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HELP Sister is feeding cat food #72135
12/10/05 01:07 AM
12/10/05 01:07 AM
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 3,884
Wyoming
tbull Offline OP
Glider Addict
tbull  Offline OP
Glider Addict

Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 3,884
Wyoming
I called my big sis tonight and she got herself 2 gliders yesterday!!! I was so excited for her. When I asked what diet she was using she said the breeder told her to feed "Cat Chow and raisons" I went to his website and it does say cat chow. I told her I did not think cat food was the best choice and asked her to come here and check out the diet link, but is there anything proof I can give her or even a REALLY good reason not to feed cat food? She wants to go by her breeders advice since he has had gliders for 15 yrs. But he has some rather different ideas to raising suggies, like no pouches, said to saftey pin them into a shirt pocket for a month, and to play with them in a glass inclosed shower. I do not want to start ANY kind of diet bashing just looking for options that her baby sister can give. Please PM me if needed. FYI she said she has a breeding pair about 4 or 5 months old but was not told when they were OOP (she did not know what that meant ) but the boy does not have his bald spot yet.


T~
www.lovegliders.com

** Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for
you are crunchy and taste good with catsup **

*Proud to forever be a Boo-Boo and BJ Fan!*

Re: HELP Sister is feeding cat food [Re: ] #72136
12/10/05 01:20 AM
12/10/05 01:20 AM
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 16,800
St. Johns, Florida
Srlb Offline
Glideritis Anonymous
Srlb  Offline
Glideritis Anonymous

Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 16,800
St. Johns, Florida
At one time, years ago, a high quality cat chow was recommended to feed the gliders. This is prior to the knowing what we know today. There are many believes that feeding cat chow or any hard food is responsible or part of the reason for *Lumpy Jaw*.
The proper dietary needs are not met when feeding cat food, not to mention feeding the wrong diet can really make a glider smell.
You did the best thing by telling her to come here and read the diet links. Is she using vitamin or calcium supplements with that diet? It really sounds like the breeder that she got them from is really from the *Old School* and has not updated his information on gliders. Which is unfortunate.
If she has a breeding pair, it is very possible (however not always the case) that either one, they will not breed, or two, they will reject the joeys due to the mother having a lack in the proper nutrition.

Please get her to come and visit us, even if she doesnt post. Or what you can do is print the information out for her and send it to her and pray that she is willing to read it.


Peggy
Critter Love
Critter Love� Diet Center

If you want to know what a person is like, watch how he treats others.

You'll never know what the outcome is if you don't step up and try.

Re: HELP Sister is feeding cat food [Re: ] #72137
12/10/05 02:02 AM
12/10/05 02:02 AM
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 3,884
Wyoming
tbull Offline OP
Glider Addict
tbull  Offline OP
Glider Addict

Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 3,884
Wyoming
Yes, she said he gave her calcium (blue lable with pink writing) to sprinkle on the food and was also told to feed just apples for the first week, so they would not get diarea (sp?) I did not want to tell her what to do and not to do since I am new too, but most of it sounds strange and I am very afraid for her new babies. I emailed her several links to get toys, diets, and pouches. But really stressed how much I had learned from this site. She has always taken very good care of all her animals, in fact they had the oldest dog I had ever seen. She just really thinks this breeder knows best. He gave her a lot of info and seemed to care, although she did get them at a convention center trade show.
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/offtopic.gif" alt="" />she told me that the breeder told her not to use a pouch because the gliders would bond to the pouch and not to the person. Can that happen? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/worried2.gif" alt="" />


T~
www.lovegliders.com

** Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for
you are crunchy and taste good with catsup **

*Proud to forever be a Boo-Boo and BJ Fan!*

Re: HELP Sister is feeding cat food [Re: ] #72138
12/10/05 02:23 AM
12/10/05 02:23 AM
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 7,297
Quincy, IL
glidrz5 Offline
Serious Glideritis
glidrz5  Offline
Serious Glideritis

Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 7,297
Quincy, IL
I know some gliders can be pouch protective, but I've never known them to bond to their pouches. Mine ofter prefer one pouch type over another, but don't seem to mind when I switch them out.
Invite your sister to come to the site to share information/stories about her new furkids. Hopefully after visiting with us she'll be more open to talking diets/bonding with you.


Chris
Illusion, Malcom, Isabell, Annabelle, Zach, Isis, Aly & Indy
AND Miss Emmy & Miss Chloe kitties

:rbridge: My Angels: You are always in my heart.

You've flown to the rainbow
and wait there for me
Someday I will join you
together to be


Re: HELP Sister is feeding cat food [Re: ] #72139
12/10/05 04:49 AM
12/10/05 04:49 AM

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ok so i have been feeding my glider cat chow b/c i saw it on a web site. what should i be giving him instead?

Re: HELP Sister is feeding cat food [Re: KellBell468] #72140
12/10/05 10:49 AM
12/10/05 10:49 AM
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 3,297
SA Australia
Winkle Offline
Glider Addict
Winkle  Offline
Glider Addict

Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 3,297
SA Australia
go to the diets link up top and pick a proven diet. many people use bml, with added vitamins. but do go and check out the many diets available to keep your suggie healthy


Maker of the Triangle Bonding Pouch
http://s320.photobucket.com/albums/nn347/Winkle_08/premade%20pouches%20FOR%20SALE/

2 furbutts, Koda and Saffron
1 budgies, Tate
3 dogs, Sam Alex Monte
3 rats, Scuttle, Taffy, Nala
2 Roosters
4 Chooks
10 chicks
5 Ducks
Re: HELP Sister is feeding cat food [Re: ] #72141
12/10/05 08:14 PM
12/10/05 08:14 PM

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thanks a lot.

Re: HELP Sister is feeding cat food [Re: KellBell468] #72142
12/10/05 09:22 PM
12/10/05 09:22 PM

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One of my females had a bout with hind leg paralysis while nursing her twins in October. The vet that I took her to instructed me to get a "good quality kitten chow" to feed to her for calcium. I questioned that and said that I had heard opinions that feeding a hard food like that was not good, but he basically waved me off and kind of seemed to think that was a stupid thing to say. I did what he said, even though I didn't particularly agree with it... my glider DID recover quickly, but I think that's due to the medicines she recieved and not the cat food. She certainly didn't seem to mind eating the cat food, but I have no plans to feed that regularly.

And this was a vet that specialized in exotics.
I'm only posting this as sort of a reference that even exotics vets (apparently) are recommending feeding kitten chow. Although I must say none of the "good quality" brands even seemed to have much calcium content to speak of. My gliders are back on BML.

Re: HELP Sister is feeding cat food [Re: ] #72143
12/10/05 11:50 PM
12/10/05 11:50 PM

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Yeah, the vet Oz saw while at the spca told them to continue her on the iams kitten chow since she has eaten it since the previous owners had her. I'm not too sure why other than that he said to continue it though...

Re: HELP Sister is feeding cat food [Re: ] #72144
12/11/05 01:12 AM
12/11/05 01:12 AM

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I have a friend who is a vet, and when I first started looking at gliders, she stressed to me that some people still think they should feed cat food to gliders, but that is really not what they need. Cats are almost exclusively carnivores, dogs are actually omnivores (although most people think they are just carnivores, they obviously don't exist mainly on meat, just look at the first ingredient on most dog foods) and gliders are omnivorous, but primarily insectovores, which I guess is a type of carnivore, but the dietary requirements are different.

Feverish, I'm surprised that a vet told you to feed cat food, especially an exotic vet. You're probably right that the medication is what did the trick. They probably gave calcium injections, right? I don't know if they were suggesting wet cat food or dry, but dry has been associated with a condition we call "lumpy jaw" (although it may be different from a similar condition seen in other species) which it is believed results from abcesses formed in the mouth from small cuts caused by hard foods.

Gliders' natural diet includes insects, insects, fruit, tree sap and insects. You might think chewing on tree bark is like hard food, but if you ever actually look at a piece of bark, it's really fairly soft.

Most of the proven glider diets include a high protien and calcium staple food (like BML, ZooKeeper's Secret or Ensure) fruit and veggies, vitamin/calcium supplements, and insects or other protien source. Captive glider diets can't supply enough calcium without supplements to fulfill a gilder's requirements. Many gliders who come from breeders who haven't bothered to keep up on the latest research are fed improper diets, which results in hind leg paralysis as well as other health problems.

It is soooo essential to feed a healthy diet in order to have your glider with you as long as possible. While gliders are capable of living 15 years in captivity (Charlie just lost his glider, Pacman, who was 15 years, 4 months old <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> ) their average life span is only about 6 years, and over 50 % die before their 2nd birthday. These are very sad statistics reported by the glider death database, but they point out just how many people out there are not taking the proper care of their gliders (or that we don't really know what is the proper way to care for them).

The whole reason for GC's existence is to combat the ignorance that leads to these statistics. We are truly here just for people like your sister who have been given information from someone she thought she should trust to tell her how to care for the animal they sold her, but who are actually spreading misinformation.

Also, not sure what is meant by safety pinning them in a shirt pocket for a month. I hope they don't mean keeping them in it all the time! I guess they're suggesting carrying them in a shirt pocket during the day to bond. Personally I don't like the idea of using safety pins around a possibly struggling glider to keep it in the shirt pocket. I'd recommend a bonding pouch instead.

I suppose a glass shower is one way to have playtime with a glider, but it doesn't sound very fun for the glider. They like to be able to jump and climb. I would recommend a small dome tent instead, with dangling toys hung from the top. You can lay in the tent with them and read a book or watch TV through the door and it's a lot more comfortable than a shower and it allows your glider to relax around you and become comforable climbing on you.

I hope your sis will come here (as well as other websites as can be found under GC links and Off Site Info) and do some of her own research rather than just trusting the word of one person, no matter how long they've had gliders. You're a great sister for trying to help her out!

Last edited by PeeperKeeper; 12/11/05 11:31 PM.
Re: HELP Sister is feeding cat food [Re: ] #72145
12/11/05 01:29 AM
12/11/05 01:29 AM

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Of course, we still don't know everything about glider diets, hence the need to continue to research new developments. This is evidenced by the post CharlieH made, entitled "What are we doing to gliders NOW?" which I just read after making the previous post. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

In other words, stay tuned....

Re: HELP Sister is feeding cat food [Re: ] #72146
12/11/05 03:37 AM
12/11/05 03:37 AM

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It was dry cat food that he suggested. He gave me (as every vet I have gone to has, no matter what the reason I go- checkups, problems, anything, I imagine it's just standard) a printout on sugar gliders, recommended care & diet, & it had recipes & talk about BML in it. So I was a bit taken aback, as he obviously wasn't ignorant to that diet being out there. Another thing that disturbed me was that when I questioned the feeding of dry cat food re:jaw problems, he made a comment about sugar gliders eating bark in the wild, and therefore the hard food was acceptable. I was like... 0___o Okay. Yes, he gave her injections of antibiotics (because it was not clear at the time if all of her problems were from beginning HLP or from a cold also), as well as calcium injections, and she was put on antibiotics and calcium medication for the next 30 days while nursing. She was back to her old self by the end of the day.

Re: HELP Sister is feeding cat food [Re: ] #72147
12/11/05 02:43 PM
12/11/05 02:43 PM

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They don't eat bark in the wild the strip the bark from the tree to get to the sap... TOTALLY different (not yelling sorry for all caps!) They spit the bark out and keep stripin the bark until they get to what they were lookiing for.


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