0Sugar Gliders are Bad Pets | Why NOT to Buy a Sugar Glider

Hey guys, welcome back to my channel. Today we're going to be talking about whether or not sugar gliders are bad pets. I hear a lot of people saying how horrible they are to have to care for and have to deal with. So today we're going to be exploring that topic and we're going to talk about what it's really like to live with these strange exotic animals. So before we get started with that, don't forget to hit that subscribe button down below so that you never miss one of my animal videos. Sugar gliders in case you didn't know are a marsupial that are from Australia and they're now available in the exotic pet trade. Sugar gliders that live in the United States as well as European countries, places like that, they are actually captive bred. They have not been wild caught for many years. Um, basically since, you know, the 1990s, early 1990s when they started being imported. Since then they're mostly just all captive bred, at least here in the United States and in other European countries. Because from what I've read, it seems like it is illegal in most places to take sugar gliders out of the wild. So they've been being bred in captivity since the early 1990s. In fact, my father was one of the first people to start breeding them in captivity when they first were being imported. We've come a long way since then and we now have tons of information about these animals and about how to care for them in captivity. But that doesn't stop people from putting tons of bad information out there on the internet, which leads to impulse buys and then these animals are abandoned, neglected and abused. So let's talk about why these animals might not be a good fit for everyone. Let me start off first by saying that there is no such thing as a good pet or a bad pet. I know, I know the title of the video says differently, but I hear a lot of people saying that sugar gliders are bad pets and I think they're using the wrong words because good or bad is objective and it's more about you, the owner. It's not really so much about the actual animal. Let's talk about it this way. Do you have a good home for a sugar glider or do you have a bad home for a sugar glider? Because it's not the animal that's good or bad. It's actually the environment. I'll be honest, I don't think the sugar gliders are a good choice for most people. I do not recommend them as children's pets. I don't recommend them as family pets. I would never tell somebody to get these type of pets for their kids. Sugar gliders truly are an exotic animal and I think that for the most part they're just too much for most people. Now I did have sugar gliders growing up and in some situations like with us, it can work as you know, a family pet, but my dad was very invested into it and it was, you know, his project more than just, it wasn't my parents getting the sugar gliders for us, for the kids. It was my dad's investment, my dad's project and it was something that we got to be a part of, which was great. So maybe in some cases these animals can be good for families, but the whole family has to be invested into it and they have to realize how hard it is going to be going into it. When considering sugar gliders as pets, you have to be aware of the fact that they are colony animals and this means that you have to have two or more. So it's fine if you know, you just want to have two sugar gliders. You can not just have one sugar glider. I don't care what the breeder said, what the store said, what anybody said. These are colony animals. This is science. They want to live together. You have to get two. There are no ifs, buts, ands, or whys. Two or none. That's the rule. And people, when I make these videos, sometimes people don't get that and I'll get somebody just, just watch the comments down below. I will get somebody asking, but what if I only have one or what if I can only afford one or just all the tons of excuses that people give? And the short answer to that is you're abusing your pet. That's, that's what the answer is to that. If you only have one, it's animal abuse. So I don't want to spend a whole video ranting about this, you know, small detail. So please just understand it is two or it is none. It's not one zero or two. Now, if you can have more than that, that's cool. I have three living together. They do awesome. If you cannot get to make the responsible choice and don't have this as a pet, don't start off with an animal saying like, Oh, I can only do so much. No, you have to be in it completely or just not at all. And if you only have one sugar glider, then fix that and do research before getting a pet. And please, please, to those of you watching, don't write any comments about, well, what if, what if, what if no two or zero that's let's move on to the next topic. Okay, moving on diet. I think diet is probably where people make the next biggest mistake. This is something that's overlooked a lot just because I feel like everything makes it difficult. Like either the information's completely terrible about their diet or it's good information, but it makes it seem overly complicated and people get confused. Now that's not to say it isn't difficult. A sugar gliders diet is somewhat hard to maintain. It's not going to be easy. The sugar gliders cannot live off of a pellet diet. They just can't. That's not a complete diet for them. And when it comes to sugar glider care, it's, it's kind of like politics. You have, you know, the people that are over here or way over here. And I fall somewhere kind of in the middle, I think, because I'm not, you know, one of those people that's like all sugar gliders eat is pellets. That's all they need to be fed. But I'm also not, you know, over here on this side where I'm like, never give your sugar gliders pellets. Um, they can be part of the diet. Uh, so basically sugar gliders for their diet, the main part is going to be a BLM or HPW diet. Um, HPW is the one I use. It is short for high protein Whambaroo diet that's specific to, you know, their needs is Australian animals. It's something that you have to order. You're probably not going to find this in a store. It's in some cases you might, but it's something you have to order. It comes in a powder form. It's kind of like a protein shake. You add water eggs and honey to it, blend it all together for them. And so that's something that you have to prepare for them all the time. So it's more complicated than for a lot of other animals because there is no substitute for this. There's, there's nothing that you can feed them instead. Um, you have to, you know, pick one of those, either the BLM or HPW and that's the main part of their diet. And then on top of that, they need other things like insects, fresh fruits and vegetables. There's quite a lot that does go into their diet. And all of that, like I said, is it's in addition to their food. It's not as a treat. It's not, you know, either, or it's in addition. So it's the, you know, HPW formula along with insects and fruits and vegetables. So for such small little animals, it's really quite a big variety of food. My sugar gliders have five dishes every single night. So of course it's water, uh, insects. I get my insects canned from exotic nutrition and it has the same nutritional value as, um, live insects. Whereas if you get dried, they don't have as much nutritional value in them. So, uh, that and then they also get their fruits and vegetable mix. And that's a mix of six to eight different types of fruits and vegetables that changes weekly. And it's more vegetables than fruit, but they, they do like fruit a lot. And then, uh, their pellets, the most important part, their HPW formula. So, uh, it's, you know, five different dishes that they have to get, you know, on every day on a regular basis. So that's, uh, what I'm saying is that their diet is, is more complex than different types of animals, especially more domesticated species where their food is readily available in basically any pet store. And then that also brings me to one of the next points is that, um, it's very important to watch your calcium phosphorus ratio when feeding sugar gliders, because if you're not careful with that and the sugar gliders are not getting enough calcium in their diet, they can actually get very ill from this and have a lot of health problems resulting from not having enough calcium in their diet. So that's another thing that you have to think about with the sugar gliders. Now I wouldn't necessarily say that it's expensive to feed sugar gliders, but, um, they do require quite a big variety. And I think that's, what's hard to keep up with. It's, it's hard to keep up with providing them with everything that they need. And then on top of that, it's not pre-packaged. It's not something that you can just go and pick up and buy like you can with other animals. And so therefore you're the one preparing it. And you have to make smart decisions when getting the meals ready for your sugar gliders. So for example, I saw this video where this guy was going to feed his sugar gliders. And so he was going to give him vegetables. So basically what he did is he gave them half a baked potato and some carrots. So it was absolutely horrifying watching that. And it's, that's not a good thing to feed them. And you have to make those conscious decisions for them because sugar gliders are little trash cans. Okay. They will eat anything. And just because they can and will eat anything doesn't mean that they should, that it's good for them. I guess it's kind of like with people just because somebody can and does often eat McDonald's every single day doesn't mean that it's not a heart attack waiting to happen. So you have to make those healthy life choices for sugar gliders. And I think this is why people end up giving sugar gliders such bad diets and feeding them such bad food is I guess they, they give their sugar gliders the food. Like I saw someone who was giving their sugar gliders pasta, like that's all they were feeding them. And the sugar glider was eating it. So I guess they think, Oh, okay, well, they ate it. They liked it. That's what I'm going to feed them. And you can't do that. These are little scavenger animals. They're going to eat whatever it is that they find. Sugar gliders aren't really too picky. Um, mine, I've gotten them used to a certain lifestyle, certain diet. And so they've in a way become kind of picky and they expect that food. Um, but other sugar gliders, if they're not so well taken care of, they're going to take whatever it is that they can get. And so that's why it's easy to put a sugar glider on a bad diet and for them to survive. But diet affects our bodies longterm. And so putting them on that bad diet, yeah, it works for a few months. They eat it, they're surviving, but they're, they're not going to be healthy and it's going to lead to a lot of health problems and early death and just make healthy life choices for your sugar gliders. If you're going to commit to these pets, you have to be ready to give them a good diet. And that's probably one of the most difficult things about their care. So let's talk about their smell. I don't really find it difficult to keep sugar gliders clean. Um, even though they actually can be quite messy. Um, that's not so bad, but they're, they have a distinct odor. Like sugar gliders actually smell a certain way. And so there's really no way to get rid of that part of them. It's worse when you have a male sugar glider that hasn't been neutered, but even then, then it's a lot stronger. But with just, you know, females or with neutered males, they have a very distinct smell to them and it's not necessarily that it's a bad smell. It's just a, an odor that's just very, you know, distinct to their species. And you can walk into somebody's house and smell that sugar gliders live there. It's not necessarily that it smells bad. It's just that if you're familiar with that smell, you will catch it. And so I think probably other people coming into your house will smell it. They probably won't know what it is, but you know, they will smell it. And so that's, you know, with what I do is I wash everything in their cage at least once a week and that helps keep the smell down and keep it controlled so that it is clean. But there is still that odor from the sugar gliders. Also people can be allergic to sugar gliders. I think this is more to the touch than to the area around them. So if you are interested in sugar gliders, I would definitely go and try to handle some, see how your skin reacts before making a commitment to them. So let's talk about cages. Sugar gliders do need large cages and bird cages are usually what works well for them. However, it's different than setting up a bird cage. It's different than setting up a rat cage. I think that sugar gliders are so unique to themselves that it's actually very hard to compare them to anything. It's, you know, not exactly like, you know, caring for a rat, the cage you don't set it up like a bird cage. Just they're very unique animals and everything needs to be made to their needs. And I do have a tour of my sugar glider cage. So you guys will be able to check that down below in the description of the video. Sugar gliders are very difficult to handle before they bond to people and this can be kind of overwhelming. They are small animals, but one of their defense mechanisms is to sound loud and overpowering like they're bigger and they're feistier than they actually are. And even for someone like me, who's used to animal behavior, my brain still tells me to be cautious when confronted by a crabbing sugar glider. I think maybe it's the pitch from the sound that they make. They stop doing that noise once they get used to you, once they get used to their home. With my two sugar gliders, I went years without hearing that crabbing noise from them. And now that I got the two new babies, they do crab at me and it's a little overwhelming sometimes, but it is getting a lot better. Personally for me, if the crabbing was something that they did continuously that they didn't get better with or didn't get used to you, I don't think that I would have them as pets. It's, it's a bit much. It's honestly a pretty annoying noise. It's very loud and they do get better with it, but I wouldn't really like them as pets if they always did that noise. If that was just something that was constantly normal for them. So that kind of tells you how intense the crabbing can actually be sometimes. Oh, he's crabbing. He's very grumpy little monster. Oh, look, I can see his face. He's about 15, 14 weeks old now. So, and he's neutered. Yep. Oh, that's so awesome. Now, once they stop crabbing, that doesn't necessarily mean that they're quiet all the time. They do make a lot of other noises. Um, I don't find those noises to be annoying or bothersome at all. Uh, they do bark things like that sometimes during the night too. So just be aware of that. They're not going to be quiet all the time. They do make noise and they make the most noise during the night, which leads me to the next point is that sugar gliders are a nocturnal animal. So you have to be okay with an animal that's going to sleep all day and be awake all night. That's just their nature. There's nothing you can do to change it. And then they also fly. Well glide actually, but just imagine how hard it is to catch a hamster that's escaped from their cage. But then imagine if that hamster could actually fly around the room and wasn't just limited to the floor and how hard it would be to catch them. That's a sugar glider. So, uh, that's something to, to be aware of. And that's why bonding to them is so important training and getting a relationship with them because they are fast and they're hyper and they glide everywhere. So that's really cool. But then, you know, something that makes them hard to manage if they aren't used to you. Sugar gliders are an amazing animal and there are plenty of reasons to have them as pets. They're super cute and cuddly. They're unique and they form intimate bonds with humans. But it's really important to know what you're getting into before committing to this type of exotic. I hope this video helped you learn some stuff about sugar gliders. Maybe it even helped you decide if they're the right pet for you or not. Thank you guys so much for watching and don't forget to subscribe. You can also follow me on Instagram and Twitter, so I'll see you guys next time. Bye.