When it comes to taming and treating a wild exotic animal as pets, you might want to do a bit of research. Lucky you, Animal Lova is here to help and teach you to take better care of your sugar glider.
To begin with, you need to get a sugar glider of course. One of the easiest ways to buy one is that you can purchase it online through a buyer. Or you could go to the wet markets or pet markets to find one.
Although in some countries the trade of this animal has been banned, this animal is still quite common to be used as pets in countries such as Asian countries and native to Australia.
There are several reasons that some people love to keep this animal as pets. The first reason is that it has a wide eye, unlike any other animal.
This mammal is also a marsupial also equipped with the ability to glide by using the membranes between the ankle and the feet. Sugar gliders are calm animals at day, but they are very active at night. This is because sugar gliders are nocturnal animals.
- Regular Human Interaction
One of the most important thing when taking care of a pet is that you need to make sure you are spending quality time and interact with it. Sugar gliders can be a very aggressive and grumpy animal when it is left alone and not interacted with.
So for the first time sugar glider owners, don’t be alarmed when your sugar glider bites your hand. It is normal for them to play around like that.
One of the easiest ways to interact with your sugar glider is to let them get inside your pockets. It may be inside the pockets of your pants or even the pockets of your shirt.
This will let them be playful and trust you more. Remember, sugar gliders are very hard to tame because they are wild and not domesticated.
So make sure not to make them feel alarmed, frightened, or even threatened. Always be gentle when gripping onto them or picking them up so that they won’t bite or scratch you.
- Food and Drinks
When it comes to food and drinks, sugar gliders have unique dietary needs. But of course, it isn’t as hard as people think. You just need to choose the safe foods for the sugar gliders.
Sugar gliders are wild animals, so the diet that you feed them must be as similar to as foods that they can obtain in the wild. In the wild, sugar gliders often consume sap and nectar from the trees. Besides that, they also eat meat such as insects, small birds, and rodents which makes them omnivorous.
Plenty of sugar glider owners also experiment with formulated food. This means that they will use a combination of different food to fulfill the needs of their pet.
One of the most popular combinations is called a BML diet, this diet consists of honey, calcium powder, baby cereal, and fresh fruits. They are only fed at nightly basis because sugar gliders are active at night and sleep at day.
- Sanitary
Unlike other domesticated animals, sugar gliders aren’t really born to be tamed. So it will take some time to teach your sugar gliders on where to pee and poop.
On the other side, sugar gliders are a clean animal, this means that they wouldn’t just pee and poop where they sleep or where they play. Instead, it will pee and poop somewhere far from where it usually spends its day.
- Vet Care
Lucky for sugar glider pet owners, they do not have to spend extra money on additional care such as vaccinations. When you pay for a sugar glider and its food, that is pretty much where you would spend your money at.
Sugar gliders are not known to have any diseases such as dogs and cats. This means that you don’t have to worry about having an ill sugar glider.
But of course, they can still get sick if you don’t treat them properly.
- Maintaining Health
One unique ability of a sugar glider unlike other animals is that it needs a high consumption of calcium in its meals. This is because part of a sugar glider’s diet contains phosphor, which is a substance that can be found in fruits and vegetables.
Consuming these phosphorous diets will result in the bones of sugar gliders to become brittle. This is because phosphor can take up calcium from the bones of your sugar gliders.
So to fix this problem, sugar glider owners need to balance the diet of their sugar gliders. The perfect ratio of calcium to phosphor is 2:1.
This means that with any amount of phosphor, you would need twice as much calcium to balance it. This is necessary so that the bones would not easily break and paralyze your exotic pet.
- Illnesses and Sickness
Well like previously mentioned, sugar gliders do not have diseases that come from viruses. But they do have illnesses that come from bacteria called Giardia.
To avoid this problem, be sure to wash clean all the fruits and vegetables that you feed to your pet.
In addition to that, sugar gliders are sensitive pets. This means that when it does not get well with other sugar gliders, it would self-harm due to stress. So make sure you learn your sugar glider’s habits well.
For more tips on sugar gliders, check the right snacks for your sugar gliders.