Sorri....today jugak i'll try to vary their diet more. I solemnly promise.
and KP can u do me a favour...these pictures of our joeys are taken recently. I really need to know how old are they.
the pics are a bit blur. camera hp only.

Cheekoo
Koochee

Yup..n they are really2 small.

Cat food is just nice for our Malaysian weather?

Let's see, why do we call them 'millers' in the first place? Why not breeder or home breeder? There is a significant difference in the words. A miller can apply to almost anyone breeding any specific or multiple animals in mass production. Do you know how many gliders they have? They usually have almost 200 wild caught adult gliders breeding all year round. You say that they don't need to follow what we feed, yes, you don't need to, but do gliders eat cat food and apples as their staple in the wild? No right? The breeder that supplies to Pet Safari does not feed them Orijen because if he did, he wouldn't be making profit as it's a lot more expensive compared to other more commercial brands.

The research done is not as perfected as dogs or cats, like I said before, they are EXOTIC animals, so since so little research is done, the best diet for them is to replicate the variety they get in the wild. It's like me saying I should feed cat food to my snake because buying rats and mice is too much hassle and it's cheaper to feed cat food, since I have a cat anyway, so I feed cat food.

Btw, we're not naming or labeling anyone here as a miller, I just said the advise is from a typical miller.

How can you say this, 'some love western food n others might not like it tooo so i think the best thing for all of us to do is feed ur suggies with nutritous food according to ur budget as long as the suggies r well looked after n have proper care.' This 'according to your budget as long as they are looked after and properly cared for', please explain. How can feeding apples and cat food, 'according to the miller's budget', be properly looking after and caring for them? The most care he can probably give IS feeding them, unless the miller does nothing but spend time with all the breeding sugar gliders.
The thing why ppl worry about the age is usually because 'If they are too young is there a risk they might fall sick or die?'

I don't think it's wrong to ask and worry about his/her gliders, though a bit late as it's after the person bought them, it's still not too late to ask and know more about their health and nutrition. It's IS important to know the age because gliders that are too young can't even take fruits, they need milk and the milk they need is not your average cow or goat milk you buy from the super market.

Of course you fully understand what he is saying, it's because you are a hamster miller yourself. It fits the criteria. You have about 100 hamsters. You are breeding them for quantity, not quality right? But the difference here is, hamster nutrition cannot be compared to gliders.

You get grains from the pet store that sells them in huge sacks. Get a few grains, barley, wheat, oat groats, let's not forget the kuaci, millet etc. Mix them all up and store them in some store room. It'll last you a month or so, everyday just open the bag, dish out a bowlfull, chore done. But you take initiative to go buy sacks of grains from the shop! You take initiative to mix it all together! But we know what hamsters need to eat. We know that it's mainly grains like those. Do we know what gliders need to eat? Can their nutritional needs be fulfilled by cat food and apples? Course not.

This mindset about, 'If it weren't for these ppl breeding in mass quantity, you won't have such a pet.' I find that wrong. A number of years ago, gliders were not RM300. not even RM488, they were above RM1000. They were already AVAILABLE, just that ppl couldn't afford to buy. They were not MADE AVAILABLE by ppl that bred them in mass. In a way it was good that they were that price, make ppl treasure them a lot more and curbs impulse buyers from getting on impulse.

O_O broken_string, i don't have a glider yet and I have't experienced wat you're going through, but I think your sugar glider's condition is screaming "get me to a vet now!" it looks serious....

About chocolate bring toxic, my dad's friends owned a rabbit which was huge and cute. I was shocked to find that the couple were feeding it chocolate and ice cream. The rabbit must like it too since it eats it eagerly everytime. I think the couple must be feeding the chocolate for a certain time. Anyway, I went to their house after slightly less than 1 year, and found out that their rabbit passed away. The rabbit wasn't really old and and has the best care (1 small room all for itself, fresh vegetables, water and rabbit pellets, etc) it was healthy (external wise) so i think it's probably the chocolate and ice cream coming into effect.

So I think that owners should lay off chocolates and ice cream for your pets. they're human food meant for humans and obviously it doesn't do well for your pets (and excessive amounts of chocolate and ice cream isn't good for people either. It's considered junk food right?).

Mako, I don't think Reanne meant it as an insult... There are also mass breeders who produce good quality pets I guess and we shouldn't say ALL millers are bad. But I think the major difference of a home breeder hobbyist and a mass breeder's pet is the tameness? A mass breeder probably doesn't have that much time to bond and get all their animals accustomed well to people. I mean there are hundreds right? Taking care of them is already such a task so it is perfectly understandable. Homebreeders have the luxury of taming their pets because they have less and more time? So if tameness is considered part of "quality"... You get my drift? No offense meant at all Mako. If I offended you I apologize. ^^" It's just that I like pets who are tame and can be easily well bonded to me, besides being healthy.