LibGuides: Sugar Glider (Petaurus breviceps) Fact Sheet: Diet & Feeding

Diet

(Smith 1982; Suckling 1984; Howard 1989; Jackson 2015a; Nowak 2018a, except as noted)

Plant substances
- Sap (e.g., Eucalyptus)
- Gum (e.g., Acacia)
  - Produced at wound sites of trees
- Nectar
- Manna
  - Excreted by plants in response to insect damage
- Pollen
- In New Guinea: fruits of figs (Ficus) and pitpit (“sugarcane”; Saccharum)
Sugary substances excreted by insects
- Honeydew
- Lerp (Dierenfeld 2009)
Insects and insect larvae
- Beetles
- Moths
- Weevils
- Caterpillars (Smith 1982)
Spiders (arachnids)
Small birds
- Also see “Bird predation in Tasmania” in Management Actions

Diet varies with season, depending on abundance of preferred foods (Smith 1982; Suckling 1984; Howard 1989)
Gums and saps consumed year-round (Suckling 1984; Howard 1989; Dierenfeld 2009)
Pollen and insects important during spring and summer (Smith 1982; Suckling 1984; Dierenfeld 2009)
- Nutritional needs differ during breeding, especially for females (Smith 1982; Suckling 1984; Smith and Green 1987; Dierenfeld 2009)

Chew holes in tree bark to access saps and gums (Smith 1982)
- Select individual trees with high sap flow (Howard 1989)
- Gums are an important source of calcium (Suckling 1984; Lindenmayer 1994, 2002)
Strip bark from trees to find insects (Fleay 1947)
- Consume insect body fluids and soft tissues only (Dierenfeld and Whitehouse-Tedd 2018)

Large hindgut cecum (Lindenmayer 2002; Dierenfeld 2009; Jackson 2015b)
- Might aid digestion of complex carbohydrates (plant gums and some saps) by housing beneficial microbes
  - Not yet experimentally investigated (Dierenfeld 2009)

A sugar glider crushes a mealworm in its molars.

Sugar gliders eat pollen, insects, spiders, and—in some populations—small birds to meet their protein needs.

Nutritionally, obtaining protein may be particularly important for breeding females.