The thing is, aflatoxins are considered unavoidable contaminants of food and feed, even when good manufacturing and production practices have been followed. The FDA has established guidelines on acceptable levels of aflatoxins in human food and animal feed by establishing action levels that allow for the removal of violative lots from commerce. The action level for human food is 20 ppb (parts per billion) total aflatoxins, with the exception of milk which has an action level of 0.5 ppb for aflatoxin M1. The action level for most feeds is also 20 ppb. However, it is very difficult to accurately estimate aflatoxins concentration in a large quantity of material because of the variability associated with testing procedures; hence, the true aflatoxin concentration in a lot cannot be determined with 100% certainty.


Key word is "human" consumption. when they talk about "animal" feed, they are talking about Cows, other livestock, not our furry little tiny guys,... they aren't even talking aobut cats and dogs here.... animals that consume and have by products for human cosumption are what they set the guidlines here for.... We're talking about a small little marsupial, that has many times smaller organs than us humans.... and this is where the danger is for these sweet little guys.

1daddyglider1, keep your bedding VERY dry, and you won't have to worry about the mold spores that make aflatoxins so easy to form.

Yes, there are more than just peanuts and corn by-products... wheat, oats, grains, just as Teresa stated, anything in low lying areas left to sit around and collect moisture is a danger of aflatoxin formation. Any thing or One that cosumes the aflatoxin, will be ingesting the toxin. It does bind to the DNA.


Mizvalorie; I highly recommend you feed only Oat products, as Wheat Germ will form toxins after 72 hours of non-refrigeration, and feed veggies such as leafy veggies that are of no nutritional value to your mealies. If you feed a proven diet, there is absolutley no need to add any gut loading type veggies. Potatoes are extremely high in iron and something you should reconsider feeding to your suggies. I just place the leaf part of lettuce, romaine and iceberg, both are just watery basically and will not add or take away from your proven ratioed diet. Besides, mealworms are extremely efficient at seeking and extracting moisture from the bedding even though there is no moisture that is visible.

Thank you all. I have been discussing this alot with my best friend trying to make the right decisions. Not only for my babies but for myself also. Thanks cycy for giving me a different option for bedding, I will throw out the mealies when I get home (I had already stopped feeding them until I had made a decision.)

I just want to say thank you to angelskates, Dancing, PeeperKeeper,and cycy, for so willingly giving out all your information, and past experience to help suggies and their owners.

O.K. Now I am totally confused and in need of therapy for my paranoia. I feed, nightly. BML, a variety of fresh/frozen fruits, veggies and leafy greens and about 5 crickets per glider. In the morning, each glider gets 4 or 5 mealworms. Occasional treats include superworms, grasshoppers, almonds, peanuts and commercially produced "glider treats". Am I killing my babies?

Nuts are considered to many as no no items... basically, aflatoxins, fat and intestinal blockage.... those three reasons are why I do not feed any type nuts in any form... as far as your choice of veggies and fruits, I will send you the back to basics link so you can read up on it...

As far as what you are calling your "leafy veggies" I just want you to know, none are on the specific list.

Peepers, I did the same thing once with the mealies!! I had just bought 500 Superworms and I guess I put too much water on the paper towels. The very next day, there was some discolored Oatmeal so I took all those Superworms out (wasn't easy and took forever) and scrubbed the container with bleach and started over. Nothing got mold after that. OMG!! I am SO SCARED NOW!!

Is there a TEST our vets can do to check for Afloxins in our gliders and get rid of it if they have it???? I'm going to call and ask but it's late right now and I'm panicking!

Chicken too. Great. Remember the song about Paranoia striking deep (into your mind it can creep) (I believe the song is called SIGNS) ? Any deeper and I'll have to bury myself.

When suggies hunt for bugs in the wild, the trees and the forest floor would be full of mold. Maybe that's another reason they don't live so long in the wild?


Speaking of leafy greens. Spinach and lettuce was recalled in the past week for E-Coli.

Maybe I should stop thinking about all this, I'm getting more than paranoid here.

Thank you Cycy, I would appreciate the back to basics link you are referring to. I will eliminate all nuts & greens (I was referring to kale, collards & turnip greens). I only want the very best for my fuzzy-buddies. Is there any place where I can get a list of "safe" foods? My feeding plan is (per glider) nightly: 1 tablespoon BML, 1 tbs. fruit & 1 tbs. veggies + 5 crickets. At 7 a.m. I feed 5 mealies per glider. Does this sound OK? I know there's a big controversy about feeding insects now...I need to study up on this before making a decision on whether to feed or not to feed insects.

Hello SugarBlossoms...I've been owned by many creatures throughout my lifetime, but not since I gave birth to my only child have I been so afraid of making a "mistake" that would hurt this little life that I've been blessed with. All for the love of the Glider...

Back to Basics BML: http://www.angelfire.com/nb/sugargliders/bml/leadbeat.html

I've already raised my three human kids and believe you me when I say that I STILL worry myself to death over them! (2 of them are pushing close to 30 now) I blended all their food as babies cause I was afraid of baby food. There was always a scare of either glass or a foreign object in it in the news. Like I did with them, I cook for my suggies so that I know what's in the food and hopefully to kill off anything bad by boiling/cooking it. I don't bother with hand cream anymore either, I wash my hands so much it wouldn't do any good. grrr lol

I have severe allergies. Growing up, my dream was to be a Vet but I couldn't keep a pet cause of getting so ill and pneumonia from sinus drainage and bad cold symptoms. I kept infections when an animal was around. Imagine my total surprise when after having a poodle for many years, to find this glider creature that didn't make me sick! Thing is, they are just like having babies all over again! LOL I worry just the same. I need therapy, better yet, I'll get another glider! LOL

OK, what everyone is saying makes sense, especially Angelskates. I am going to call the two companies whose frozen corn I feed and ask them about their testing procedures. I am also going to inquire at Petco and see if they will tell me where they get their crickets from and call that supplier to ask the same types of questions of him. Depending on the answers I am given will determine whether or not I will feed either of these items to my babies again. Also, I know you can raise your own crickets just like you can raise your own mealies so that is an option to those of us that like to give our babies what they love. I will post the answers to my questions as soon as I get them and I hope everyone else will do the same. Now, off to make some phone calls!

Petco and PetSmart here both say the crickets come in with corn bedding

I talked to a live bait shop a couple months ago that said the same thing and get this, the bait shop sells those crickets to the local pet shops. grrrr

How about this? Why don't we raise our own crickets? Then the gliders can have them without worrying about the molds.

I found a site that says they sell disease free crickets and mealworms etc. I emailed them to ask how they know they are disease free. (do they test etc.) They sell a feed for the crickets and list the ingredients. Calcium to Phosphorus rate is good as is alot of other things, However, notice the first ingredients listed? Am I jumping the gun here that ground corn cannot be trusted no matter what?




Cricket Food



Guaranteed Analysis


Crude Protein Min 20%
Crude Fat Min 6.5%
Crude Fiber Min 7.0%
Calcium Min 0.8% - Max 1.1%
Phosphorous Min 0.3%

Ingredients



Dehulled Soybean Meal, ground corn, fish meal, wheat middlings, rice bran, honey, bee pollen vitamin A supplement, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin supplement, niacin supplement, calcium pantohenate, choline chloride, folic acid, menadione sodium bisulfite comples, calcium carbonate, magnanous oxide, ferrous sulfate copper chloride, zinc oxide, ethylanadiamine dihydriodide, sodium selenite.



Cricket Calcium Dust



Product Properties


Calcium Carbonate, CaC03 96.8%
Iron Oxide, Fe2O3 0.10%
Silicon Oxide, SiO2 0.65%
Aluminum Oxide, Al2O3 0.12%
Magnesium Oxide, MgO 1.07%

I have visions of my suggies escaping their cage to chase the escaped crickets all over my house. This is what makes nightmares.

And crickets smell soooo bad....Also, they have recently found that many people with allergies and asthma are severely allergic to chiton, the hard outer covering of crickets and other insects. It flakes off when they moult etc. I too have allergies and I wonder if that is why the smell of crickets at the pet store bothers me so much.

On the other hand "Nightmare on Suggie Street" might be a hit for the Halloween season. Lets just not film it at my house.

Do we know that the aflatoxin is stored in the muscle tissue of the chicken? We feed the whole cricket, but with chicked we only feed the muscle, or muscle and skin if using a commercial chicken product such as baby food. (I quit eating chicken livers YEARS ago due to concerns about toxins...and I love fried chicken livers...yum) Not all toxins are stored in all types of tissue. As far as I know liver and fat are the most common storage sites for toxins.

SO afraid to do that.


ugh it must be so funny.

ill just do it with a mealworm and flick it around. make it look all lively.

Floating off the topic for a second:

The name of the song, SugarBlossoms, was "For What It's Worth", sung by a group called Buffalo Springfield (don't remember the names of ALL the members of the band, but Stephen Stills was one of them). When The Muppet Show was on many many moons ago, there was quite a conglomeration of creatures creeping about in the woods as they all cry "STOP! Hey, what's that sound? Everybody look what's going down"

Through the course of time, thanks to the miracles of the 21st century, we're learning many THOUSANDS of things to make us aware (and, yes, sleepless sometimes) of things that definitely DO and other things that COULD rob us of the happiness of the quantity of days that we spend with our beloved fuzz-faces. Admittedly, I "poo-poo'd" the warning I'd heard that crickets could contain such a level of aflotoxins as to kill our sweet babies...even dared to call it "paranoia"...but hearing of someone losing their whole COLONY because of a "bad batch" of crickets from a source that I KNOW ISN'T JUST CRYING "WOLF" has made me reconsider my attitude and eliminate them from my babies' diet.

They've survived their human slave's ignorance in many other things through the past 3 years...the key here is that I KNOW NOW and I'M MODIFYING THEIR diet ACCORDINGLY.

That being said, I hear a couple of my sweeties telling me it's time to go grab some "quality time" with them.

Okay I thought I would post why the "leafy veggies" really needs to well thought out before you consider feeding or not feeding, which solely would be dependant upon on what diet you have your suggies on.

For instance I feed the BML, and if you are feeding high iron veggies or high Vit C content items, such as; collards, sweet potatoes, and spinach... Oranges, orange juice,.... know that Vit C helps the body absorb iron, potatoes and sweet potatoes are a leading source of Vit C also strawberries, bell peppers, kiwi, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage also contain Vit C. And there are others....

Feeding all of these high iron and Vit C veggies or fruits on top of each other and the BML diet as written... causes the system to absorb more iron into the system. Increasing the iron levels now an exuberant amount. The gliders systems are not setup to handle that extra overload of iron. It gets stored in the liver, causing the system to go into an overload. This "can" also cause kidney failures, UTIs, and a number of other internal issues including liver poisoning. None of this is documented but well thought out to POSSIBLY be a problem for gliders. I just don't want to take the chance, like playing a game of Russian roulette.

Minkasmom I found the 45 I still have of the song. Signs is the name. sounds like the same song though. LOL

I got an answer back about the crickets. He said NO, we don't test them and I doubt anyone else does either. That was the entirety of the response. I will not ever be feeding crickets again, live or canned. My mealies are getting just enough water to survive to get eaten. LOL I have one container of mealies that keep turning over new mealies for over a year now so I hope not to buy those anymore (the regular little ones) The superworms are a whole nuther matter to grow so I'll keep getting them from Grubco.

As far as crickets, moths and other insects, my babies won't miss something they don't have.