All of Your Sugar Glider Questions Answered
Last Monday, we shared some cute photos and some fun facts about Jubilee & Sydney the Sugar Gliders. We also opened up the comments for any all questions that our readers may have about them. We got some good questions, and today we will be answering them!
Ellen from 15 and Meowing asked:
What is the life span of sugar gliders?
Sugar gliders can live up to 12-15 years! This is definitely a much longer lifespan than most “pocket pets.” Unfortunately many people don’t realize what a big commitment gliders are, so there is a high turnover rate for them. If you’re not in it for the long haul, we recommend looking into hamsters instead.
Will they need to be spayed/neutered?
With sugar gliders, the spay surgery for a female is complicated and invasive, as they have two uteri. A spay surgery would be very difficult for such a small animal to withstand, so it is only done in extremely rare cases if there is a medical issue. To keep male and female gliders from reproducing, the male is neutered (it is an easy procedure), but the female is left intact.
Some breeders will have their male gliders neutered before selling (unless the buyer plans on breeding as well). This was the case with Jubilee. He was already neutered when we got him. Sydney has not been spayed, so she does go into heat. However, there is no outward sign of her heat cycle other than her behavior – she acts a little crazier and barks more.
Do they go to the bathroom in one specific area?
Unfortunately, no. I won’t sugar coat it: they go wherever and whenever they feel the urge – including on their people! Whenever I take them out of their cage to play, I always put on clothes that are already dirty. We also stay either in their pop-up tent or the bathroom so that I can easily clean up any messes. Thankfully, their “messes” are very small and easy to clean though. If you are interested in sugar gliders, be prepared to be pooped and peed on! 🙂
Jeanne from Random Felines asked:
Since you have a girl and a boy, do you have a vet that does spay/neuter? How hard was it to find an exotic vet?
I do have a vet who does neuters, but as mentioned above, Jubilee’s breeder neutered him before I got him. Finding an exotic vet was actually super easy! Unfortunately our regular vet does not treat sugar gliders, but he recommended one to to us who does that is just down the street! Finding exotic vets isn’t always so easy though, so I definitely recommend finding one BEFORE you add any gliders to your family. You wouldn’t want to get caught in a situation where you need immediate veterinary care but have nowhere to go.
Our furiends from Trout Towne asked:
What is their favorite thing to snack on besides the normal sweet stuff?
Well, they are definitely big fans of anything sweet! Some of Jubie and Sydney’s favorite things are cantaloupe, yogurt drop treats, and honey. They LOVE to lick honey off my fingers 🙂 Gliders in general also like to eat meal worms, though I haven’t gotten any of those for Jubie and Sydney yet. I got them freeze-dried ones before, but they didn’t like those. I have a feeling they would much rather have lives ones… :-/
What is the furthest Jubilee & Sydney have ever glided?
I just recently started trying to teach them to glide actually. Jubie and Sydney are still young, and gliding is something they have to learn and work up to. As of right now, they’ve only ever jumped maybe 2-3 feet. Now that they have bonded to me, we can start to work on gliding more. I’ll be putting them on lower surfaces, like the bathroom counter, and standing back a few feet with a treat to try to coax them to jump to me. Then we’ll graduate to further and higher distances, like the shower curtain rod! Eventually they should be able to glide over 150 feet! We shall see…
Janet from The Cat on My Head asked:
How do they get the rings on their tails?
Jubie and Sydney LOVE to carry their plastic ring toys with their tails. I’ve only just recently witnessed them doing this, and it was one of the cutest things ever! It’s hard to describe, but I’ll do my best (and will eventually catch it on video to show you!). They start by grabbing the ring with both of their front feet. Then they flip around and through the ring, like a gymnast spinning around on an uneven bar. As they come back through the ring, they loop their tail around it.
Here are a couple of pictures that sort of show them tail carrying. Sorry for the poor quality…
We hope this post was informative! If you ever have any other questions, please feel free to contact us anytime!
Summer says
I loved learning more about Jubilee and Sydney! That was an important tip about finding an exotic pet vet FIRST!
BTW, my human used to get live mealworms for her lizard pets as a kid… and once or twice she didn’t use them all up before they went into the pupae stage and it creeped her out!
Madi says
????????‼️‼️‼️??❤️thank you very much..thus was so very interesting. Sydney and Jubie are adorable and what personalities!
Hugs
Madi your bfff
Tamago says
Very interesting facts about sugar gliders! How they get rings is so cute! love the photo – they do look like little gymnasts 🙂 .
Random Felines says
we LOVE learning more about these two!!
The Swiss Cats says
What an interesting post ! We loved learning more about Jubilee and Sydney ! We would love to see them glide ! Purrs
Lola The Rescued Cat says
How interesting! Mommy is looking forward to meeting them in Myrtle Beach!
Ellen Pilch says
Thank you for answering all my questions and everyone else’s too. Very interesting that the female have 2 uteri. I have more questions now-how many babies do they carry and do they carry them in both uteri? Very cool that you are training them to glide, I can’t wait to see videos of these cuties. Thanks again.
da tabbies o trout towne says
guyz……eye noe this commint haz nothin ta due with this post
but eye wanted ta say thanx 777 bazillion timez for
yur kindnezz two me & me familee last week
sorree for de copee & paste type for matt…….lovez all wayz
boomer ♥
Sam and Teddy says
They are really interesting little critters and must be a lot of fun to watch when they’re playing! Carrying rings is an interesting thing really – I guess they consider them toys and they like carrying them like a kid would carry his teddy bear?
Pam
The Island Cats says
They are such interesting animals! Thanks for sharing more info about them.
Kitties Blue says
Loved seeing all the questions and answers. I guess, if they get a bit chunky, you’ll have to get bigger rings. Sending lots of love and kisses to Sampy from Astrid. Love to all as well. XOCK, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Angel Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth, Calista Jo and Cooper Murphy
Pipo/Minko/MrJackFreckles says
Whoot! Those were great answers and we learned not a few things, but lots!