Balfour Squirrel Glider Diet

The following is the diet recommended by Richard Balfour for a colony of four adult Squirrel Gliders.

Ingredients

• Apple – ¼ slice
• Orange– ¼ slice – take the skin off.
• Pear– ¼ slice
• Kiwi Fruit– ¼ slice
• Dried Figs – 2 figs
• Mushroom - one large.
• McCaines Frozen Vegetables – peas, corn, and carrots – 50 grams.
• Wombaroo High Protein Supplement Powder
• Vanilla Sustagen.
• Advance Puppy Growth – Super Premium Food for Gestating/Lactating Bitches.

Preparation

Cut fruit into small cubes, then add frozen vegetables. Sprinkle about a level tablespoon of Wombaroo High Protein Powder, and a teaspoon of Sustagen, over the top. Shake so that it is evenly mixed over the food. Then add approximately five Puppy Growth pellets per adult glider.

Feeding

Place the prepared food in the gliders cage before dusk, or when you normally see them active.

The following morning, check if their food bowl is empty. If it is empty, you may need to give them slightly more food. If there are slight left overs, you are giving them just the right amount. You should also place gum branches for them to chew on to keep their teeth healthy. I have trained all my gliders to drink from a zip bottle so I only have to top up their water once a week, and their water is never polluted with faeces.

You can give one almond per glider per day as a treat. No more, because they are fatty. You can make them work for the almond by getting an old pine cone which has open leaves. Break the almond into small pieces and wedge it under the pine cone’s leaves. They will have fun trying to extract the almond pieces.

If you are in a hurry and do not have time to prepare a meal, you can just feed them a Passwell Fruity Delight bar which has an orange label. I would not do this more than once a week.

If you want to go away for a long weekend, you can place several of these Passwell Fruity Delight bars in their cage, put the dog food in a container, and they will be fine when you get back. However, this is only a stop gap measure. You would not do this routinely.

Do not regularly feed mealworms, they are very fatty, and affect the intestinal absorption of micronutrients, which then can lead to osteodystrophy, ie, spinal fractures. Do not regularly feed crickets, unless they are gut loaded, they are nutritionally very poor. You can feed the occasional mealworm or cricket once a fortnight. A better idea is to have a weak light in your cage at night to attract wild insects which they can then catch.

Author

Richard Balfour, Adelaide, South Australia