Sugar Glider (Petaurus breviceps) Fact Sheet: Managed Care

General

• Lesser gliders kept as pets as early as the 1830s (Jackson 2003)
• Sugar gliders held in zoos since 1865 (Jackson 2003)
• Early naturalists occasionally raised orphaned sugar gliders (e.g., Irby 1931)

San Diego Zoo and Safari Park

• Kept by San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance since at least the 1980s (ZIMS 2019)

Shelters and enclosures

• Requirements
  • Trees for climbing and gliding (Collins 1973; Johnson and Hemsley 2008)
  • Nests, nest boxes, or hanging baskets (Johnson and Hemsley 2008)
  • May require artificial heat in some regions (Jackson 2003; Johnson 2011)
    • Ideal ambient temperature range: 24 to 27°C (75 to 80°F)
• May be kept in nocturnal houses (Jackson 2003)
  • Reverse day/night cycles can be used (Johnson and Hemsley 2008)

Social interactions

• Should be housed in groups (Johnson and Hemsley 2008)
  • Established groups may be aggressive towards new individuals (Collins 1973)
• Males may form hierarchies in managed care (Nowak 2018a)
• Can be housed in large enclosures with other Petaurus species (Collins 1973)

Diet in managed care

• Diet should follow that of sugar gliders in the wild (McKay 1989; Jackson 2003; Johnson and Hemsley 2008)
• Food items
  • Fresh fruits and vegetables (Dierenfeld 2009)
  • Live prey (e.g., moths, beetles, crickets) (Dierenfeld 2009)
  • Examples of supplemental foods
    • Pollen and flowers (McKay 1989; Dierenfeld and Whitehouse-Tedd 2018)
    • Leaves (Johnson and Hemsley 2008)
    • Nectar mix (Johnson and Hemsley 2008)
    • Sunflower seeds (Johnson and Hemsley 2008)

Breeding

• Easy to breed in managed care (Smith 1971; Jackson 2003; Zuckerman 2009)

Enrichment and training

(Alyssa Warren, personal communication, 2019)

• Ropes for climbing
• Browse for foraging
• Elevated platforms for gliding
• Handling by keepers
• Enrichment items:
  • Hay
  • Dirt
  • Cardboard boxes and tubes
  • Fleece objects and bags
  • Mirrors

In managed care, sugar gliders need trees for climbing and space for gliding.

Image credit: © San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. All rights reserved.