of these is shown in Figure 1. Sugar Gliders tend to eat
certain kinds of insects in the wild, notably:
moths; butterflies & moth larvae; small and medium beetles (particularly
elaterid and chryosmid); and occasionally small spiders. They
will also eat flowers and their nectars, usually of the genera: Banksia; Eugenia; Grevillea; Hakea;
Xanthorrhea and Eucalyptus.
(Henry & Suckling, 1984)
Figure 1 - Percentage time spent by Sugar
Gliders foraging for different food types (Based on data from Henry &
Suckling, 1984).
In Australia, one leading native
animal Veterinarian has done considerable work on the care of Sugar Gliders.
She recommends the diet shown in the table below. While
others exist, such as the Healesville Sanctuary diet,
we at the Gliders@UNSW Research Team have been impressed by how this diet has been developed
based on what Sugar Gliders eat in the wild.
However, we have had concerns expressed
that this diet has too much sugar in it. As such, we have asked some veterinarians to look
at the it and will post their assessments here as soon as possible.
Table 1 - Suitable Diet for Captive Sugar
Gliders (Booth, 1999).*
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Group 1
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Insects
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Insects (75% moths, crickets, beetles, 25%fly pupae,
mealworms)
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Meat Mix
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Commercial small carnivore or insectivore mix (eg Mazuri,
PMI Feeds, St. Louis, MO;
Wombaroo Glen Osmond, Australia);
or course ground low fat dry cat food (eg. Iams) blended with fresh mince
with balanced multivitamin and mineral supplement added according to weight of
mince component.
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Group 2
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Nectar
Mix
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1.5cups fructose, 1.5 cups sucrose (brown sugar), 0.5 cup
glucose made up to 2L with warm water. Commercially available mixes from
Roudybush, Australia
(Hamilton, NSW), Nekton-Produkte (Pfurzheim,
Germany), or
Wombaroo, have the advantage of balanced vitamin and mineral additives.
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Dry
Lorikeet Mix
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4 cups rolled oats, 1 cup wheat germ, 1 cup brown sugar,
0.5 cup glucose, 0.5 cups raisins or sultanas.
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Group 3
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Fruit and
Vegetables
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Select from diced apple, nectarine, melons, grapes,
raisins, sultanas, figs, tomato, sweet corn, sweet potatoes, beans and
butternut pumpkin.
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Greens
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Mixed sprouts, shredded carrots,
lettuce, broccoli and parsley, corn kernels, sultanas, with vitamin-mineral
supplement at manufacturer's directions.
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* Offer a total of 15-20% of body weight daily. Select one diet from each
group each day. Animals will benefit from a major effort to provide a regular
supply of vitamin-mineral enriched insects.
Booth, R. (1999). General Husbandry and medical care of sugar gliders.
In B. JD (Ed.), Current Veterinary
Therapy XIII (pp. pp1157-1163). Philadelphia: Saunders & Co.
Henry, S. R., & Suckling, G. C.
(1984). A review of the ecology of the Sugar Glider. In A. P. Smith & I. D.
Hume (Eds.), Possums and Gliders (pp.
355-358). Sydney: Australian Mammal Society.
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