If you’ve seen how cute sugar gliders are, there’s a good chance you’re looking into getting a few of them. They can be such fun pets to own, but they’re not for everybody.
Some people won’t like caring for sugar gliders because they need quite a bit of attention. Others will love the fact that you can form bonds with these neat little pets.
Before you commit to buying sugar gliders, it’s wise to learn about them. You’ll certainly want to know how much sugar gliders cost to own so you can learn whether buying them will be practical in your situation.
Read on to learn about the cost of owning sugar gliders. You’ll learn how much the pets themselves cost as well as the cost of various things that you’ll need when caring for them as pets.
It should be much easier to fit these pets into your budget when you have all of the information. Then you can make a good decision for your home when you’re ready.
How Much Do Pet Sugar Gliders Cost?
The first thing to consider is how much it’ll cost to buy the animals themselves. These are exotic pets that aren’t the most common.
Even so, they aren’t so rare that you won’t find them being sold locally. They’ve become popular enough that it isn’t difficult to find a pet store that can get you a sugar glider if you really want one.
Baby sugar gliders cost a fair bit more than adult sugar gliders. This is because people like adopting baby sugar gliders so they can bond with them starting at a young age.
A juvenile sugar glider will cost you between $200 and $500 depending on various factors. The price will fluctuate based on demand, the area where you’re living, and more.
Adult sugar gliders are less expensive. It’s common for these sugar gliders to be sold for $100 or $200.
You need to double these numbers, though. This is because sugar gliders are very social creatures.
It isn’t acceptable to keep one sugar glider as a pet. The pet would get lonely and it might even wind up dying.
You should keep a pair of sugar gliders as pets so that they can thrive together. Buy at least two of these pets to keep everything safe.
This means that you’ll be spending somewhere between $200 and $1,000 to get what you need. Make your decisions accordingly.
Can You Get Sugar Gliders for Free?
Sometimes it’s possible to get sugar gliders for free, but this isn’t necessarily common. People do buy these animals as pets without realizing how much of a responsibility they can be.
This might lead to them giving the sugar gliders away to some type of shelter. There might be local animal shelters that have sugar gliders for you to adopt.
A situation such as this might still cost money, though. You might have to pay some type of adoption fee.
Another situation involves getting sugar gliders directly from a private owner. If they just want to give them away, you can offer to take them.
Note that these situations might be few and far between. The only reliable way to get sugar gliders as pets is to purchase them from a reputable pet store or dealer.
How Much Will the Cage Cost?
You’re going to need to buy a fairly large cage to keep these animals in your home. So it’s important to ensure that you have enough room for it before moving forward.
Once you’ve confirmed that you have enough room, you can start looking for an appropriate cage. Generally, you want to look for cages that are at least 36 inches high and 24 inches wide.
This is the minimum amount of room that the sugar gliders will accept. It’s better to buy a slightly bigger cage if you’re able to.
Sugar gliders like being able to climb and glide around a bit in their cages. It helps them to feel more natural and at ease.
You can buy sugar glider cages online at popular retailers. They might also be found in pet stores.
Often, these cages will be advertised as both ferret cages and sugar glider cages. Get what you need and your sugar gliders will be happy.
The cost of a sugar glider cage varies depending on the size that you buy. Expect to spend $150 or more.
Some of the better cages that are a bit bigger will cost $225 or so. Be sure to get a high-quality cage that your sugar gliders will enjoy.
How Much Will the Accessories Cost?
Sugar glider accessories are important to help them stay comfortable in your home. You want to give them many different types of toys to play with.
Enthusiasts recommend purchasing many types of climbing toys. Sugar gliders love climbing on these toys and hanging from them.
You can buy little climbing ropes that the sugar gliders can use. They also like using ladder toys.
Getting an exercise wheel for the sugar gliders will help. They will run on the wheel and it’ll help them to stay at a healthy weight.
You should buy nesting pouches for the sugar gliders, too. They like being able to retreat to small private spaces.
Getting a travel carrier is likely a good idea just in case. If you need to move your sugar gliders or take them to the vet, you’ll want to have one of these.
There are also important accessories such as food dishes, water dishes, bedding, and more. You could spend between $100 and $200 easily just on the accessories.
How Much Will the Food Cost?
You need to feed sugar gliders properly to ensure that they stay healthy. Luckily, the cost of food isn’t going to be much of a burden.
On average, sugar gliders will eat close to $400 worth of food yearly. This is for a pair of sugar gliders.
You’ll buy them fresh fruits and veggies each month. It’s also wise to purchase recommended foods from pet stores.
Expect to spend around $30 or so each month on food. You’ll be spending money on staple sugar glider food as well as fruits and veggies to supplement the dietary needs of your pets.
What Types of Foods Do Sugar Gliders Like?
Sugar gliders enjoy all types of fruits and veggies. As you’d expect, there are some fruits and veggies that you should feed these pets because they’re considered to be healthy for them.
Some of the best fruits to give sugar gliders include bananas, papaya, melons, pears, apples, kiwi, and oranges. They’ll love being fed fruits, but don’t go overboard when feeding them.
Veggies are popular foods that are good for sugar gliders, too. They love eating squash, sweet potatoes, broccoli, carrots, and corn.
Whenever you give these pets fruits or veggies, it’s important to wash them first. You also need to remove pits, seeds, and stems to keep the sugar gliders from choking.
Sugar gliders also need to eat things that contain protein. Sometimes you can buy special sugar glider food that will have the necessary protein.
Aside from this, it’s wise to give the gliders insects. They love eating live insects because they do so in the wild.
Some of the most common live insects that people feed to sugar gliders are crickets and mealworms. You should buy insects from a pet store rather than capture insects from your yard.
How Much Will the Maintenance Cost?
Maintaining the sugar gliders won’t be too rough. You’ll need to buy food each month, but that should only cost around $30 to take care of two sugar gliders.
You’ll also need to buy new bedding regularly. It’s necessary to change the bedding out regularly, and that means that buying replacement bedding is something you’ll be doing often.
The bedding isn’t very expensive, though. It should only cost you around $10 per month to get the bedding that you need.
Sometimes you’ll need to replace the toys that the sugar gliders play with. They will get worn out over time as the sugar gliders use them.
Spending money on baby wipes to clean the cage will factor into the maintenance costs. It shouldn’t wind up being much more than $20 a year to get what you need for this.
Healthcare costs are something that you might want to factor in as well. If you want to keep your pets safe, it’s important to care for them to the best of your ability.
Will Healthcare Cost a Lot?
Sadly, healthcare does have the potential to cost a fair bit of cash. This is where the maintenance costs start to go up into territories that will make some people uncomfortable.
Common healthcare concerns for sugar gliders include obesity issues and diabetes. You’ll likely spend $100 a year just getting checkups for your pets.
The cost might differ depending on what area you live in. Occasionally, the sugar gliders might deal with parasites such as ticks, but this is a fairly rare problem.
Dealing with parasites will likely cost you $35 or so. If your pet needs help in an emergency, things can get rather expensive.
An emergency vet visit might cost as much as $350. You should keep some extra money in your savings account just in case you need to pay for an emergency vet trip.
If you choose to buy pet insurance, it’ll be somewhat costly. Most plans start at $10 a month, and you’ll need to pay this amount of cash for each sugar glider.
Many people go without pet insurance. Doing this makes it so you’ll have to pay the full amount of whatever the vet bills come out to be.
How Much Are the Total Yearly Costs?
If you add everything up, you’re looking at spending at least $500 a year on your sugar gliders. Depending on certain factors, it could be as much as $1,000 yearly.
For many, this won’t be a problem at all. However, if you don’t have much extra cash to spend on pets, you might not find it easy to keep sugar gliders in your home.
Since sugar gliders require a decent initial investment to own, you truly need to decide if it’s worthwhile to buy them. For some, it’ll be a great thing that will bring much joy.
Others might find that it’ll put them in a bit of a financial bind. You might spend as much as $1,500 just getting what you need to welcome these pets into your home.
Of course, the cost could be way lower than that. You might spend as little as $700 or so.
It just depends on how much the sugar gliders cost, how much you spend on accessories, and what kind of deal you get on a cage. Factor everything in so you can make a good choice for your household.
You’d be better off waiting to get sugar gliders if you’re in a tough spot financially right now. You can always return to the idea at a later date if necessary.
Spay and Neuter Your Sugar Gliders
It’s recommended to spay and neuter pet sugar gliders. Unless you intend to breed these pets, you should get them neutered or spayed.
When keeping a male and a female sugar glider in a cage together, they will mate. They’ll produce babies that you might not want.
Avoid situations such as this by taking them to the vet. You can get the sugar gliders taken care of without spending too much money.
It’s worthwhile to do this because it protects your sugar gliders. It also keeps you from having to deal with the unwanted cost of caring for more sugar gliders than you bargained for.
Remember That Sugar Gliders Aren’t Legal Everywhere
Don’t rush out to purchase sugar gliders just yet. You’ve learned a lot about how much they cost now, but there still could be hurdles in your way.
You see, sugar gliders aren’t legal to own in every part of the world. In the United States, particular states such as California have banned sugar gliders.
It’s illegal to own them as pets there as of the writing of this article. Other states have banned sugar gliders as well.
To keep yourself from getting in trouble, it’s wise to check your local laws. You want to ensure that you know whether you can buy them legally in your area.
Your city might have rules that you will need to follow even if your state hasn’t banned them. Keep all of this in mind so that you can do things by the book.
For example, you might need to buy a special permit to be allowed to keep sugar gliders as pets. This information should be easy enough to find, and you can follow the instructions left by the local government to get things done.
Sugar Gliders Might Bite You At First
Don’t expect to buy sugar gliders and suddenly be best friends with the animals. These animals are not going to be comfortable around you right away.
You have to earn the sugar glider’s trust over time. This involves bonding with the sugar glider.
As you spend time with the sugar glider, it’ll get used to your scent and your presence. It’ll come to see you as someone trustworthy, but you have to earn it.
When you attempt to handle a sugar glider in the first week, you’ll often deal with getting bitten. This can hurt a bit, but it’s not something that will seriously harm you.
Luckily, you’re going to deal with biting issues less and less as the sugar glider bonds with you. Just know that things start out this way and then you have to make an effort to bond with the gliders.
Sugar Gliders Require a Lot of Effort
Caring for sugar gliders isn’t as simple as caring for a cat or a hamster. You have to put in quite a bit more effort.
These animals need a lot of attention. You must spend time bonding with them if you want them to be happy around you.
People who don’t have time to do this might not want to bother buying sugar gliders as pets. You don’t have to spend all day with the sugar glider to bond with it, but you do need to put in some effort.
Playing with the sugar glider can be a good bonding opportunity. Many people buy tents and set them up indoors so they can play with their sugar gliders.
It allows them to glide and play in an indoor space without the worry of getting lost in the house. You can also secure a room and use that as a sugar glider play area, but it’s more complicated to do this.
You can purchase bonding pouches that will help you bond with the sugar gliders. This allows you to carry the sugar gliders around in a pouch as you handle household chores.
Sugar gliders like this quite a bit since they’re marsupials that are used to the concept of being carried in pouches.
Use this method when you only have an hour or two per day to spend at home bonding with the glider. It can be useful even for those who do have more time, though.
Another idea is to get the sugar gliders used to your scent. Put a blanket or towel that has your scent on it in the cage with the gliders.
This will ensure that they get used to you faster. It’s a good way to bond early on so that the sugar gliders will come to trust you.
Sugar Gliders Are Most Active at Night
You should try to spend some time with your sugar gliders in the evening and at night. They’re nocturnal animals that are more active when the sun goes down.
Ideally, you want to leave them alone during the day. You want to let them sleep so they can maintain a normal sleep schedule.
They like being in dark areas during the day so they can rest. This is another reason why it’s wise to purchase hiding pouches for your sugar gliders.
You can hang out with them before you go to bed at night. This is what most sugar glider owners do when they keep a normal or typical work schedule.
Final Thoughts
Learning about how much these neat little pets cost will help you out. Now that you know more, you can make a responsible decision based on your budget.
If you can afford between $500 and $1,000 in yearly costs, it’s likely fine for you to buy sugar gliders as pets. Remember that you must buy at least two sugar gliders and you need to have enough room for a fairly big cage.
It’s also important to be able to spend time with the sugar gliders. You should ensure that you have a few hours to spend with the sugar gliders at night before bed.
Caring for sugar gliders can be a bit tougher than some would like. You have to keep their cage clean, feed them, play with them, and bond with them.
Bonding can take a fair bit of time, too. You have to put some effort in or the sugar gliders won’t learn to trust you very fast.
Even so, it can be a fun process. Many people grow very attached to their pet sugar gliders over time.
If you think that owning sugar gliders sounds like a good time, you can give it a go. So long as it’s legal to own them in your area, you’ll be able to procure the permit that you need and get these pets.
Those who are on the fence can always think about some more. You’ll always be able to get sugar gliders when you feel that you’re truly prepared.
Take the time to let friends and family know about sugar gliders if they’re interested. Having more people know what to expect will ensure that it’s less likely that sugar gliders will be purchased before people have had the time to think it through.
You only want to commit to pet ownership when you’re ready for the responsibility. Have fun with it if you choose to move forward.
I have a bachelor’s degree in construction engineering. When I’m not constructing or remodeling X-Ray Rooms, Cardiovascular Labs, and Pharmacies, I’m at home with my wife, two daughters and a dog. Outside of family, I love grilling and barbequing on my Big Green Egg and working on projects around the house. Growing up, I had pet dogs, cats, deer, sugar gliders, chinchillas, a bird, chickens, fish, and a goat.