What are the best ways to encourage weight lose in a sugar glider?

Murphy is actually quite overweight, and despite all my efforts I cannot get him to lose anything. He's always been big, but now this is going beyond "fluffy". Everyone else in the cage is normal weight. We've tried changing diets, and cutting back on portions. I've tried putting him in places to encourage more jumping, but he won't do it. He use to be my big jumper, but seems to slowly get lazier and lazier. I'm worried about his health if we can't do something about the weight issue.

We are currently feeding HPW complete. He gets out of the cage for at least two hours at least three times a week, and for a shorter amount of time one or two other nights. He has a wheel in his cage that he use to spend the whole night in, and now only spends a few minutes in.

I'm reluctant to keep changing diets or cutting back portions when everyone else in the cage is healthy. Does anyone have any other ideas that I might not have tried yet?

get a peacock feather or other cat teaser toy with feathers and use it to encourage him to run and climb more.

try hiding his food so he has to climb and forage for it, all of them will enjoy that.

Remove any and all corn and fruit from his diet. The others will do fine without it as well. My Dapple got up to 289g at one point, after trying many other things my vet told me to remove the corn and fruit. He is now down to 208g.

If you are adding the green juice, you can however, leave that in the mix. If you are not, continue fixing it the way you have been.

Which wheel is it that you have? I've heard that the Custom Cruiser helps with weight loss because it takes more effort to get it going. However, if you can't get him to use it, that won't work.....but it may be worth a shot

My male, Georgie, is in the same boat as your Murphy. He's a big boy, and doesn't play on the wheel like he used to. He is a very HAPPY boy, so I wasn't sure it was something I should spend lots of time worrying about. He has a small food aggression thing going, so he gets more food than his cage mate, Poppy. Anyway....remove all the fruits? I also feed HPW Complete (with green juice) so he would get some fruit that way....hmmm....shouldn't really mess up the Complete diet as it in itself gives him what he needs.

Anyone see a downside other than gliders who will miss their sweet fruits?

I completely agree with Peggy. Cut out the corn and you will see results.

When I have a glider starting to get chubby...I fix their normal dinner plate but then I pick out the corn and save it in the fridge to be used as treats. They still get a piece or two of corn during the course of the day but they think they are getting treats so it helps keep them from getting mad at me for not getting their favorite food. Because I'm using the corn that would NORMALLY be part of their daily diet, they are not getting more or less food, just spreading it out. I also don't feed yogies or any other treats to my gliders except on very rare occasions. Yogies are nothing but sugar/candy. Eliminate those as well.

Ok. I admit to being a sucker for those gorgeous eyes and the "I love you when you have treats, mom". They don't get much corn anyway, but I will pick any I see out of Georgie/Poppy's dish. I generally treat using dried papaya or dry roasted mealies, so will be extra sure I stick with healthier treats for them as well. I have already cut out the homemade morsel of english muffin bread that my husband makes - mostly because they tired of it and I did worry about the empty calories. Same with yogies, which I am now trying to save for nail trimming time.

Are the dry mealies something I should also cut out? What about the pellet food I leave as a supplement? I do know that Georgie eats it in addition to his own food. Maybe he's like my daughter's horse and will eat whatever is there even if he doesn't really need/want it. The newest girls also came with insectivore tiny pellets, but I haven't done much with them yet.

It just doesn't seem like a lot to eliminate. I may be surprised when I take note of what gets pulled when I change my own behavior. I'll give it a try.

Thanks!

Mealies can be fattening if you give them too many. How many do you give him? three-four a day should be plenty. I usually give mine 3....sometimes 4 if they give me those sad eyes saying, "that's it?". lol I am not sure about pellet food. I don't feed mine any. I just feed them there mealies in the mornings, and HPW at night (with their fruits and veggies). Never leave anything for them during the day. You could try not leaving any pellet since they are still extra calories. I don't think he really needs it. He should be sleeping most of the day anyway. But that is JMO.

A few years back I had a VERY fluffy little girl named Serenity come into my world for an extended stay. She weighed in at 210 grams and you could see "bald spots" on her belly where it was rubbing on her cage. I discussed with Bourbon what I could do (besides removing her dried snack dish) to help her lose some of her fluffiness. She said the 2 best things I could teach Serenity to do was glide and use a lot of "hand-over-hand" exercises.

You'd think the gliding part would be easy...gliders instinctively like to glide, right? Not this little fluffy fuzzball! I ended up teaching her several tricks that took a little doing to get her started, but she caught on & the grams started coming off! Most doorways have trim around them, so I'd let her grab onto the trim with just 2 feet (left side of body or right, that was her choice)...then I'd step back about 3 steps & hold out my hands, encouraging her to jump to me. I had to be patient (NOT my best trait) but eventually she'd do it. We also had a frisbee that was held in 3 points (4, 8 & 12 o'clock positions) with 3 pieces of chain that went into 1 piece & hung from the center light. I'd put her in there & step back again, encouraging her to jump. If she got to the edge & just sat, the frisbee would tip which would FORCE her to jump. After catching her, I'd pet her & give her a couple "good girl!" words, then put her BACK on it again. After about 4 times in a row, we'd move onto the next phase.

The hand-over-hand exercise involved a fat rope of braided fleece that went from my knees to the ceiling light. I'd start her at the bottom (letting her get a good grip) then put a small piece of dried fruit in front of her. As she'd climb, I'd move the fruit higher and higher until she was at the top. I'd take her off, break off a SMALL piece of fruit, and put her back on again. We'd repeat this about 4 times before she'd get winded....then we'd quit.

After a couple months of doing this every other night, she was down to a sleeker 180 grams. I couldn't do anything about the excess skin she suddenly had, she could've used a "nip and tuck" cosmetic surgery.....but she was definitely BUFF despite still being large!

I like that idea...get Georgie out for some exercise. He used to run on the wheel all the time, but now prefers to sit on the hammock in front of it. I noticed that he also doesn't run up/down the fleece tree. Hmmmm. I will find a few activities in the glider room for him.

Thanks for the help!

Murphy use to be a big glider. He would glide clear across an 8 ft room to me. Now, he just stares at me and won't jump till I'm less than 6 inches away.

He is a big corn hog, usually picks it all out and leaves the other stuff for the girls unless I catch him and stop him. I always feel bad completely leaving it out as it is all of their favorite, sometimes if it's not in there he won't even eat. But I guess I have to give myself a "when he gets hungry enough he will eat" attitude and stop feeling so bad.

Thanks for the ideas. I will try some of them out and we will see how much of a difference it makes.

As far as mealies go, we usually only feed them at nail trimming time, and maybe once every week beyond that, 3-4 per glider, so they aren't a big factor in his diet. We very rarely do yogies, and it's usually only one to two each when we do.

There is also the option of changing to a diet that doesn't contain honey.
You can still give the other gliders corn...just do it while you have him out exersizing! Or handing them each one piece at a time so he can't hog them.

lol I just got two little chubbers, I'll have to try some of these.