Can Sugar Gliders Have Raisins?
From adding them to your morning cereal to baking them in a delicious batch of homemade raisin cookies, raisins are a healthy and tasty snack that a lot of people enjoy. While humans can happily enjoy a handful of these yummy dried grapes, can you give sugar gliders raisins to consume? While sugar gliders love to munch away on a variety of fruits and veggies, can they be given raisins? Are raisins safe for Sugar gliders?
The short and simple answer is that even though raisins are controversial, you can give your sugar glider a raisin as a rarity. Your sugar glider should only be given raisins on rare occasions. But how much should you feed raisins to a sugar glider?
Here is everything you need to know about sugar gliders and raisins.
Does Your Sugar Glider Have A Healthy Diet?
Sugar gliders are omnivores, meaning that their diet consists of fruits, veggies, and insects. As a responsible sugar glider owner parent, you should always be feeding your glider a balanced and high-quality diet.
The ideal diet for a Sugar glider includes fresh fruits and vegetables. A proper diet is imperative for keeping your sugar glider as healthy and happy as possible. It’s recommended that around 25% of a sugar glider’s diet should consist of fresh fruits and vegetables, equivalent to 2 to 3 tablespoons daily or around 1/8 of an apple. Your sugar gliders diet should also include a good, quality pellet making up approximately 75% of their overall diet.
Are Raisins Safe For Sugar Gliders?
Raisins are controversial as they’re dried grapes, and it’s not known for certain if there are any toxicity issues for sugar gliders in the long term, as they are for dogs. Therefore, if you decide to go ahead and feed a raisin to your sugar glider, then make sure that it’s no more than one at a time and no more than twice a month.
Risks Of Feeding Raisins To Your Sugar Glider
There are quite a lot of risks associated with feeding raisins to your sugar glider. Not only are raisins full of sugar, but they are also known to be harder on the liver because of their high iron content, much more so than regular grapes. If fed in large quantities, a sugar glider could quickly become overweight, they may even develop severe long-term health problems.
Additionally, raisins are also known to damage a sugar glider’s kidneys. that’s why it’s critical to keep their raisin intake to the bare minimum.
Introducing Raisins To Your Sugar Glider
If you decide to introduce the odd raisin to your sugar glider, you should do it slowly to ensure that they don’t get an upset stomach. The first thing to do is to thoroughly wash the raisins to get rid of any potential dirt, debris, or possible pesticides.
What If My Sugar Glider Doesn’t Like Raisins?
If your sugar glider leaves the raisin untouched, then all the better, just be sure to remove it from avoiding it rotting. If your sugar glider doesn’t have the taste for raisins, then it’s not a big deal. As previously mentioned, raisins aren’t recommended for sugar gliders. There’re plenty of better alternatives out there that are healthier for them.
Other Alternatives For Your Sugar glider
Here are some safer and healthier alternatives to raisins:
- Guava
- Honeydew
- Java Plum
- Jujube
- Kiwi
- Kumquat
- Mandarin oranges
- Mango
- Mulberries
- Nectarine
- Oranges
- Papaya
- Passion Fruit
- Peaches
- Pears
- Persimmon
- Pineapple
- Cranberries
- Currants
- Dates
- Dragon Fruit
- Figs
- Grapefruit
Remember to only serve the above fruits to your sugar glider as an occasional treat.
The Bottom Line
Although raisins are controversial, it’s up to you as to whether or not to feed them. If your sugar glider turns their nose up at a raisin, then you can always try offering them a better alternative instead, such as a Kiwi or Mango.
