Sugar glider nutrition — nectar, insects, and calcium balance
Verbatim first-hand facts from Merck Veterinary Manual (professional veterinary reference). All bullets are exact substrings of the cited source and C1-substring verified. Numeric nutrient values are NOT asserted (NRC 2006 quantitative data unavailable).
Nutritional facts
- Although sugar gliders are hindgut fermenters, broad-spectrum antimicrobial treatment is well tolerated, probably because diets fed in captivity can be digested without fermentation.
- Nutritional Osteodystrophy in Sugar Gliders Pet sugar gliders maintained on a mainly fruit diet containing few gut-loaded insects or other protein sources are very susceptible to nutritional osteodystrophy (nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism).
- This condition results from an imbalance in dietary calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin D and manifests clinically as posterior paresis progressing to hindlimb paralysis, muscle tremors, pathological bone fractures, and, in some advanced cases, seizures.