Keep it Healthy, Keep it Fun
Photos courtesy of Casper & Liezl Swanepoel
Many sugar gliders get finicky with their foods. You want to keep them eating a well-balanced diet, sometimes we need to use our imaginations to keep it fun for them. Placing foods in different areas of the cage can be helpful. Please use fruits/veggies that work in correlation with your diet plan. Here are a few ideas on how you can present food for your sugar gliders:
Place fresh fruits and vegetables on plastic cocktail stirrer to create Kabobs. This is a fun way to hand feed your gliders. If the plastic stirrers have a hole or handle on them, you can hang them in the cage.
Take a leafy vegetable and place a fruit or vegetable inside, roll edges up and use a small ring to hold in place. You can hide this in a larger toy for them to find. Shown with Bok Choy and blueberries.
Put celery through freshly sliced mushrooms placed in their feeding dish.
Grape Kabobs – place grapes on a straw or craft lace, hang from the top of cage. Also shown is the protein staple presented in a foraging cup with a clip hanging onto the side of the cage.
Hang a “ring” of watermelon (any melon will work) in their cage.
Apple Swing:
Remove the center part of the apple making sure there are no seeds left. Place a celery stick through the center and make several tiny holes all over the apple. Fill some of the holes with acacia gum, then attach a fleece strip to the celery ends to hang it in the cage.
String fresh strawberries and kiwi fruit on a cocktail stick.
Cut a red, yellow or green pepper in the shape of a bowl, line the sweet pepper with bok choy or spinach, add broccoli and green beans.
Cook a squash with no spices added, fill it with their favorite veggie mix.
Banana Split: Peel a banana 3/4 of the way, cut off 3/4 of the banana and eat leaving the rest for the gliders. Dip the end in honey and sprinkle with coconut.
Remove the top and bottom part of the Guava. Push a cocktail stick through the center part of the guava. Attach fleece to both ends of the cocktail stick to be able to hang it in the cage. Make tiny holes all over the Guava with the back end of a teaspoon.
Cabbage platter: Use a cabbage leaf as a bowl and fill it with mushrooms, tomato, radish and parsley.
Carrot Fountain: Wash and peel a carrot, use the peeler to create thin strips to hang down. Attach a fleece strip to the top end of the carrot to hang it in the cage.
Cucumber Spiral: Cut a piece of cucumber in a spiral, attach a link to hang it from and voila!
