Sugar Glider Related Problems

The most common problems among pet sugar gliders is stress & lack of calcium.

Stress. This is caused by a change of environment, dirty living conditions, unbalanced diet, a cage that is too small, the time spent in light & darkness is not balance, boredom, overcrowding, too hot or cold temperature, loneliness, poor ventilation, disturbance by other pets & so on. Sugar gliders that are stress will tend to react differently. Some will not eat, some will over eat, pace around their cage, sleeping more & most scariest is self mutilation. Meaning the sugar glider will start biting itself to death.

Lack of Calcium is due to an unbalance diet of eating food especially fruits that contains more phosphorus than calcium. Too much phosphorus interferes with calcium absorption which make their bones soft & easily fracture. Just think "OSTEOPOROSIS". So it is very important to make sure that the ratio of calcium to phosphorus is 2:1. Other factors that decrease calcium absorption are vitamin D deficiency & excessive dietary fat. Vitamin D helps control the absorption of calcium into the bones. Excessive dietary fat can accumulate in the intestines where it combines with calcium to become a kind of insoluble soapy substance that gets flushed away together with the sugar gliders poo.