by Danelle Karth

Created on: February 24, 2009

The sugar glider is a small marsupial from Eastern Australia, Papua New Guinea, and parts of Indonesia. It has become a very popular pet in parts of Europe, Japan, and the United States. In fact, there are an estimated 1.1 million sugar gliders that live in the United States as pets. This makes this exotic and still fairly new pet more popular then the Guinea pig. But what is it?

The Sugar Glider.

The sugar glider (scientific name Petaurus breviceps meaning "tight rope walker" with a "short head") is a small marsupial. It gets to be about 5-6 inches, but has a long tail that is about the same length as its body. It weights in at 4-5 ounces. For the most part the sugar glider is shades of gray. Its face is often lighter and it has a dark gray to black marking that goes down its body. The tip of the tail is usually black. Dark markings are on also on the face and legs. Other colors do exist, but this is the most common one.

What's In a Name.

The sugar glider gets its common name from two descriptive elements. The first is "sugar" which it gets from its sweet tooth. In the wild sugar gliders eat a wide variety of sweet foods. This includes gum, sap, nectar, and honeydew (a sweet substance secreted by insects that eat nectar). While they also eat insects, small animals, and eggs, it is for their love of sweets that give them the name sugar glider.

The second potion of their name comes from what they can do. They have a furry membrane that stretches from their wrists to their ankles. This membrane, called a patagium, allows them to glide from tree to tree and branch to branch. During the gliding process their tails act as a steering device and their large opposable thumbs on their feet help them to grip branches. They get term glider because they are able to glide, similarly to flying squirrels (though they are not related).

Males and Females.

Males have a diamond shaped scent gland on the tops of their heads. This area tends to be bald. Other scent glands are located on the chest and genitals. The female has a pouch which the young are grown in. There is also a scent gland near the pouch.

Reproduction.

Sugar gliders breed and produce offspring once a year in the wild and two to three times (sometimes even four times) a year in captivity. Usually they have one or two babies each time. Very rarely it will be seen that they have triplets, but more then three babies is extremely rare. While they do not mate for life, they do form strong bonds and are difficult to introduce

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