Gliders on a budget

As life on a shoestring seems to be my forte (...there's the student in me :P) I thought I'd make a post on keeping suggies affordably. It’s no secret – as with many exotic pets- gliders can be expensive, however if you’re careful gliders needn’t break the bank! Here is a range of simple ways to minimise the expense of both set up, and looking after your suggies.

Initial Set Up

·         Ebay is your friend! The same goes for gumtree, freecycle, and your local paper. Second hand cages can be dirt cheap, especially if they are large –people just want the space back in their house! Check these sources regularly. For ebay just type in “cage” and set search results to price and p+p lowest, if you’re searching in the pet section the first few pages will be chock-a-block with second hand cages for collection only. This is exactly what you need, as very few people bother with collection only, and due to the sheer volume of cages available (last time I ran this search there were over 150 at 99p collection!) there is bound to be one in your area. I’ve seen lovely cages that could easily house 5 or 6 suggies going for less than a fiver!! Just make sure you give them a good scrub with suggie-safe antibacterial wash once you get them home :P

·         Shop around. It can be hard to find glider stuff in the UK, but don’t spend silly money importing goods from the US, Marie stocks a huge amount of hard to get suggie products, ebay can have some good finds, and also I’ve found this website has some really good generic products which my suggies have loved: http://www.surreypetsupplies.co.uk/small-animals.html (though they do take their time delivering!)

Diet

·         If you have a lot of gliders, and know that they love a certain product, buy in bulk! You can haggle prices at most small online stores if you’re buying lots, and with almost all ebay sellers.

·         FREEZE all your fresh stuff –if you don’t blend your fruit+veg keep a fair amount in your freezer –it keeps longer, and most frozen fruit+veg can still be cut up fairly easily. Chicken is also fine, so long as you use it within the month.

·         Similarly, buy pre frozen fruit. It is SO cheap in comparison to fresh stuff, and so long as it has no preservatives in (most frozen fruits don’t) fine for your suggies to eat.

·         GO and have a chat with your local green grocer, explain you have suggies and ask if you can have any of their spoiled produce. They get a little bit of cash for fruit+veg they could not otherwise sell and you get a cheap food source your suggies will love – win/win! It’s easy to cut out bruises/cuts in fruit, and my gliders tend to prefer fruit that’s a day past its prime anyway, so that brown banana or soft apple won’t bother them. Just make sure to wash everything thoroughly. You can get too much this way, so freeze all the excess!

·         As with above, even at supermarkets you can ask shop assistants nicely, and 9 times out of 10 they’ll reduce that overly squishy papaya for you :P

·         If you’re not too squeamish try breeding your own live foods! Wax worms are pretty simple to breed, and have a relatively short live span (plus the bonus is they only turn into moths, much less hassle than big ass beetles!) here’s a very useful guide I found on RFUK: http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forums/feeder/298017-how-breed-waxworms.html

Things to Shell out for:

·         Always keep a good block of money aside just in case there’s an emergency and your gliders need to see a vet.

·         DON’T skimp on calcium powder, it is such a fundamentally important aspect of your suggies diet it’s best to get the tried and tested brands. You wouldn’t want your suggies getting ill for the sake of a few pennies!

Vital Statistics

Quick Fun Facts on Suggies:
1. They are nocturnal, and in the wild sleep in tree hollows
2. They are very playful and need a lot of love and attention
3. Though they are not yet fully domesticated, well cared for suggies will bond with their owners, becoming incredibly attached to you, in the same way a cat or dog would
4. In the wild they can glide HUNDREDS of feet - though so far I think the farthest mine have is about 3!
5. They make a variety of different, varyingly cute sounds to hear them go here: http://www.angelfire.com/nb/sugarglider/sounds/


IMPORTANT INFO for prospective owners:
1. You should NEVER keep a sugar glider by itself -this can lead to them becoming depressed, and eventually they may die
2. They need a very specific Calcium to Phosphate ratio in their diet or they can become very ill (this sounds complex, but is actually fairly easy in practise -there are a lot of guides on this topic online)
3. They can't be potty trained, but once you get to know your gliders you will recognise the warning signs and can get out of the way!


FINALLY: There is a lot of crap on the internet about sugar gliders - stick to using information from trusted sites with very experienced owners. (I also find UK sites are better as there has been a large scandal in the US in recent years -long story short a mill breeder paid off a vet to make a series of videos on youtube about suggies, if you've come across any of these videos PLEASE IGNORE THEM, some of the info on there is correct, but a lot of it has been created in order to boost the companies sales by making suggies seem a more attractive pet!)