STRATHAM, NH – The New Hampshire SPCA was overwhelmed with help from area residents after rescuing 79 Sugar Gliders Wednesday, the latest rescue of the increasingly popular critters that are adorable but expensive and difficult to own.
Sugar gliders are tiny marsupials with huge eyes that can fit into the palm of your hand. They are native to Australia and New Guinea, and ideally would feed on wattle gum and eucalyptus sap. They are also becoming an increasing rescue issue in the region because of their expensive special needs.
“Sugar Gliders are unique animals that require specialized food and supplies to be properly cared for,” the NHSPCA posted on its Facebook page after the tiny animals were rescued. Later Wednesday, the organization said the response was enough to fully stock the needed items.
“That demand can change, but for now, we no longer require fresh food items thanks to your overwhelming generosity,” the NHSPCA posted.
The Sugar Gliders were rescued from a breeder in New Hampshire after a tip that they were being neglected, WCSH in Portland reported. The investigator found that the 79 Sugar Gliders at the breeder —which the NHSPCA didn’t identify — hadn’t been fed and were living in dirty cages.
They are undergoing medical exams before they’re sent to another rescue organization or adopted out, Executive Director Lisa Dennison told WCSH.
Dennison said the exams include “looking at all of their limbs, their body condition, their body weight, their tails, basically to make sure that they’re healthy and that they don’t have any injuries, because there can be fighting among them.”
She said the stress of the transition, as well as the conditions the marsupials were living in “is a great concern, and so you want to make sure none of them are suffering.”
Sugar Gliders were first brought to the U.S. from their tropical home in 1990, according to the National Institutes for Health. Over the decades, they’ve become legal in nearly every state except California, Alaska and Hawaii. In New Hampshire, they are considered non-controlled exotic animals, which means that they can be owned privately without a license, the same category that includes non-poisonous reptiles, ferrets, and other small exotics. [The state does ban private ownership of exotic animals like big cats, bears, wolves, poisonous reptiles, and non-human primates, unless the owner is a licensed exhibitor.]
The fact they’re legal, though, doesn’t mean that everyone should run out and get a Sugar Glider or two for Christmas. While they are super cute and social, they also are exotic tropical critters that require a lot of work and cost a lot of money to care for. That means that as more breeders go into business, rescues and surrenders are becoming more common, industry experts say.
In November, 33 male Sugar Gliders were made available by the Massachusetts SPCA in Boston after a rescue. The females were kept for monitoring to determine if they were pregnant. In April, another 33 were put up for adoption at the MSPCA’s Nevin Farm in Methuen, Massachusetts, after they were surrendered by a breeder who couldn’t afford to take care of their medical issues.
In December 2020, the MSPCA took in 44 from an owner who became overwhelmed by their prolific reproduction.
Sugar Gliders can live in captivity for 12 to 15 years, and require expensive specialized care, more space than most owners have and veterinarians that are familiar with treating exotic animals. They are nocturnal, which means they’re noisy at night and need a dark environment, according to the website PetHelpful. An owner can’t leave them alone if they go away for a weekend, because of the constant care required.
They can suffer serious health issues if they’re not cared for correctly, in the right environment, Pethelpful says.
“The reality is that these animals are not pets and, unfortunately, are usually not treated well by people who own them,” the site says. “Keeping a sugar glider as a pet is a bad decision that will not end well, considering the specialized care they require.”
According to PetMD, they can make good pets as long as they are cared for in the right way. Since in nature, they live their entire lives in trees, that means providing them with an environment that mimics their natural habitat. Their feet rarely touch the ground, and they’re used to gliding from tree to tree in the rainforest, so an aviary in which they can do that is ideal. Their environment must be 75-90 degrees, and they must never be in an environment below 70 degrees.
Female Sugar Gliders have two uteri and can have babies up to a year after getting pregnant, which makes them difficult to spay, makes spaying dangerous for the Sugar Glider, and makes them robust reproducers.
They are happiest if they live with other Sugar Gliders, but if the cages are too close together, they can fight, which can cause injuries like lost limbs, a breeder told MassLive in April, in an article that spelled out the complications, expense and issues with owning Sugar Gliders.
Other problems the article discussed are their unique health and medical, as well as nutrition requirements, their prolific reproduction, and the difficulty of creating the right environment.
Breeder Michelle Cutler, who helped get Sugar Gliders legalized in Massachusetts in 2014, said the issues she has seen with them are heartbreaking, and rescue organizations and the SPCA need to do more to address their unique issues.
Cutler said she has a three-month vetting process before her Sugar Gliders can be adopted, and agencies should be stricter about who can take a Sugar Glider home. Cutler and rescuer Leah Tower both said they’ve dealt with animals that have been rescued or surrendered a second time when new owners can’t given them the care they need.
“I worked so hard to get them legalized and I actually kick myself in the ass — figure of speech — because so many people just started buying them,” Cutler said. “And they were [reselling] them on Craigslist because it was too much work.”
