by Danelle Karth

Created on: March 25, 2008

The sugar glider is an adorable little possum with large dark eyes and tiny features. This pocket friend is small getting to be about five to six inches, plus tail. It is natively from Australia, but has become a huge hit in the homes of exotic pets all over the world.

This fun little marsupial has a lot to offer as a pet, but he or she comes with a lot of responsibilities as well. While they make great pets, bond well with humans, and can be a load of fun to watch and to play with, they do have certain needs that should be met. They should be well cared for and a little research should go into it before they are purchased.

Legality.
While the Sugar Glider is legal in many places, it isn't legal everywhere. The first step is to check with your country, state or province, county, and city/town/township laws and make sure that it is legal for you to own a sugar glider.

Housing.
Once you have determined that you want to get a sugar glider, you need to prepare to have one. While they don't have difficult housing needs, they do have a few very specific needs. A sugar glider should have a fairly large cage for lots of fun. It should be at least 36" tall, the taller the better. It is also a good idea to have it be no less then 18"x24". But because they are very active, the bigger, the better. You will want the cage to be a wire cage so that they can climb, play, jump, and glide. Other great things to include are shelves, perches, ropes, branches, and toys. You can even get them a wheel which they will love running on.

Nutrition.
It is best to feed your sugar gliders a fruit or vegetable each night as well as a portion of protein such as crickets, meal worms, or boiled eggs. The choices should be switched around each night and all uneaten food should be removed in the morning. During the day there should be a supplemental dry food that is created for sugar gliders and similar animals. It isn't a good idea to feed your sugar glider food that isn't recommended for it. Most of your sugar glider's nutrients should be coming from fresh fruit and vegetables and proteins and only supplemented by the the dry foods. It is also a good idea to feed them a vitamin and mineral supplement.

Bonding.
Bonding is something that is very important for people with sugar gliders. This often takes a lot of patients and time, but isn't usually a hard thing to do. It should be done slowly by spending more and more time with him or her. You should spend a lot of time with your sugar gliders each day.

It should also be noted that there should be two gliders. It doesn't matter if they are the same sex or not. You can also have males neutered so they don't smell as much. This is rather an expensive procedure, but because a sugar glider lives for 12-14 years it is really worth it. Sugar gliders love traveling about and playing with humans, especially ones they are bonded too. They make fantastic exotic pets, but they do require a little bit of money and a little bit of work.

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