|
Cages
are one of the more important factors to keeping sugar gliders safely
and happily. A cage needs to be sized correctly for the
animals
inside and it also needs to be easy for the owner to maintain.
A
cage also needs to have things inside to stimulate exercise and play.
Being
arboreal, sugar gliders are well adapted to climbing and they
seem to have a preference for being up high and safe.
A good
cage for these critters is a tall one that has many shelves
and tree limbs and places to be, to explore and and
to hide.
Sugar
gliders are most often purchased with tiny cages that are not suitable
for their existence. If you got your animal at a flea market,
gun
show or possibly even from a breeder, chances are that you cage is not
suitable for the animal.
It's hard to say what is minimally
acceptable for these animals. To be honest, most of our
efforts
can not duplicate the freedom and open space they would have
in
the wild. I can tell you that a 1ft x 1ft x 2ft cage is too
small.
There
are many cage choices on the market that are suitable for sugar
gliders. Most importantly is the ability to keep the animal
inside and safe. The cage will need to be standard 1/2" bar
spacing and you need to make sure that there are no spaces larger as
they are able to pry and wiggle through. Any bird feeder or
small
doors must be tied closed. The best access door configuration
for
sugar gliders is a swing open door. Many of the
flimsy wire
cages have a lift up door which is ok until the day comes when the door
slips out of your grasp and you accidentally guillotene your animal;
and it will.
Here are some links to a few popular and generally
accepted cages in the sugar glider community:
Exel Tower Large
Exel Tower Extra-Large
A&E Flight Cage
J&M Sturdy Tower
Aviantelligence Large Tower
And
then comes what you put inside of the cage. Of great
importance
is the ability for the animal to exercise. There are now some
options for larger cage exercise wheels and the good ones will have the
option to help maintain the animal's nails by sanding them down while
exercising so you do not have to clip any more.
Wodent wheel with nail trimmer track
|
