What can sugar gliders not eat

By Isabella Storyclaire

last updated September 16, 2024

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What Vegetables Can Sugar Gliders Eat? (Plus What to Avoid)

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The purpose of this blog is to share general information and is written to the author's best knowledge. It is not intended to be used in place of veterinary advice. For health concerns, please seek proper veterinary care. In addition, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Sugar gliders are some of the most unique pets out there. If you get one of these adorable pets with giant eyes, youll be the talk of the town!

However, one of the downsides of having exotic pets is that it is harder to find information about taking care of that animal (or even veterinarians that can help you out if there is an issue). You dont want to accidentally make your sugar glider sick by keeping it in the wrong habitat or feeding it the wrong food.

A captive sugar gliders diet is going to look a bit different from its wild cousins. Your domesticated sugar glider will probably eat a lot of vegetables.

Which vegetables are safe for sugar gliders to eat, and which ones should you keep at home? Here is a rule of thumb for preparing salad for your flying friend.

Safe Vegetables for Sugar Gliders

Sugar gliders can eat most vegetables that humans do. When preparing your sugar gliders meal plan, be sure to create a precise balance of nutrients.

Sugar gliders need certain vitamins and minerals more than humans do. Here is a guide to the vegetables your sugar glider can eat based on nutritional value.

High-Calcium Vegetables

One of the most important nutrients for sugar gliders is calcium. Calcium is important for building strong bones. One of the most common health problems for sugar gliders is metabolic bone disease, which is most common in younger animals that dont eat a balanced diet.

It doesnt help that many vegetables are high in phosphorus, which leaches calcium out of the system. To keep your sugar glider healthy, be sure to feed it many vegetables that are high in calcium.

Leafy greens are some of the best sources of calcium for sugar gliders and for humans. Usually, the darker the green, the higher it is in calcium. Some of the best vegetables for sugar gliders are spinach, kale, and bitter greens such as mustard greens.

Other calcium-heavy vegetables include cabbage, green beans, and okra. You can also serve broccoli but in moderation. These vegetables should make up the bulk of your sugar gliders diet.

Sweet Vegetables

Most of us humans are not used to thinking of vegetables as sweet because were spoiled by the selection of chocolate and artificially flavored desserts available to us. However, to a sugar glider, the natural sweetness of vegetables is the equivalent of candy to a kid.

Your sugar glider will love having a few pieces of sweet potato to chew on during mealtimes. Sweet potato is naturally sweet but does not contain any harmful chemicals for the sugar glider.

Another sweet vegetable that sugar gliders love is the humble carrot. These roots have a delicate natural sweetness and the animals like crunching on them.

Sweeter root vegetables such as sweet potatoes and carrots are perfectly safe for sugar gliders. However, if you feed your glider too many sweet vegetables, you will spoil its appetite for other veggies and it may miss out on valuable nutrients, especially calcium. Try to keep sweeter vegetables to a minimum or only give them to your glider as treats.

Other Vegetables

Sugar gliders can eat most vegetables, giving you plenty of options if you want to switch up your pets diet so it doesnt get bored, or you cant find the exact vegetable that you wanted to buy at the grocery store.

Crunchy green vegetables such as peas, string beans, and green beans will be a hit with your sugar glider.

You can rotate out vegetables seasonally for your pet. Do you like chowing down on bountiful summer vegetables from the farmers market? So will your sugar glider if you share juicy summer tomatoes and late August corn with it. In the fall, chop up some squash to serve as a treat.

Your sugar glider probably doesnt care about the aesthetics of its meal as long as it gets fed on time, but if you feel like being creative, you can add pops of color to its vegetable plate. Serve up chunks of colorful bell pepper, cooked beets, cooked eggplant, or even cooked pumpkin.

How to Serve Vegetables to Your Sugar Glider

Now that you know which vegetables are safe for sugar gliders, how can you serve them to your little pet?

Sugar gliders are fine with fresh or frozen vegetables, just let the frozen vegetables thaw before giving it to your pet. Avoid canned or preserved vegetables because they have added sugars and other materials that are harmful to sugar gliders.

Some people wonder if they have to buy organic vegetables for their pets. You can if you want to, but the price of organic vegetables will add up, even when youre feeding an animal as small as a sugar glider! Just be sure to thoroughly wash the vegetables before feeding it to your sugar glider to get rid of any pesticides and you should be fine.

Before serving any vegetables to your sugar glider, fresh or frozen, chop them up into small pieces. These small animals dont have very powerful jaws and you dont want your poor sugar glider to be stuck in front of a meal it cant eat.

How Often Can Sugar Gliders Eat Vegetables?

Most pet guides recommend feeding sugar gliders twice a day, once in the early morning and once in the evening, to replicate their natural circadian rhythms. They can eat vegetables dailymost pet guides recommend serving the vegetables at night.

When you give your sugar gliders their daily serving of vegetables, be sure to take away any leftovers the next day and give them a fresh serving. Sugar gliders dont operate like human children where you make them eat their leftovers, so they learn their lesson. Rotting food in their habitat could make them sick and definitely will make for an unpleasant living environment for you.

How Much Vegetables Can Sugar Gliders Eat?

Sugar gliders are tiny animals so they dont eat a lot of vegetableswhich will save you money on your grocery bills! Most guides recommend feeding your glider two tablespoons of vegetables per day, or one tablespoon of vegetables and one tablespoon of fruits.

Of course, thats not the only thing your glider will eateven a tiny animal such as a sugar glider will starve on such little food. You should supplement its diet with protein or a dedicated sugar glider pet food such as HPW.

What Vegetables Should Sugar Gliders Avoid?

Sugar gliders can eat most vegetables, meaning that when you make yourself a salad its easy enough to make a smaller one for your pet. However, there are a few plants that are perfectly safe for humans but could make your sugar glider quite ill.

Sugar gliders cannot eat any alliums. Alliums is a family of aromatic vegetables that includes onions and garlic. In fact, onions and garlic are dangerous for almost all pets because the plants contain toxic substances that hurt pets such as cats, dogs, and sugar gliders.

Sugar gliders should never eat rhubarb either. Although rhubarb is technically not a vegetable, many people confuse it for one, so dont accidentally give it to your glider. The plant contains oxalates that could be dangerous for your sugar glider.

You also shouldnt give your sugar glider raw lima beans. If you want to serve your pet something from the bean family, opt for green beans or peas instead.

There are some vegetables that are not necessarily harmful to sugar gliders, but dont offer much benefit either. Iceberg lettuce has little to no nutritional value, so cut up a leafy green with calcium for your sugar glider instead. Your glider also shouldnt have too many vegetables that are high in phosphorus, including broccoli.

What Do Sugar Gliders Eat in the Wild?

The diet of a sugar glider hanging out in your home will be very different from its wild cousins.

In the Australian bush, which is their native habitat, sugar gliders primarily eat insects, nectar, pollen, and sap from eucalyptus and acacia trees. While you can replicate this diet for your sugar glider somewhat, for example by feeding it captive insects, a perfect reproduction is impossible.

Thats why sugar gliders in captivity eat primarily prepared pellets and other pet foods designed to give them the same nutrients as their wild diet, along with supplemental fruits and vegetables.

Sugar Gliders and Vegetables

Sugar gliders need a few tablespoons of vegetables daily to supplement their diet of prepared pet food. Luckily, these omnivorous creatures have wide-ranging tastes even when it comes to vegetables and will eat almost any vegetables.

Serve them crunchy produce such as beet tops, seasonal delights such as squash, and even some colorful cooked produce such as eggplant.

When putting together a vegetable plate for your sugar glider, just make sure that you have plenty of vegetables that are high in calcium and only a few sweet ones such as carrots to avoid the sugar glider equivalent of gorging on junk food.

I have a bachelors degree in construction engineering. When Im not constructing or remodeling X-Ray Rooms, Cardiovascular Labs, and Pharmacies, Im at home with my wife, two daughters and a dog. Outside of family, I love grilling and barbequing on my Big Green Egg and working on projects around the house. Growing up, I had pet dogs, cats, deer, sugar gliders, chinchillas, a bird, chickens, fish, and a goat.

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What Fruits Can Sugar Gliders Eat? (The Best and Worst Options)

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Have you recently purchased a pet sugar glider? Youre likely having fun with your new pet since these animals can be very interesting.

You want to do your best to care for your new pet so it can thrive. This means feeding the pet properly and ensuring that it gets good nutrition.

Its common for people to give sugar gliders pieces of fruit as snacks. What fruits can sugar gliders safely eat?

Keep reading to learn about sugar gliders and what types of fruit they can consume. Itll help you to give your sugar glider only fruits that are known to be safe.

Can Sugar Gliders Eat Oranges?

Oranges are considered to be good snacks for sugar gliders. These pets seem to love it when their owners feed them oranges.

You should cut oranges into slices and give them to sugar gliders that way. Its also fine to give them orange peels to eat, but this should be done in moderation.

Too many orange peels can be bad for sugar gliders. Its also imperative to avoid giving sugar gliders orange seeds.

Simply be careful to prepare things properly. Youll have a good experience feeding oranges to your pet sugar glider.

Can Sugar Gliders Eat Grapes?

Grapes are another very common type of fruit that youll see sugar gliders eating. Its good to give grapes to your sugar gliders so long as you dont give them too much.

Like other types of fruit, grapes will be good snacks for sugar gliders. Simply ensure that youre giving the animals these fruits in moderation.

Its convenient to give grapes to your sugar gliders because theyre easy to eat. Sugar gliders will love these and theyll likely become a regular snack.

Can Sugar Gliders Eat Blueberries?

Blueberries should be fine for sugar gliders to eat. Before giving blueberries to your pet, its important to wash them thoroughly.

Sugar gliders seem to love blueberries quite a bit. They will happily eat these fruits when you offer them to them.

Just try not to give the sugar glider blueberries too often. You dont want your pet to become overweight.

Can Sugar Gliders Eat Pumpkins?

Its okay to give sugar gliders pumpkins, but you need to be careful. When sugar gliders eat too much pumpkin, its easy for them to have issues with loose stools.

So long as you exercise moderation everything will be okay. These pets can eat both pumpkin and pumpkin seeds.

Sugar gliders love eating pumpkins and getting through the shell seems to be satisfying for them. Just dont give your sugar gliders pumpkins too often.

Can Sugar Gliders Eat Kiwi?

Kiwis are another type of fruit that these pets love to eat. Before giving them kiwis, its important to remove the skin.

Take the time to remove the skin from the kiwi and your sugar glider will be able to enjoy it. Your sugar glider will likely be very happy with the treat.

Dont give them kiwis all the time. Whenever your sugar glider eats kiwis, it should be in small amounts.

Can Sugar Gliders Eat Peaches?

Peaches will be fine to give to sugar gliders, However, you have to cut the peach into slices.

You cant give the whole peach to a sugar glider because it might try to eat the pit. The pit is bad for the sugar glider.

As always, be sure not to give an abundance of peach slices to the sugar glider. Giving them peach slices as an occasional snack is acceptable.

Can Sugar Gliders Eat Cherries?

Cherries are okay for sugar gliders so long as you remove the pit and the stem. Youll need to give them just the cherry itself.

Sugar gliders do love eating cherries. Itll be a snack that your pet will look forward to.

Dont give the sugar gliders too many cherries at once. So long as youre giving your pet small amounts of cherries this should work out okay.

Can Sugar Gliders Eat Cucumbers?

Cucumbers are a good occasional treat for sugar gliders. Its pretty normal for owners to give cucumbers to their pets.

Its easy because sugar gliders can eat the cucumber, the skin, and the seeds without it being a problem. You simply need to wash the cucumber thoroughly before giving it to your pet.

This can be a semi-regular treat for your sugar glider. It might be one of the more convenient options that you have.

Can Sugar Gliders Eat Bananas?

Sugar gliders absolutely adore bananas and will happily eat them as snacks. You need to remove the peel and give them just the banana, though.

Its also common for people to give these pets banana chips. Sugar gliders love banana chips, but it has such a high sugar concentration that you cant give it to your pet more than once per month.

You can feed a standard banana to your sugar glider once per week if you want to. Your pet will really love it.

Can Sugar Gliders Eat Pineapples?

Pineapple is another acceptable type of fruit to give to sugar gliders. Of course, you need to prepare the pineapple so the sugar glider can eat it safely.

You must remove the rind and the stem first. Once this has been done, your sugar glider can enjoy eating the pineapple.

Do your best to only give small amounts of pineapple to your pet. You dont want to give them pineapples as treats too often either.

Can Sugar Gliders Eat Tomatoes?

Its said that all types of tomatoes are safe for sugar gliders to eat. Cherry tomatoes are among the most popular options to give to sugar gliders.

Be sure to choose tomatoes that havent been exposed to pesticides. Give them to your sugar gliders in moderation.

Overall, tomatoes are a good type of fruit to give to sugar gliders. Theyre not expensive and its easy to wash them before feeding them to your pets.

Can Sugar Gliders Eat Apples?

Apples are supposed to be good treats for sugar gliders. You should always wash the apple and remove the skin first, though.

Its also important to remove the stem and get rid of any seeds. As long as you do this, your sugar glider will love the apples.

Can Sugar Gliders Eat Strawberries?

No, strawberries are not good for sugar gliders. These fruits are delectable to humans, but they shouldnt be given to sugar gliders.

Under no circumstances should you feed strawberries to your sugar glider. Doing so could be potentially harmful.

Always be careful to check new types of fruit to see if theyre safe for sugar gliders. Failure to do so could lead to health issues.

How Often Can Sugar Gliders Eat Fruit?

Its fine to feed your sugar gliders fruit on a daily basis. However, fruit isnt the only thing you should give to them.

Typically, youre going to feed these pets both fruits and vegetables on a daily basis. Change the fruits that you give the sugar glider each day to ensure that it gets a mixture of different nutrients.

Some people choose to feed sugar gliders protein cubes as well. The diet should consist of healthy fruits, veggies, and protein.

How Much Fruit Can Sugar Gliders Eat?

Make sure not to give your sugar gliders too much fruit on a daily basis. You want to give them about one tablespoon of fruit per day.

Giving your pet more than this could be detrimental. Sugar gliders will struggle if they eat too much and become overweight.

One tablespoon of fruits and one tablespoon of veggies should be good for your pet. Serve this to your sugar glider on a nightly basis.

What Fruits Should Sugar Gliders Avoid?

There are many types of fruits that sugar gliders should avoid. As mentioned earlier, strawberries arent good for sugar gliders.

There are other types of berries that should be avoided as well. You should never give sugar gliders blackberries or raspberries.

Other fruits that need to be avoided include figs and pears. You should also know that any type of fruit can be bad for sugar gliders if it has been treated with pesticides.

Therefore, its likely safer to buy organic fruits that havent been treated with any pesticides. When you care about the safety of your pet, its best to take precautions.

Final Thoughts

Youve learned a lot about sugar gliders and what types of fruit they like. There are so many different types of fruit that you can give to these animals.

Fruit will be a standard part of your sugar gliders diet. Itll eat fruits such as bananas, grapes, and cucumbers fairly often.

Simply remember to give fruit to sugar gliders in moderation. Its said that you should give a sugar glider one tablespoon of fruit each night.

Change things up and give the sugar glider different types of fruit. Ensure that you keep it as happy and healthy as possible.

Avoid giving sugar gliders figs and pears. They also cant eat blackberries, raspberries, or strawberries.

Keep all of this in mind and you shouldnt have trouble caring for sugar gliders. Youll have a good experience and your sugar gliders will be happy to be under your care.

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