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Bedding
Bedding refers to two things in a sugar glider cage - the Aspen wood shavings in the bottom of the cage, and the cloth bedding you can hang higher in the cage. Just be sure to check the cloth bedding to make sure that your gliders aren't chewing on it.
Bonding pouch
A bonding pouch is a cloth pouch that you can wear and keep your sugar glider in while you walk around your house. You can also hang it in the cage for another place for your glider to sleep. It allows your glider to spend more time with you and get used to your smell. It's a great way to bond with your glider.
Cage
Your sugar glider will live in a cage. The cage should be wire, and at least 3 feet tall to allow lots of room for climbing and gliding.
Daily diet
A daily diet is what your pet needs to eat every day to stay healthy. A sugar glider's daily diet includes a pellet diet (insectivore or meat diets), fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, and water. You can also supplement the diet with pinky mice and live insects.
Exercise wheel
An exercise wheel will allow your glider to get more exercise in his cage. Make sure to get an exercise wheel with a solid surface so he doesn't hurt his tail or his feet on it. Your sugar glider will like an exercise wheel best if you give it to him when he's very young.
Food bowl
Your sugar glider will eat his food out of a food bowl. Choose one that attaches to the cage and is large but not large enough for your sugar glider to climb into it.
Gliding
Gliding refers to how your sugar glider will move in the air back and forth. He is able to glide because of a webbed area (called a patagium) that connects his ankles and his wrists. While gliding, he steers with his tail.
Marsupial
A marsupial is a part of a group of animals that includes sugar gliders and kangaroos. Marsupials carry their young in a pouch on their stomach until they are old enough to live on their own.
Nest box
A nest box provides your sugar glider with a place to sleep and play. It should be hung at the top of the cage to keep your glider from going to the bathroom on top of it.
Nocturnal
A nocturnal animal is one who is most awake at night and sleepy during the day. Sugar gliders are nocturnal, and during the day is the best time to handle them while you are taming them and bonding with them.
Omnivore
An omnivore eats both plants and meat. Sugar gliders are omnivores, and people are too.
Opposable big toe
An opposable big toe means that the tip of the toe can touch the tips of the other toes to pick things up or grab things. If you look at your hand, you will see that your thumb is opposable. Sugar gliders have an opposable big toe on their back feet to help them climb and grip.
Patagium
The "patagium" is the flap of skin that stretches from your sugar glider's ankles to his wrists and allows him to fly.
Tame
A tame animal is one that lets you hold him. Taming sugar gliders takes time, and the best time to work on it is the afternoon while they're sleepy.
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