I've seen posts about SunCoasts Wholesome Balance Chicken & Brown Rice Blend. Basically the concensus seems 2B that it is a pretty good diet but it's not an all inclusive protein source. I'm not debating that, but while looking on their site & reading about the ingredients, it brought up questions in my mind,....

It has Vit.E & Omega 3's & of course the Brown Rice. I am wondering if we can cook brown rice & feed it to our babies??? Has anyone ever opened a vit. E or a fish oil Gel cap & added these vitamins to their babies food?

Thanks 4 the input,...& if this is one of those DUH things that I am just missing,....BE NICE! LOL!!!!

I have heard of people adding vit e. I also got a sample pack of that with my last order from them and gave it to my babies as a treat, they liked it.

~Michelle~

Exactly! They sent me a sample when I ordered my cage. I feed HPW but they stopped eating it so I got concerned,...saw the sample sitting there untouched & thought what the h***! Soaked about 10 pieces in apple juice & they scarfed it up! So of course now I'm questioning if I should make this a part of their diet once or twice a week when they get bored of the HPW again???? That led me to investigating the ingredients which led to my current question about the rice & vitamins.


<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Faerie</i>
<br />I have heard of people adding vit e. I also got a sample pack of that with my last order from them and gave it to my babies as a treat, they liked it.

~Michelle~
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

OK, my Zoey has prompted another question tonight. I have small pumpkins growing in my yard, the tiny decorative ones. I didn't plant them, they just seeded from the ones I decorated with last fall so there is no bug spray or anything. I brought one in that was ripe,...the vine is brown & dead. It's just sitting on my entry table & Miss Zoey jumped onto that table & started going to town on this pumpkin! She chewed on the vine & spread her little arms out, almost "hugging" this little pumpkin as she tried to bite it! It was quite humorous, but of course it made me question if pumpkin can hurt them???? If not, I was thinking of just placing the pumpkin in her cage & letting her play with it, & eat it if she's able...as long as it's safe. Thanks!!!!

Canned pumpkin (just plain pumpkin) is safe for gliders (I'm not sure about just raw pumpkin but I can't see why not), but it is used to treat constipation and diarrhea so it should be given sparingly.

The primary idea behind offering a nutritionally balanced, animal protein-based pellet is to make sure all the gliders can access complete nutrition (including essential micro-nutrients) at any time they want to eat. By offering pellets, you counteract some of the reasons why "food offered is not food consumed by every glider", like favoring certain foods, food stealing, food boredom, food spoilage, etc.

Another way to look at it is this: if the pellets are available, you don't need to be as concerned about letting the gliders choose what they like to eat among the fresh foods, meaning you can provide more variety on the fresh side, keeping the gliders from getting bored with the feeding routine.

Not saying SunCoast approach is a better diet than others, just a different way to view diet that's more flexible and (animal nutritionists in professional settings would say) more stimulating and fun for a captive exotic animal. Search Google for Behavioral Enrichment or Environmental Enrichment for more info, for example:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_enrichment

Just an FYI if you are planning on adding Vitamin E to their diet. Please watch the amount you add as it is a fat soluble vitamin and will stay in their bodies, and any extra will not be released in urine. the fat soluble vitamins are A D E and K :)

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Sarah2880</i>
<br />Just an FYI if you are planning on adding Vitamin E to their diet. Please watch the amount you add as it is a fat soluble vitamin and will stay in their bodies, and any extra will not be released in urine. the fat soluble vitamins are A D E and K :)<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">


Thank u everyone & TY Sarah for the fat info....no I'm not "planning" on anything, the question just entered my mind & I know "they" say that Vit. E makes for soft, suptle (sp??) coats so I was just wondering. Of course if everyone said, "Oh yeah, I do it once a week & it's great!" Then yes, I probably would but if the cons outweigh the pros, then no....they already get a multi-vitamin every other day so the extra prob. isn't needed.

What's everyone's opinion on the Omega 3 fish oils?????

The problem with trying to add vitamin E or the fish oil would be that we do not have information to determine the correct dosage for gliders.

Emptying a capsule into an entire batch of a glider diet such as BML or the Blended Diet, maybe ok but I would not just open a capsule and add it directly to the food when you are serving it - that would be giving a human size dose to a very tiny animal and would definitely be too much.

Most of the diets contain foods that contain the necessary vitamins. BML has the herpivite vitamins. The Original HPW diet and the Blended Diet use Wombaroo High Protein Supplement that contains vitamins. HPW Plus and HPW Complete also supply vitamins for those diets.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by JazzNZoeysmom</i>
<br />OK, my Zoey has prompted another question tonight. I have small pumpkins growing in my yard, the tiny decorative ones. I didn't plant them, they just seeded from the ones I decorated with last fall so there is no bug spray or anything. I brought one in that was ripe,...the vine is brown & dead. It's just sitting on my entry table & Miss Zoey jumped onto that table & started going to town on this pumpkin! She chewed on the vine & spread her little arms out, almost "hugging" this little pumpkin as she tried to bite it! It was quite humorous, but of course it made me question if pumpkin can hurt them???? If not, I was thinking of just placing the pumpkin in her cage & letting her play with it, & eat it if she's able...as long as it's safe. Thanks!!!!
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Pumpkin is on the list of glider safe fruits and veggies, so I would go for it, the image of her hugging the pumpkin is adorable!

~Michelle~

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by JazzNZoeysmom</i>
<br />I've seen posts about SunCoasts Wholesome Balance Chicken & Brown Rice Blend. Basically the concensus seems 2B that it is a pretty good diet but it's not an all inclusive protein source. I'm not debating that, but while looking on their site & reading about the ingredients, it brought up questions in my mind,....

It has Vit.E & Omega 3's & of course the Brown Rice. I am wondering if we can cook brown rice & feed it to our babies??? Has anyone ever opened a vit. E or a fish oil Gel cap & added these vitamins to their babies food?

Thanks 4 the input,...& if this is one of those DUH things that I am just missing,....BE NICE! LOL!!!!
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Yes, actually, I am pretty sure Val of Kingdom Critters Rescue feeds things such as that regularly. Val has her own diet called "Val's Green Variety Diet" and it calls for Vitamin E to be added. I have also heard her saying she feeds pasta plain occasionally.

http://thesweetspot.forumotion.net/t86-val-s-green-variety-diet

I am almost positive I have heard Pocketprincess of GC stating that she feeds brown rice along with her raw diet regularly. Brown rice is a good source of protein and can be fed but if it were my gliders it would only be sparingly.

Just an FYI. This is pocketprincess from GC. I don't feed any grains in my diet as they would need to be cooked and I don't cook a single piece of anything that goes into their mouths. My theory (and the prof's at Oklahoma State) is "Gliders don't build campfires", which means that they do better on a whole food, raw diet.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by khigh</i>
<br />Just an FYI. This is pocketprincess from GC. I don't feed any grains in my diet as they would need to be cooked and I don't cook a single piece of anything that goes into their mouths. My theory (and the prof's at Oklahoma State) is "Gliders don't build campfires", which means that they do better on a whole food, raw diet.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Lol....that was dumb of me....I even said you feed a raw diet and then went on to say you might feed cooked rice....Ummm ... good catch and thank you for clarifying.

No problem!

Your raw diet interests me. I have wondered this myself I know that gliders don't cook their meat so why do we? I also feed my GSD raw. Can you give me some examples of what you feed.

DISCLAIMER: This is not yet an approved diet and I am not trying to pass it off as one. It's hard to narrow down a basic diet because they get something different every night and the levels of protein to carbs depends on the season. Here is just an example of a nightly feeding:

1. feeder anoles (frozen- I put mine on the vibrating reptile dishes- they won't eat it if it isn't moving), a few goldfish (out of water, but alive- another foraging food), snap peas, mango, acacia gum, Sangre de Drago tree sap, and jaggery root.

2. pinky mice, pomegranate, bok choy, candied dried Indian violets, agave necter, acacia gum, apple branches, and quail eggs.

3. -Raw chicken wings on bone
-Yogurt
-Raw Goat's Milk (they LOOOOVE it and I do too- great calcium levels!)
-Sojo's fruit and veggie mix (it's a dehydrated raw vegetarian dog food-just add water- that contains: Sweet Potatoes, carrots, broccoli, celery, apples, whole egg, flax meal, parsley leaf, calcium carbonate, kelp powder, alfalfa, ginger root, and garlic)
-Papaya
-Violet Blossoms
-ground egg shells

4. Ground Turkey
Raw Goat's milk
Frozen mixed veggies (being lazy tonight)
Starfruit
Papaya
Ayurvedic Spice Mix for Cooling (teensy bit)

If anyone wants me to start a thread on it, let me know and I will!

Didn't get a pic of her "hugging" it, but she sure luvs that pumpkin!


And I wondered about the cooking also,...I know Gliders eat bird eggs but we cook the chicken eggs???? I'm sure we do it for fear of somanila (sp???) or parasites.... Does anyone ever give raw egg "on occassion?"

I adopted a pair of gliders that were fed this and well they looked kinda crappy. That's not to say the previous owner was feeding the diet properly ( switched them)

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by khigh</i>
<br />If anyone wants me to start a thread on it, let me know and I will!
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I would luv 4U2! I'm interested in exploring this a bit further.....

Oh, that pic is precious!!! Perfect for the Fall season coming up!

I would LOVE for you to start a thread on it. What I found kinda amusing was the vegetarian dog food??? Dogs are carnivores. Who would do that to a dog?

That picture is absolutely adorable!!!

for dogs you mix your own meat. my dogs get it with their more exotic proteins.<s></s>

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by JazzNZoeysmom</i>
<br />
And I wondered about the cooking also,...I know Gliders eat bird eggs but we cook the chicken eggs???? I'm sure we do it for fear of somanila (sp???) or parasites.... Does anyone ever give raw egg "on occassion?"
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Your right, there is a very high risk of salmonella and e-coli infections when people do not cook meat and other animal products throughly. The reason for this is because of the conditions that farm animals are produced in. Factoring farming produces almost all of the animal produce found in grocery stores. The reason why factory farming products need to be throughly cooked is because the environment these animals are produced in is an optimal environment for bacteria because there are so many animals in one small space and it is also hard to keep these places clean. This is why when feeding a raw diet or when you are on a raw diet yourself it is very imperative that one only eat local farm raised animals and produce so that you know exactly what your ingesting. Which leads me to my next point I have fed my gliders quail eggs but I would never feed them a raw chicken egg because of the risk and also the size...lol Anyway they loved the quail eggs they had. They were completely annihilated in 30 minutes.

Thanks Vicious, that makes TOTAL sense!