Sugar Glider — Fact Sheet

Petaurus breviceps · Sugar Glider · Kurzkopfgleitbeutler

📋 At a glance

🏠 Enclosure

• Keep a compatible pair or small group; do not house routinely alone
• Pair minimum: 150 × 90 × 180 cm; larger for additional animals
• Secure narrow-spaced metal cage with positive locks and an escape-safe room
• Low-dust absorbent substrate below the cage; clean food residue every morning
• Avoid galvanized or damaged coated wire, exposed cables, cotton wool, and fraying fabric

🪨 Enclosure furniture

• Multiple nest boxes or seamless pouches, more than one feeding station, and visual cover
• Flexible branches, cork, safe ropes, shelves, and open leap routes through the full height
• Large glider-safe wheel only: solid track, no center axle, crossbar, or pinch point
• Inspect pouches, claws, fasteners, and locks daily

💡 Lighting

• UVB is not established as a routine requirement
• 10–12 hours light followed by complete visible darkness
• No colored night lamps or direct sun on sleeping pouches
• Keep fixtures and cables outside chewing reach

🌡️ Temperature

• Basking spot: none required

• Warm zone: 22–27 °C

• Cool zone: 20–24 °C

• Night: 20–26 °C

• Warm the room or use an inaccessible thermostatically controlled source

• Measure both sleeping pouches and high and low perches

• Avoid heat rocks, cage heat mats, unguarded bulbs, and uniform overheating

💧 Humidity & water

• 50–70% RH with strong ventilation and dry sleeping material
• Fresh water continuously; bottle plus stable elevated bowl gives redundancy
• Check bottle flow and bowl contamination every day
• Remove soaked bedding and perishable food each morning

🪳 Diet

Feed regularly:

• One complete veterinarian-reviewed sugar-glider diet protocol
• Formulated staple or measured nectar/exudate substitute
• Protocol-specific protein component and calcium gut-loaded insects
• Controlled vegetables and limited fruit

In moderation:

• Treat insects and other higher-fat extras counted within the plan

Avoid:

• Fruit-only diets, mixed homemade protocols, chocolate, caffeine, alcohol, onion, garlic, avocado, raw meat or egg, fruit pits and seeds

Supplements:

• Use only the calcium, vitamin D, and multivitamin amounts specified by the chosen complete protocol
• Never stack supplements from different recipes

🌙 Nocturnal routine

• Offer measured food after dusk on several elevated stations
• Remove leftovers in the morning and record appetite
• Provide safe evening exercise and foraging without other pets present
• Weigh each animal weekly and watch for food guarding or social withdrawal

🩺 Health — warning signs

• Weak grip, tremors, fractures, or dragging hind limbs → nutritional bone disease or other emergency
• Weight loss, reduced appetite, or sunken eyes → illness or dehydration
• Bald patches, circling, self-biting, or constant calling → medical or social stress
• Labored breathing, persistent diarrhea, swelling, bleeding, or prolapsed tissue → urgent veterinary problem
• Toe, tail, or patagium wound → enclosure or fabric injury

Consult an exotic-mammal veterinarian promptly; small marsupials can decline quickly.