Pelleted foods are always a hot topic and up for debate. But in this post I wanted to see what you guys think of a specific brand: Exotic Nutrition.

I haven't seen anyone post about this specific brand before, and I don't even remember how I stumbled across their site. I wanted to bring it up because in my quest to find a healthy, balanced pellet food they stood out to me.

Here is a link to their food section:

http://www.exoticnutrition.com/suglfo.html

Some of the things I like about their foods (pelleted and otherwise):

* they have pelleted foods with papaya, and also a mixed pellet type so perhaps you could try different types and use them to combat food boredom?

* unscientific reasoning here, but it looks better than most of the stuff I've seen--like you can actually see the individual ingredients, instead of one puffy crunchy mass

* in addition to pellet foods they have jars of acacia gum, and insect eater, wombaroo, and many other supplements I'd be interested in even maybe for treats!

* they list ingredients and analysis for the foods; I plan to show this to my vet and get his opinion since I don't know what a good or bad 'nutrition facts' breakdown would look like! but the fact that it's there says something to me.

* they provide a list of colleges and institutions where their products are used. however I am keeping in mind that they are probably not necessarily their sugar glider products.

* they are in virginia, which for me means they are local! if I decide to give their foods a try I'd like to visit their facility and see if their manufacturing standards are really what they say they are.

Drawback: Even if it is high quality stuff (of which I still have no guarantee), it is still pelleted, and could maybe cause abscesses of the mouth if it's too hard? (controversial?) I don't know if this is soft enough or not.

So obviously one of the best things I could do is take all the info I can about this food to my vet and get their opinion. But being a vet doesn't necessarily make a person a sugar glider expert, so I wanted to also see what some of you breeders think.

I never thought the pellets were that bad either. When I first got gliders, I fed them their HPW (w/fruits and veggies) along with the Exotic Nutrition pellets and didn't think twice about it. What people don't like about them, at least in my opinion, is that they're not a balanced diet of what gliders need. And if you have your gliders on a good diet, they'll more than likely throw the ratios off. But that's just me...

I heard from some people that its good to feed them pellets because it kinda works like dental floss/toothpaste & cleans their teeth.

I kinda like the monkey biscuits...I think purely b/c of the name.

I buy most of my products from Exotic Nutrition my babies love there stuff as for pellets i give for a snack during the day if my kiddos wake up and want a quick bite before they go back to their pouch but not as a main food source

We purchase in bulk from Exotic Nutrition. Their Monkey Biscuits and Premium Sugar Glider diet are the daily staples in Priscilla's TPG diet. HTH!

We also reside in Virginia ( Palmyra ... just east of Charlottesville and just west of Richmond! )! Where is South Riding? -Alicia

South Riding is on Rt 50, west of Fairfax county into Loudoun.

So this may be a silly question and I don't want to stark any fires with it, but I'm curious. The general consensus seems to be that even these pellets would not provide a balanced diet. 1) Do you just mean that they are not a balanced diet themselves, or do you mean even if you fed them with fresh fruit and maybe some insect eater for protein would it still be missing something? 2) What is missing to keep them from being part of a complete diet (not a diet of themselves, but together with fruit and possibly a protein source)--calcium, or something else?

I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea. I'm not opposed to feeding my future gliders a mixture like BML or HPW. I'm just making sure I explore all the options. I also have to admit that mixing my own food makes me nervous, especially since some of the ingredients by themselves are human food. I'm so used to 'cats eat cat food' 'dogs eat dog food' and 'feeding them human food is bad' that a part of me is wondering if I could do better with pellets, acacia gum and fresh fruit, and insects for protein. Silly, I know... it seems like almost every breeder and zoologist uses a mixture, so it's got to be better.

Since the pellets seem to be okay as a sort of 'side dish' to help keep their teeth clean, maybe I will get some just for that. Or see what Priscilla's diet is.

Thanks for the input so far!