PandaSaysRawr Glider   USA
84 Posts
I recently got a pair of sugar gliders, about a month and a half ago. They are twin boys, about 13-14 months old. The previous owner obviously had no idea about them. They were kept in a flimsy 18" by 18" by 24" bird cage set on top of a screen mesh with puppy pads underneath to catch drippings... He fed them freezedried crickets (the kind for reptiles) and DOG TREATS coated in maple syrup, with various yogurts. They had no toys or wheel or anything. They didn't even have NAMES when I bought them. ):
Since I got them I've noticed that one, I named Sora, is rather large compared to his brother, Roxas. I have not been able to afford a vet visit, but will have the money and am taking them in on Oct 8th to a vet I found in the database. I've been feeding them Exotic Nutrition's instant HPW and Glider Complete, as well as additional fresh fruits, with mealworms for treats. I've also noticed that their underbellies are pretty yellow. I'm just wondering if anybody has any idea what I should do or if I'm doing things right? Theyre slowly bonding to me. They don't hardly crab like they used to. And Roxas generally greets me by jumping to the side of the cage closest to my bedroom door when I come in to go to bed at night (:
Oh I should also mention that I now house them in a cage I made, just like the one on JustForFuzzies. Any and all help is welcome
PandaSaysRawr Glider USA 84 Posts Imbrium Super Glider  USA 313 Posts I responded to this question in your other thread before I got around to reading this one... as I said there, they both look to be within the "acceptable" range (ie no cause for concern), but Sora's definitely "fluffy" (the polite way to say that a glider's a little fat, lol). Cutting back on his treats (and possibly his mealies - if you're feeding him more than maybe 5 a day, start restricting him a bit) might help and if he plants himself at the food dish each night and hogs up the dinners like an adorable little piggy then you can split their dinners in half and serve the halves in different parts of the cage so he can only scarf from one serving of food at a time. Gliders typically self-regulate food intake (ie they stop eating when they get full), but there are definitely exceptions. Sometimes it can be a learned habit and/or an emotional issue of sorts - for example, if he wasn't getting fed enough of that godawful "diet" to be comfortably full during his waking hours, disliked that crap too much to eat enough of it and was therefore always hungry or if his previous owner somehow forgot to feed them some nights, he could easily have learned (ie come to expect) that tasty, filling food is uncomfortably scarce, leading him to stuff his face with as much as he can whenever it's available because he's worried he might not be given more tomorrow. Maybe he's just so pleased with his nutritious new diet that he's become a bit of a glutton for the enjoyment of it. Another thing to watch is his eating habits - specifically, *what* he's eating. He may not have any food issues at all and might just be selectively eating the higher-calorie options because they're tastier. I forgot to ask in the other thread... are you feeding veggies as well? They're meant to get equal portions of fruits and vegetables. Fruit is high in sugar and therefore more calorie-dense than most veggies. Also, if he goes straight for the staple part of the diet, he could be sucking down a lot of liquid calories that aren't as filling as f/v, allowing him to eat more before he gets full (I know my gliders won't even touch fruits and veggies as long as there's HPW complete available on their plates). A possible solution to the "gobbling up the staple" part of the diet is to serve ONLY fruits and veggies - no staple - when they first wake up and you put out their dinner. Depending on your sleeping schedule and theirs, serve the staple either right before you go to bed or first thing when you wake up (just make sure they've got a few hours of "awake" time left before they cozy up for the day). They'll almost certainly get hungry enough in the absence of the staple food to munch on fruits and veggies and if the staple is their favorite, they'll still make room to eat it when it finally appears (so they'll still get all their vitamins, calcium and protein). I actually do this with my gliders fairly often to get them to eat more fruits and veggies. None of mine are fluffy, but I want to make sure they're eating a well-rounded diet. PandaSaysRawr Glider USA 84 Posts Yeah, Sora is a little chubby (: I do try to feed them both fruits and veggies, but I always notice there are more veggies in the drop pan, and no fruits left, lol. And I also thought maybe they were eating more of the HPW stuff, but I actually watched them eat a few nights in a row and they almost always scarf down the fresh fruits and veggies, then pick out the dried fruits and veggies in their Dry food, and snack on the HPW throughout their waking hours. It's almost all gone by the morning, except the pellets, that bowl diminishes slowly through the day when they wake up for snack time. It's a relief to hear from an experienced momma-suggie that I'm doing okay, lol. Again, thanks so much Imbrium Super Glider USA 313 Posts I didn't realize you were feeding dry food as well... I would cut that from their diet, as pellets are high calorie and aren't particularly healthy. Dried fruits/veggies are more concentrated calories, too. HPW is meant to be fed with fruits, veggies and insects only - no pellets. You can find information on the various HPW diets here
(that website belongs to the creator of all three variations of HPW); the info will be much more accurate (in my experience, exotic nutrition appears to be a little more concerned with sales than accuracy, heh). Personally, I favor (and feed) the original HPW diet because it's been successfully fed to gliders the longest; failing that, I'd go with the plus. The complete (ie instant) HPW has dried eggs, dried honey, etc. which have only very recently started to be used in glider diets - the long-term pros/cons of the dried versions for gliders aren't really known yet, so I'm just more comfortable feeding the original version. (If you're interested in trying the original, the best deal for the Wombaroo powder + shipping seems to be from The Pampered Glider
). Edit: Oh, and when you're finding veggies in the drop pan, are you sure they're uneaten? With many veggies, gliders suck out the insides and abandon the skin/shell of the veggie ;). tsugie Super Glider 370 Posts quote:
Originally posted by PandaSaysRawr
The only reason Ive been feeding the pellets with the instant HPW is because that's what it says to do.. Okay so If I drop the pellets, then what dry food should I put so that they can snack on it during the day?
Where does it say to do that? You don't have to put any dry food for them to eat during the day. Some people do, but it is in no way necessary. PandaSaysRawr Glider USA 84 Posts On exotic nutrition's website, that's what it suggests. But I do think they lean more towards sales... I think I may try the original hpw. I just want to get them on a healthy diet, but it's so hard to do with all the different views. >.< So, with the regular HPW diet, you feed a TEAspoon of it with one TABLEspoon of fruit, and one TABLEspoon of veggies, plus a couple live bugs? tsugie Super Glider 370 Posts Peggy's website says 1-1/2 teaspoons of HPW per glider 1 TABLEspoon of mixed fruits per glider 1 TABLEspoon of mixed veggies per glider I was told that it should be increased to one tablespoon of HPW per glider because the new HPW variations (the ones that don't actually have the Wombaroo supplement) are that amount. I haven't increased it. I think she would have updated it on her website if it really needed to be increased. I don't know if she has stated it on other websites/forums, but on the HPW Diet Center website is NOT stated. My gliders eat around 2 1/2 tablespoons of fruits and vegetables each, though. So those amounts will vary some from glider to glider. A little bit of fruits and/or vegetables should be left in the morning. Minnesota Zoo Fuzzy Wuzzy USA 1999 Posts @ MoMo Mama... The new cage is On the Gliderkids Reduced honey version. They love it and is what the breeder who owned them before me had always fed them. Since Momma had Joeys IP I didn't want to force her to go off the Staple she was used to. I offered them the "OHPW" that my other gang is on one nite,I was hoping they would like it and was going to make their diet the next day but thinking if they ate it I could switch them over if they liked it, but they would touch it. The babies are 8 weeks now (and hopefully weaned from Momma) So I will try it again and see how it goes. I did add the "Now brand"calcium supplement and 1/4 c extra Wombaroo to the OHPW so I could feed them more f/v variety, so it is in the diet list on Candy's site called the "Glider Kids Wombaroo Staple"...so it's technically "Modified OHPW".
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