PETS

Sugar Gliders that have been fed a proper diet, have a good home, and receive all the attention they need are healthy and happy pets. But even with proper care, sometimes illness or injury can occur. Some of the more common health concerns are listed below.

Calcium Deficiency
Symptoms of calcium deficiency are lameness, paralysis, and difficulty moving. To prevent calcium deficiency, feed your glider calcium rich foods and provide a calcium supplement.

Sugar Gliders may become constipated if not fed enough roughage in their diet. Symptoms are a hard distended stomach, difficulty defecating, and hard dry stool.

Diarrhea
Diarrhea can be from eating too much citrus fruit, stress, or other causes. Your pet can quickly become dehydrated and die if the problem persists and is left untreated.

Injury
Your sugar glider may receive open wounds, torn claws, or broken bones from accidents and other unforeseen events. Veterinarian aid is advised for any severe injuries.

Obesity
Gliders fed a diet of fatty foods may become overweight. If your pet is overweight, reduce the amount of fatty foods in his diet. Sugar gliders of proper weight live happier and healthier lives.

Parasites
Parasites common to the sugar glider are ticks, mites, fleas, lice, roundworm, hookworm and tapeworm. Advice from a veterinarian is helpful in determining the correct treatment depending on the type of parasite.

Stress
Stress can be caused by a poor diet, illness, dirty cage, a small or overcrowded cage, overhandling, loneliness, boredom, excessive heat or cold, or one of many other possible reasons. Symptoms may be loss of appetite, excessive eating, excessive sleeping, or frantically circling the cage.

 

You want your sugar glider to be happy and healthy so you should provide him with the best possible home. A great home is safe, secure, and has plenty of room to eat, sleep, and exercise.

Cage
Sugar gliders need room to climb so the cage should be as large as possible. For one glider the cage should be at least 20″ x 20″ x 30″. Since sugar gliders like to climb and prefer their food to be placed high up, a tall cage is best. With your pet’s home, bigger is always better, so go with the largest cage possible. The cage should use wire mesh or metal bars. Tall bird cages often make excellent homes.

The cage needs to be in an area that is away from human traffic during the day so your pet can sleep. The cage should be in an area that gets enough light to distinguish between night and day, but avoid direct sunlight.

Nesting Box
Being nocturnal, your sugar glider will need a nesting box to sleep in during the day. The nesting box can be a cloth pouch with a slit in front and attached to the side of the cage, a wooden birdhouse, or even a plastic hamster house.

Bedding & Substrate
Wood shavings, shredded plain paper, or bedding made from recycled paper can be used on the floor of the cage and will help to absorb urine, droppings, and dropped fruit. There are many suitable commercial beddings available. Whichever substrate you choose should be non-toxic, in case your pet eats it, and good at absorbing waste.

Food & Water
Heavy flat bottom dishes or dishes that attach to the sides of the cage are best for food and water. Sugar gliders like to eat up high so containers that attach to the side of the cage often work best. A stoppered water bottle that attaches to the cage is an excellent choice for water.

Decor
Sugar Gliders love to climb, so climbing branches should be provided in the cage area. Make sure you use non-toxic wood. When your pet strips the bark on the branches or the branches become soiled replace them with fresh branches.

Toys
Sugar Gliders like to play and will enjoy bird toys, ladders, chew toys, tunnels, and bells. Solid exercise wheels and run about balls can also be exciting toys for your pet sugar glider.

Fruits & Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables you could feed your sugar glider are apples, avocados, bananas, cantaloupe, carrots, sweet corn, figs, grapes, grapefruit, mangoes, oranges, peaches, pears, pineapples, sweet potatoes, and many others.

Protein Foods
Small pieces of cooked lean cuts of meat or poultry without any additional spices or sauces are good sources of protein. Hard boiled eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese, and tofu are also other protein options.

Dry Cat Food or Dog Food
Dry cat food and dog food can be used as a source of protein but should be used sparingly. These foods are not designed for sugar gliders and may not fill the nutritional needs of your pet.

Treats
Sugar Gliders love live insects. Crickets, mealworms, and earthworms are easily attainable insects. Don’t feed your glider insects that have been collected outside where they may have been contaminated with pesticides. Although great sources of protein, insects should only be used as treats due to their high fat content.

Nuts are extremely popular treats with sugar gliders. The nuts should be raw and unsalted and be given out sparingly. Although loved by gliders, nuts are high in fat.

Supplements
Sugar gliders can sometimes be picky eaters. Even with a well balanced diet your pet may be lacking in important vitamins and minerals. Reptile multivitamin and calcium with D3 supplements can help make sure you have a happy healthy pet. Even though sugar gliders aren’t reptiles, the reptile supplements are convenient, affordable, and supply the needed dietary vitamins and minerals.

Water
Even though sugar gliders drink very little and get most of their water from food, fresh water should always be available for your pet. A stoppered water bottle is a great way to keep water available.

Petaurus breviceps

Sugar gliders live about 10-15 years in captivity.

The sugar glider'd body is about 5-6 inches long, and the tail adds another 6 inches. They weigh only 4-5.5 oz (100-160 grams).

Sugar gliders are native to Australia (Eastern part), Papua New Guinea and parts of Indonesia.

Description:

Temperament:

Habits:

There are many options for housing your bunny indoors, including custom enclosures, puppy-pens, or simply a bunny proofed room. We'll discuss each option below.

We prefer to let our pet rabbits have free reign in a bunny proofedroom. We chose to keep them in the room we use as an office. It is large with an open floor plan and generally speaking, one of us is always there to supervise. A section of the room contains theirlitter boxes, hay box, and food dishes on top of a plastic chair mat to catch any spills or accidents. They enjoy the freedom of exploring at a leisurely pace or taking a top speed run whenever they choose to. We provide cardboard castles for them if they feel the need to get away for a while.

A great option to consider is setting up a puppy-pen (or X-pen) in an area of your house for your rabbit. A puppy-pen can be purchased at many pet supply stores.

They are large enough hold all of the essentials for a rabbit and give them room to roam. Pens are easy to move when needed.

If you are concerned about your flooring or carpet, you can place a plastic chair mat, piece of linoleum, or an old rug at the bottom of the pen. (Make sure your rabbit doesn't ingest these materials however, because this can cause blockage. Keeping the edges out of reach helps limit this behavior.) The type of puppy-pens generally for sale do not have a top to them, so make sure you purchase one that is high enough that your rabbit cannot jump out.

Puppy-pens are useful if you intend to eventually give your rabbit free reign in a bunny proofed room. Limiting your rabbit's space in the beginning will allow him/her to grow accustomed to the location of the food and litter box(es). By gradually increasing the space, your rabbit will not feel overwhelmed by a large area. This helps prevent accidents and lower stress.

If you're handy, the sky's the limit when it comes to building custom enclosures. You can use wood, metal, repurposed furniture, and other materials to build a bunny condo. (See our blog post, Modern Bunny Hutch, for an example of a bunny house made from repurposed IKEA furniture.) One thing to note is that you should never build a rabbit enclosure with chicken wire because rabbits can chew the wire and hurt themselves. Also, if you decide to build with metal, the slats should be fairly close together so your rabbit cannot get his/her head through. Otherwise, your rabbit may get injured or strangled.

An easy way to build a custom enclosure is with wire storage cubes. Wire storage cubes, available at Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, and Amazon, can be customized into many different arrangements. Although slightly time-consuming, building a bunny condo out of storage cubes can present a fairly inexpensive option. (For step-by-step instructions on how to build a bunny condo with storage cubes, see the House Rabbit Network website.)

Of all the housing options, cages provide the least amount of space for your bunny, so if possible, we recommend trying a pen or custom enclosure setup first. However, if you do opt to house your bunny in a large cage, you must ensure the rabbit gets plenty of time of time outside the cage- at least a few hours daily. The options for cages are varied but require a few basics for the well being of your rabbit.

Cages must be large enough to accommodate your bunny. The bigger the better! There needs to be room for your rabbit to move about and lie down, as well as space for food, water, litter box and toys. Never use glass aquariums as they are seldom large enough and do not have enough air circulation. It is also best to have a cage with a front door so your rabbit can come and go on his/her own.

Some people prefer cages with wire bottoms because a litter pan can be placed underneath. This is generally fine, but you need to include a tile or a piece of wood or cardboard for the bunny to stand/lie on. Standing on the wire floor alone can cause damage and discomfort to your rabbit's paws.

There are many different housing possibilities to consider for your rabbit. Rabbits need a place where they feel safe as well as room to exercise and explore. The best option will depend on your living arrangements. But remember, rabbits are very social creatures, so choose a location in your home that won't leave your bunny feeling lonely and abandoned.

Well, first, if you want to have bunny babies you should read everything you

can on the subject and also talk to your local animal shelters and rabbit rescue organizations. (Rabbit overpopulation is a big issue... it's usually better to adopt than to breed.)

1) Rabbits breed very quickly. A female can have a litter of as many as nine   babies each month. They can have as many as 200 baby bunnies in one year. In fact, females can get pregnant again as quickly as 24 hours after giving birth.


2) You'll be able to tell if the female is pregnant a few days after conception. Because her hormones are wreaking havoc with her, she will become moody and aggressive. You'll also be able to feel her nipples growing. Continue to feed her unlimited hay, fresh greens and limited pellets. The mom-to-be should be housed separately for her own health and comfort.


3) Once the babies are born, their mom will clean them off. Then, you should remove them from the living area to check on their conditions and take away any babies who did not survive. Keep the nest box with the bunnies inside then take them to nurse from their mom in the morning and in the evening each day.


4) You'll notice the bunnies are born with their eyes closed and naked. Their fur will begin to grow immediately, but it takes time to fill out. The babies will begin opening their eyes when they are between 10 and 13 days old.


5) You'll want to make sure the babies continue to nurse until they are at least two months old. By the third week, they'll want to start exploring outside of the nesting box. Make sure you have a flat, comfortable surface for them to run around on. You don't want them to stand on wires because they have tiny feet that could easily get stuck, causing them injury. 


6) When the babies are seven weeks old, you'll want to allow them to nurse from their mother only every other day, in order to prepare them for the weaning stage. When they are two months old, you'll want to wean them completely from their mother's milk.


7) You can tell a male from a female when the male's testicles drop.


8) Start putting the babies in different living quarters when they are approximately three months old.