Worldwide Sugar Glider Network

Obesity in Sugar Gliders

This is a picture of Heaven, she was a whopping 238 grams when she came to me. She could not glide, she could not climb the bars of her cage. All Heaven could do was look at me with those beautiful eyes and lick my fingers.

We are going to take a long look the causes of glider obesity here in the near future. In addition, we will address a safe diet plan for those obese gliders that come to us.

When Heaven came to me, in March of 2003, she has been in four different homes in 6 months. Her original owner, a breeder, had passed away and male that she was with had ripped her back open. She still bears a long scar on her shoulder. Her second owner, one of the children of the breeder, did not know what to do with the 20 gliders he found in his mothers home. He gave them to anyone he could find, and told them little to nothing of their needs.

The woman who brought Heaven or "Okalami" to me cared deeply for her, but was ill equipped to deal with a sugar glider. She was told by a pet shop to feed her whatever she ate. So, Heaven was given fried chicken, french fries, hot dogs, well-mostly people food. It did not help that Heaven was on something called "Supreme Blend" at her original owners house. This high fat, high sugar diet was developed as a treat, but was being used as the sole food for Heaven.