Which veggies are the best for gliders?

[Heete10]

I am looking for advice from experienced owners. I have had my glider, Rocky, for over a year. I would say that his diet has consisted of 60% fruits, 35% nuts,cheese,magots and only about 5% vegetables. I have tried many different veggies but my glider seems very picky. He gets fresh snow peas every day and a half teaspoon of baby food sweet potatoes. He is not fond of spinach. Does anyone have suggestions on what other veggies I should try? Are baby foods bad for him? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks for helping to make my glider as healthy as possible. :tomato:
Heather

[yigos flower]

baby foods are great to use!!! but you also want to encourage him to eat more solids..
mine love corn, but you have to watch giving that to them becuase its fatty.

i give mine pretty much everything, they love beats, peas, carrots, sweet potatos, & pretty much whatever, i guess i have lucked out that mine are not picky eaters!!! lol

just be creative with food time.. maybe cut back on his more faves so he 'has' to eat the others.. but make sure he IS eating.

[glidergrl1513]

You shouldn't feed that many nuts, they are too fatty. Maybe one once a week, at most.

Mine love sugar snap peas, sweet potatoes, carrots (sometimes) and a lot of different baby foods. My two like fruit a lot better though.

[Emylee]

Have you looked into a proven diet? I recomend BML or Darcys. ;)

[Oestaira]

For one...try a proven diet like Priscilla's or BML...nuts are a no-no. Sugar gliders cannot metabolize alot of fat and it can store in their eyes and cause blindness. Also, nuts are too hard for their teeth. They eat primarily fruits and insects in the wild. Also, for the love of god, do not give your gliders maggots. They are crawling with disease and filth. Get them meal worms from any pet store.
As for vegitables, mine like sweet peas, sweet potatoes, zuchini, bell peppers, spinach, yams, and so on. Their diet should be 60% fruits and vegitables 40% protein. This is a VERY delicate balance and wavering from it can cause perminant deficiencies and even death.

[Oestaira]

Oh, also, no more cheese!! Sugar gliders cannot handle alot of lactose, naturaly, after weening they do not have any sort of dairy in their diet at all and should not be given dairy products like cheese.

[Emylee]

Cheese is fine. I feed it all the time, no problems. It's a wonderful treat.

[Heete10]

I don't REALLY feed him maggots! I just call his meal worms that because they gross me out! Thanks for the advise on additional veggies and I will reduce his cheese intake! I also give him glider pellets but he only chews them and then spits them out when the flavoring is gone!

[Oestaira]

try zookeeprs staple. It's kinda like pellets...but it's really healthy and soft.

[Oestaira]

sorry about the maggot misunderstanding, that freaked me out! *laughs*

[Jessi]

actually if you buy them commercially, you can feed maggots
www.grubco.com you can get them there!

[Emylee]

Maggots are a great treat for gliders!

NEVER feed gliders that you find outside though. ;)

He's not spitting out the pellets because the taste is gone. lol Gliders extract moisture from their food that is the reason that pellets are not the best food for our babies. You will find if you look that he not only spits out the extracted food when he eats pellets, but with all of his food. Good luck, and if you want to feed maggots there is nothing wrong with that at all. lol I know your not, but it won't do any harm if you ever want to. ;)

[yigos flower]

dairy is not bad for them.. what do you think yogurt is made from??

thats a healthy snack & high in calcium, which they need lots of.

I mean, of course you need to feed other things & not a lot of it at once.. but its not bad for them..

[yigos flower]

oh, i also use Zookeepers secret. Its a proven diet & its also not bad for them. its soft & has what they need...mine do prefer theur BML over it, so i give them half & half. =]

Lots LESS messy that way.

*also a lot cheaper!* lasts a long time

[Oestaira]

I didn't mean to sound brash. Any food no matter how healthy, is dangerous if not given in moderation. Some sugar gliders cannot handle dairy products. Then again, some cannot handle meal worms (!!). I give mine yougurt as a licky treat and they have cottage cheese every now and then. I didn't mean to make dairy sound like the anti-christ, it just shouldn't be a staple of their diet =)

[yigos flower]

no one said you were the anti-christ. ;)

but you want a variety of foods in your gliders diet, yes,it tends to variey from glider to glider on what you can feed, but its like that with humans also.

i just dont want people to shy away from feeding dairy because its actually a very good source of vitamins & calcium for them that they highly benefit from!

[KrazyKritter]

The only thing that gliders absolutly CANNOT have is avacado. Much like birds, they cannot metabolize this and it can cause death. Everything in moderation. If you would like, whomever started this post with question, I can email you a copy of what I feed my gliders, which has proven to be very healthy and the vet I use said that it is the most complete and varied diet for them she had ever seen. Best of luck!

[yigos flower]

same here.. i would be willing to email you a list of things..

There arent TOO many things that are toxic to gliders, but i know catnip is.. just thought i would throw that one out there since a lot of people have cats.. meaning they will sometimes be around catnip.. (happened to a friends glider, so im sold on it being dangerous for them..but some will debate that.)

[Emylee]

Can someone give me the source where it says avacado is toxic? Please? I feed it... and Shadow is still alive. I have never heard that it was toxic.

Link please.

[Oestaira]

Avocado is a deffinate no-no. I don't have a link, but I've never heard otherwise.

[yigos flower]

i have never heard of it being toxic, i have never fed it, but my friend does & has no problems with it.

Em- you should probly ask for a link on another more glider related page, if you find something link it.. i would also like to see some info.

the only other thing i have ever heard to be toxic is onion(but i dont think its toxic, just not good), also salts & seasonings.. seeds are another no no,,, but i would really like some other info on why avovado is bad.. not that i would feed them something so 'exotic' anyways... just curious for the knowledge..


whos study is this?

NEVER EVER heard it was bad.. kinda shocked, since, like i said, my friend feeds it & hers loves it..

i could see if we were talking the gauck (spelling LOL) --yes, i know my grammar skills are not great. haha

hmmmm

something to ponder i suppose..

[Emylee]

Well, I know tons of people who feed it with no problem. I have fed it to my baby for almost a year now with now ill effects. He eats it almost 1 time a week.

Where did you hear this? I really need to hear this from a direct source before I stop giving my glider his favorite food. For now, I won't feed it to him but I need to read up on it.

No garlic or onions. ;)

[Oestaira]

http://www.sugarglider.net <--this is where I get 90% of my information. It is a sugar glider specific forum with many breeders and knowledgable owners

[yigos flower]

yes, i think just about any glider owner knows that place. =]

[Emylee]

yes, i think just about any glider owner knows that place. =]

LOL yes.

I prefer WSGN... :p

Oh, and Priscilla from the pet glider said that it's ok to feed a glider avocado. The only problem with it is that it is high in fat.

Her word is good enough for me. ;)

[yigos flower]

good to know..

thanks!!

didnt think it was that serious since my friend had fed it & no problems... & well, same with you.. lol


dont see a prob with it unless they are being fed a large amount or alllllll the time..

hooray for another safe food!!!!=]=]

[Heete10]

Wow! Thanks for all of the great responses! I'm glad I missed out on most of the arguments though! My email is heete10@aol.com~please send me the diets you use and info about the other professional diets (bmt?) My books have some of this info but not very detailed.

[Emylee]

good to know..

thanks!!

didnt think it was that serious since my friend had fed it & no problems... & well, same with you.. lol


dont see a prob with it unless they are being fed a large amount or alllllll the time..

hooray for another safe food!!!!=]=]

yay!! LOL

I don't know where this idea came from that you can't feed it, but I made a post about it at WSGN, and everyone agrees that it is 100% safe. :)

[Emylee]

Wow! Thanks for all of the great responses! I'm glad I missed out on most of the arguments though! My email is heete10@aol.com~please send me the diets you use and info about the other professional diets (bmt?) My books have some of this info but not very detailed.

These are the 4 best diets, and the ones that most people use.

BML DIET PLAN (http://www.angelfire.com/nb/sugarglider/diet/leadbeat.html)

DARCY'S DIET (http://www.sugargliders.org/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=3)

THE PET GLIDER DIET (http://thepetglider.com/main/content/blogsection/3/47/)

SUNCOAST DIET or ZOOKEEPERS (http://www.sugargliders.org/gliderinfo/diets/suncoast.htm)

[KrazyKritter]

This I heard from my vet, who also deals mostly with birds. May not be true.. anybody else have a good experience with avacados?

[yigos flower]

my site has some info on it.. not a TON, but i also have a glider FORUM of some kind & you can ask questions there.
=]

[KrazyKritter]

Cool. I'm going to check it out. Thanks!

[yigos flower]

just got the forum up & running since my other crashed.. help me to get it hopping again!!! lol