My name is Amanda. I have a great passion for photography and animals and I am currently in school for veterinary medicine.

Ever since I saw a picture of a sugar glider, I fell in love. I did a lot of research on them and decided I wanted some of my own to spoil. I bought a huge six foot cage, made up all their mixed fruit, veggies and protein mix, then went on a hunt.

I adopted Athena and Echo from a lady who was, to say the least, very unknowledgable. She was feeding them pellets and they never had their nails clipped. When I got them she told me "The little one you can hold but the big one bites a lot. I haven't trimmed their nails cause they don't want me to trim them." Well, needless to say, these two sisters are the sweetest things. She gave them to me in a box with a torn up t-shirt. They kept gettings their claws stuck when they tried to burrow. I immediately threw away the t-shirt and exchanged it with some fleece. I was able to trim their nails the same night I got them. You know how people say that animals can sense the good and the bad in people? Well, once that lady handed them over to me, their personalities changed drastically. They felt safe. Finally.

The next day while browsing a pet store I came across my little handsome Zeus. He was in a big cage with more than fifteen other males. I couldn't count them all because they were in a fleece tunnel. I wanted to save them all, but unfortunately I didn't have that much money. They were being fed pellets and had some weird smoothie mix in their cage. I asked if I could see them out of the tunnel and one of the workers opened the cage up for me. She quickly reached her hand in, freaking out all of the sugar gliders, and ended up getting bit. Many of the gliders ran out of the tunnel and clung onto the bars of the cage. Most of them had diarrhea and didn't look very healthy. Then I came across Zeus. He was up in the corner of the cage, scared as could be. His big ears pointed my direction when I made a squeeky noise. I fell in love instantly, he just had the cutest face. Curious, he climbed towards me and I asked if I could get him out. His eyes locked on mine and I knew I should get him.

Later on down the road Mike, a veterinary technician, sent me an email. He explained to me that a 6 year old male sugar glider, Shug, came into his clinic to be euthenized. The original owner could no longer take care of him so it was to be considered a convienent euthenization. Mike told me that he couldn't let Shug be euthenized and took him in to his home to hopefully find him a better one. He explained to me that he had talked to the original owner and found out that Shug had been alone his whole life, with not many toys, no wheel to run in and was fed only pellets. The original owner admitted that within the last three years he let Shug out maybe once a week to pet him for a little bit and to say hello. But that was all. He had begun to pull out his own fur from depression and it's a surprise that he was still carrying on through life. My heart went out to Shug and the poor neglected life he has had, I could not say no to giving him a loving forever home. Thank you Mike for finding me so that Shug could be happy.

So that is their story. Sugar gliders are exotic pets and are not to be taken lightly. They are not like a hamster and they are not like a rat. They require a specific diet and lifestyle to stay healthy and happy. I give the best to my four sugar gliders and I am always kept up to date with the things that I need to know to keep them happy. They are not my pets, they are my companions and my family. If you would like to research more about these amazing animals, please check out these sites:

www.glidercentral.net

www.sugarglider.com

www.suzsugargliders.com