A common health problem that I encounter on a routine basis is obesity in sugar gliders.  It is very tempting to overfeed these rather diminutive animals and a common concern that I hear from glider owners is that they are worried that their gliders are not getting enough nutrition.

In the previous two months, I’ve offered advice on dealing with picky eaters.  This month I will discuss the issue of overeaters.  It has been my experience that otherwise healthy gliders tend to overeat more frequently than under-eat.  It’s easy to end up with overweight sugar gliders in captivity for two simple reasons.  In the wild, gliders have unlimited space to run, jump and play, thus requiring the use of much more energy.  Secondly, they must hunt and forage for their own food in the wild and will experience the normal feast or famine cycles of nature.  In captivity, food is always abundant and less energy is expended looking for food.

Obesity in any animal can lead to a variety of health issues, including heart disease, liver or kidney dysfunction, problems with blood sugar and other diseases.  These problems can develop in overweight humans, too!  Excessive weight is unhealthy and quite likely to shorten the life span.

Let’s first examine the reasons why a sugar glider might be overweight.  The problem may or may not be a simple food relationship.  One cause of obesity could be that the cage size is too small.  Sugar gliders are animals possessing a rather high metabolism, meaning that their activity level can be quite energetic during waking hours.  It is essential to offer them a habitat suitable to their activity level.  The minimal size cage that is recommended for proper sugar glider housing is at least three feet in height and nearly equal in width, with cage size increasing commensurate to the number of animals housed.  I want to emphasize that this is not what I would consider an ideal size cage, this is simply a minimal requirement.  If the cage they are in is too small, their activity level will be severely restricted and they will burn fewer calories, causing them to be overweight.

Along this same line of thought, you may offer a suitable cage size, but lack in exercise-oriented enrichments.  Toys that encourage exercise should be readily available, particularly a running wheel. Sugar gliders will actually use a large size wheel more fervently than they will a smaller size more suitable to hamsters.  So be sure to offer your sugar gliders a variety of appropriate exercise tools.

Now before we get further into diet related obesity, I do think it important to mention that some sugar gliders will develop obesity in spite of a large cage, plenty of opportunity to exercise, and a regulated diet.  This delves into behavioral issues that can develop in gliders and such behavioral disorders are the most difficult to contend with.  Case in point, Lisa and Debbie keep four sugar gliders in one cage, Arnold, Naomi, Janine, and Buddy.  Janine is my namesake, as Lisa and Debbie credit me with saving her life as a young joey.

Janine was actually placed in a new home and her new keeper chose not to follow Lisa and Debbie’s feeding instructions.  She had this little female glider for over a week and fed her only grapes.  Of course, the glider became very ill and to be honest, I did not hold out a great deal of hope for her.  In order to save her, she would have to go on a regimen of two hour hand feedings, along with twice a day antibiotic treatments and a bit of luck thrown in as well.

She was very skinny, very weak, and septic from the inappropriate feeding routine.  Lisa and Debbie took on this project and Janine grew stronger and bigger and bigger and bigger and now she is on a diet. When it comes to behavioral disorders, all the medical professional can really do is make an educated guess as to the cause.  We can speculate that Janine is overweight in this juncture of her life as she was literally starved as a joey.  She is always the first glider awake and at the food dish and the last to leave the food dish every night. She seems to have a food compulsion and simply “can’t get enough.” Janine lives in the deluxe cage.

Her cage is also outfitted with an abundance of toys and the toys are rotated continuously.  Janine shows little interest in playing with the toys.  She has little interest in running and playing when allowed out of cage playtime.  Lisa calls her “the brooch” as she simply chooses to sit wherever you place her.

Here lies the major challenge in getting overweight gliders to lose weight - most gliders live in habitats with at least one other glider and not all gliders in the colony will have the same weight issues.

Now that we’ve identified some of the reasons that gliders can develop weight problems, next month I will offer you some suggestions on what you can do about it!