Message:

Subject: Gliders in the wild.
Posted by JO on February 17, 1999 at 20:50:15:

I while back we were all treated to a wild glider URL. Remember haow fat they seemed to us. Well, I emailed an Austrialian Rescue site and asked them why their gliders seemed so fat in the wild while ours seem smaller.

Here is the answer I got:

>"When fully grown the weight of a sugar glider varies from 115 - 160g
for
>males (average weight 140g) and 95-135 for females (average weight
115g).
>
>It is interesting that you think that the gliders you keep as pets are
>smaller looking than the ones in our pictures. I recently have been
caring
>for a glider that came in at around 50g as the result of a cat attack.
> When she was about 100g and almost ready to release back into the wild
>another glider came in which I paired up with her over the period of a
few
>days. The new glider was slightly smaller than her but the thing that
>struck me most was that the one I had in care was sooo much fatter than
the
>one that had recently come in from the wild. I put this down to the
>reputation that these animals have of being a bit of a 'pig' when it
comes
>to food. So I am surprised that an animal that is kept in permanent
care
>is smaller than one that is wild. However a couple of reasons could
>possibly be
>
>- the muscle tone on a animal kept as a pet would not be nearly so good
as
>one in the wild
>- diet - as we have much more of an opportunity to feed their natural
foods
>(about 90% of my gliders diets would be the galls and sap off black
wattle)
>- they are a little bundle of fur, maybe one that is kept inside all of
the
>time does not need to grow so much fur and therefore gives the
impression
>of being smaller
>- any animal that is under a degree of stress will not grow and thrive
to
>the same degree that a wild animal will, there may also be a degree of
>inbreeding etc. in the animals that you have over there, I am not sure
of
>how this is regulated etc.

too cool! I am trying to find out more about their actual diet...

JO

Follow Ups:

• Re: Gliders in the wild. W 09:00:23 2/18/99 (1)
  • Re: Gliders in the wild. Jo 01:14:37 2/19/99 (0)
• Re: Gliders in the wild. Aliza 21:33:31 2/17/99 (0)