Education

Temperament Changes in Breeding Sugar Gliders, Cage to Bonding Pouch; Changing Staple Foods

Temperament Changes in Breeding Sugar Gliders ============================== By Lisa Hi Lisa! I have finally finished reading ALL of the GliderVet newsletters and I was right about them answering most of my questions. I still have a few though so I’ll start with one of my most important. I read in the newsletters that sometimes when gliders have joeys their attitudes can change. Is this usually a permanent change or do they usually go back to being your lovable little babies? Shannon Good question Shannon, They usually go back to a...

Fun Animal Videos; A Newbie’s Take on Bonding; A Glider Afraid of the Dark?

Fun Animal Videos by Lisa I get some of the coolest links sent to me of some really awesome animal videos and I’m sure you do too. Most of them...

Why Do Gliders Hiss? =============================== by Lisa Just yesterday I got a call from a brand new Glider Mama who was concerned that she heard her gliders hissing. She had read on the internet that when gliders hiss, it means they are constipated. In my observations, this could be true or false. Sugar gliders that are hissing while just playing or running around can be a perfectly normal activity. As we discussed in a previous newsletter, the glider bark can have a double meaning. Click here to read more about...

How Do We Train Our Humans?; Keeping Sugar Gliders Warm; Tasting Bites; Coconut Oil

Dear Arnold: How Do We Train our Humans? by Arnold (with a little help from Lisa) Arnold Ole Boy, We’ze hope ya can hep us. We’ze just moved to a...

Taking Sugar Gliders To Work ========================= by Lisa Hi Lisa, Just a quick update on the bonding progress. I don't know if this is good progress or not but here goes... Every evening I separate them from the one pouch into two then spend a couple hours just petting them in the pouch and holding them in my hand (while in the pouch). They will take treats from my hand in the cage but still run away from me when I come towards the cage. I bought a small tent...

Diabetics Smell Like Fruit, A Tale of Two Sugar Glider Colors

Diabetics Smell Like Fruit by Lisa I had an interesting visit with a married couple coming to pick up their first sugar gliders and a thought occurred to me during...

Sugar Glider Product Testing ===================================== by Lisa Product safety is a philosophical pursuit that we take very seriously here at SunCoast. Testing products is something that goes on year round here at the Sugar Shack. For every 15 products we test, only about 1 makes the cut. In order to make it on our website, an item must not only be safe and sturdy, but it also has to pass muster of the ultimate end users: our rough-housing sugar gliders! Before considering whether to bring in a toy for testing,...

Feeding Greek Yogurt =============== Over the last couple of years, the amount of grocery shelf space devoted to yogurt seems to reflect an evolution in the yogurt industry. What used to be just a few choices and a few flavors has exploded to such a wide variety of yogurt choices. As such things develop in grocery stores, we start to more get questions right in line. We've always suggested that when feeding yogurt to sugar gliders that you go with flavored varieties that do NOT contain sugar substitutes. Many people...

Sick Gliders Can Be Gentle, Injured Gliders Can be Grumpy ===================================== by Lisa Growing up around a lot of animals, I remember being warned often as a child to be careful around sick or injured animals. They may just turn on you! This makes some sense to me. I know that I am personally getting over a rather nasty sinus infection and if I were to be completely honest with you, I would have to admit that I had some grumpy moments during this episode. So if we get grumpy...

Thrive Versus Survive ================ by Lisa I hear continually from people who are confused and bewildered by the massive information overload one can experience when researching gliders on the internet. Everyone seems to have an idea on diet, cage size, environment, colony size, etc. But as I look at all of the different opinions and viewpoints, it seems most of these opinions fall into two major categories. There is the concept of survive - keep the animal alive, really a human-centric approach of minimal effort. Then there is the concept...

Greetings Glider Groupies, Glider Newbies and Glider Wanna-bes! Welcome to the August 2009 edition of the GliderVet News. I am very excited about this month’s newsletter! Over five years ago we were asked to participate in a study on sugar glider nutrition. The study has come and gone and the results were published back in 2006. This month we'll introduce you to the lead scientist in this effort, provide you a link to the study, and wrap up by introducing a new food product developed after the study. This product...

Be Wary of PVC Coated Wire Cages

Be Wary of the PVC Coated Wire Cages! by Lisa There is major recall going on with PVC or vinyl-coated wire cages. Companies that we know have been affected are Martin’s Cages and Pocket Pets. Martin’s cages has shut down the ability for the general public to purchase sugar glider cages at the time of this writing so that they could test the wire and see if they can discover the source of the problem. Martin's Cages are also sold by other folks in the sugar glider cage business and...