Small mammals are becoming increasingly popular as house pets. Among these, sugar gliders (Petaurus breviceps) are small marsupials referred to veterinary facilities both for routine and emergency check-ups, diagnostics and surgeries. Given their delicate nature and specific physiological needs, anaesthetic management requires careful consideration. In addition, data found in the literature regarding anaesthesia management in this species are scarce.
The sugar glider (Petaurus breviceps) is a small, omnivorous, arboreal, and nocturnal gliding possum. While bush babies thrive throughout the sub-Saharan African continent, sugar gliders have a more limited range. The key difference between a bush baby vs sugar glider is that bush babies thrive in Africa while sugar gliders are mostly found in Australia and surrounding islands. In addition, their nicknames, range, habitat, and diet all differ.
Sugar gliders are marsupials. You can think of them as tree-dwelling opossums that glide. Bush babies live in forests, grasslands, and savannas. Their populations are primarily found in the sub-Saharan African forest. Sugar gliders have a more limited range. They live throughout the eastern coast of New Guinea, Indonesia, Australia, and a few surrounding islands. They prefer living in forested habitats and cultivated plantation areas.
When a bush baby or sugar glider wants to sleep, it’ll probably go inside a tree hollow. They can also be found hanging out in bits of tangly vegetation. There’s even one species, Senegal Bush babies, that make a shelter out of abandoned beehives and old bird’s nests. Bush babies are omnivores; they eat a diet consisting of fruit and insects. They’re also known to dine on the tasty gum oozing out of certain tree species. Sugar gliders soar through the forest canopy, dining on sap, gum, nectar, pollen, and insects. It’s not uncommon to see a hungry sugar glider intently searching tree cones for beetles and spiders.
There are 20 known species of bush babies. However, experts believe there are many more just waiting to be discovered. One of the easiest ways to detect bush baby species is by listening to their distinct cries. At present, sugar glider taxonomy is disputed.
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Bush babies and sugar gliders are hard to study because they’re nocturnal. Bush babies distribution also presents challenges. They tend to live in politically unstable regions. Bush babies’ numbers are declining because of deforestation. Commercial logging is proliferating throughout Angola’s forests. Agriculture and mining demands are also devastating the bush baby’s natural habitat. Sugar gliders are also facing problems from human pressures involving land clearance. As more and more land is cleared away for agricultural use, they’re becoming desperate to find new homes. Bushfires are also taking away some of their natural habitats.
Mongooses, jackals, snakes, and owls love dining on bush babies. Even other primates, like blue monkeys, prey on them. Chimpanzees are particularly fond of bush babies, and they’re creative hunters. What predators do sugar gliders face? They have fewer natural threats, especially since many live as pets. However, both feral and domesticated cats threaten sugar gliders.
The sugar glider, as strictly defined in a recent analysis, is only native to a small portion of southeastern Australia, corresponding to southern Queensland and most of New South Wales east of the Great Dividing Range; the extended species group, including populations which may or may not belong to P. breviceps, occupies a larger range covering much of coastal eastern and northern Australia, New Guinea, and nearby islands.
Members of Petaurus are popular exotic pets; these pet animals are also frequently referred to as "sugar gliders", but recent research indicates, at least for American pets, that they are not P. breviceps but a closely related species, ultimately originating from a single source near Sorong in West Papua. This would possibly make them members of the Krefft's glider (P.
Taxonomy and Evolution
The genus Petaurus is believed to have originated in New Guinea during the mid Miocene epoch, approximately 18 to 24 million years ago. The modern Australian Petaurus, along with New Guinean members of what were formerly considered P. breviceps, diverged from their closest living New Guinean relatives ~9-12 mya. The taxonomy of the species is complex, and is still not fully resolved.
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Further studies have found significant genetic variation within populations traditionally classified in P. breviceps, sufficient to warrant splitting the species into multiple. The subspecies P. b. biacensis, from Biak Island off of New Guinea, was reclassified as a separate species, the Biak glider (Petaurus biacensis). In 2020, a landmark study suggested that P. breviceps actually comprised three cryptic species: the Krefft's glider (Petaurus notatus), found throughout most of eastern Australia and introduced to Tasmania, the savanna glider (Petaurus ariel), native to northern Australia, and a more narrowly defined P. breviceps, restricted to a small section of coastal forest in southern Queensland and most of New South Wales.
In addition, other sugar glider populations throughout this range (such as those on New Guinea and the Cape York Peninsula) may represent undescribed species or be conspecific with previously described species. This indicates that contrary to previous findings of a large range (which in fact applied to P. notatus and, to a lesser extent, to P. ariel), P. P. breviceps and P. notatus are estimated to have diverged ~1 million years ago, and may have originated from long term geographic isolation.
The early-mid Pleistocene saw an uplifting of the Great Dividing Range, contributing to and coinciding with aridification of the interior of Australia, including on the western side of the range. This, as well as other climactic and geographic factors, may have isolated the ancestors of P.
Sugar gliders are distributed in the coastal forests of southeastern Queensland and most of New South Wales. Their distribution extends to altitudes of 2000m in the eastern ranges. In parts of its range, it may overlap with Krefft's glider (P.
SUGAR GLIDER CARE
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The sugar glider has a squirrel-like body with a long, partially (weakly)[22] prehensile tail. The length from the nose to the tip of the tail is about 24-30 cm (9-12 in), and males and females weigh 140 and 115 grams (5 and 4 oz) respectively. Heart rate range is 200-300 beats per minute, and respiratory rate is 16-40 breaths per minute.
The sugar glider is a sexually dimorphic species, with males typically larger than females. The fur coat on the sugar glider is thick, soft, and is usually blue-grey; although some have been known to be yellow, tan or (rarely) albino.[a] A black stripe is seen from its nose to midway on its back. Its belly, throat, and chest are cream in colour. Males have four scent glands, located on the forehead, chest, and two paracloacal (associated with, but not part of the cloaca, which is the common opening for the intestinal, urinal and genital tracts) that are used for marking of group members and territory.
Scent glands on the head and chest of males appear as bald spots. The sugar glider is nocturnal; its large eyes help it to see at night and its ears swivel to help locate prey in the dark. The eyes are set far apart, allowing more precise triangulation from launching to landing locations while gliding.
Sugar gliders have demonstrated trichromacy in behavioral testing with sensitivity in the ultraviolet/blue, green, and red ranges. Ultraviolet sensitivity is corroborated by genetic evidence. Each foot on the sugar glider has five digits, with an opposable toe on each hind foot. These opposable toes are clawless, and bend such that they can touch all the other digits, like a human thumb, allowing it to firmly grasp branches.
The gliding membrane extends from the outside of the fifth digit of each forefoot to the first digit of each hind foot. When the legs are stretched out, this membrane allows the sugar glider to glide a considerable distance. The sugar glider is one of a number of volplane (gliding) possums in Australia. It glides with the fore- and hind-limbs extended at right angles to the body, with feet flexed upwards.
The animal launches itself from a tree, spreading its limbs to expose the gliding membranes. This form of arboreal locomotion is typically used to travel from tree to tree; the species rarely descends to the ground. Torpor differs from hibernation in that torpor is usually a short-term daily cycle. Entering torpor saves energy for the animal by allowing its body temperature to fall to a minimum of 10.4 °C (50.7 °F)[32] to 19.6 °C (67.3 °F).
When food is scarce, as in winter, heat production is lowered in order to reduce energy expenditure. With low energy and heat production, it is important for the sugar glider to peak its body mass by fat content in the autumn (May/June) in order to survive the following cold season. They are opportunistic feeders and can be carnivorous, preying mostly on lizards and small birds.
Like most marsupials, female sugar gliders have two ovaries and two uteri; they are polyestrous, meaning they can go into heat several times a year. The female has a marsupium (pouch) in the middle of her abdomen to carry offspring.
The pouch opens anteriorly, and two lateral pockets extend posteriorly when young are present. The age of sexual maturity in sugar gliders varies slightly between the males and females. Males reach maturity at 4 to 12 months of age, while females require from 8 to 12 months. A sugar glider female gives birth to one (19%) or two (81%) babies (joeys) per litter.
The gestation period is 15 to 17 days, after which the tiny joey 0.2 g (0.0071 oz) will crawl into a mother's pouch for further development. They are born largely undeveloped and furless, with only the sense of smell being developed. Breeding is seasonal in southeast Australia, with young only born in winter and spring (June to November).
Unlike animals that move along the ground, the sugar glider and other gliding species produce fewer, but heavier, offspring per litter. Sugar gliders are highly social animals. They live in family groups or colonies consisting of up to seven adults, plus the current season's young.
Within social communities, there are two codominant males who suppress subordinate males, but show no aggression towards each other. Territory and members of the group are marked with saliva and a scent produced by separate glands on the forehead and chest of male gliders.
Communication in sugar gliders is achieved through vocalisations, visual signals and complex chemical odours. Chemical odours account for a large part of communication in sugar gliders, similar to many other nocturnal animals. Odours may be used to mark territory, convey health status of an individual, and mark rank of community members.
Conservation Status and Threats
Under the prior taxonomy, the sugar glider was not considered endangered, and its conservation rank was "Least Concern (LC)" on the IUCN Red List. However, with newer taxonomic studies indicating that it has a small and restricted range, it is now thought to be far more sensitive to potential threats.
For example, the species' native range was hit hard by the 2019-20 Australian bushfires, which occurred just a few months prior to the publishing of the study indicating the true extent of its range. Sugar gliders use tree hollows, making them especially sensitive to intense fires.
However, despite the loss of natural habitat in Australia over the last 200 years, it is adaptable and capable of living in small patches of remnant bush, particularly if it does not have to cross large expanses of cleared land to reach them. Conservation in Australia is enacted at the federal, state and local levels, where sugar gliders are protected as a native species.
The central conservation law in Australia is the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). The National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 is an example of conservation law in the state of South Australia, where it is legal to keep (only) one sugar glider without a permit, provided it was acquired legally from a source with a permit. A permit is required to obtain or possess more than one glider, or if one wants to sell or give away any glider in their possession.
Health Concerns and Medical Information
Sugar gliders develop many of the same types of diseases that other mammals do, and many of the same drugs used to treat these diseases in mammals are also used in sugar gliders.
Common Diseases and Treatments
- Bacterial Infections: Susceptible to infections from bacteria like Pasteurella multocida, staphylococci, and streptococci. Treatment involves palatable oral antimicrobials such as amoxicillin or enrofloxacin.
- Protozoal and Parasitic Diseases: Toxoplasmosis is common and serious, often presenting with neurological signs. Giardiasis and cryptosporidiosis have also been reported. Treatment includes metronidazole for Giardia and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole for suspected toxoplasmosis.
- Nutritional Osteodystrophy: Common in pets fed mainly fruit diets lacking calcium and vitamin D. Treatment involves cage rest, calcium and vitamin D supplementation, and dietary correction.
- Dental Disease: Prone to tartar buildup and periodontal disease. Prophylactic scaling and polishing are suggested. Severe cases may require tooth extraction and antimicrobial treatment.
- Diarrhea: Can be caused by bacterial infections, GI parasites, malnutrition, or dietary changes. Treatment includes supportive care with fluids and drug treatment based on the underlying cause.
A sugar glider perched on a hand.
Anesthesia in Sugar Gliders
Given their delicate nature and specific physiological needs, anaesthetic management requires careful consideration. In small mammals, general anaesthesia is usually induced and maintained with halogenated inhalant anaesthetics, such as isoflurane and sevoflurane. This method is routinely used for sugar gliders in the clinical setting, to achieve rapid induction and recovery. However, due to its pungent odour, the use of isoflurane has been associated with apnoea and vomiting in this species.
Dose-dependent cardiovascular depression, due to both a direct negative inotropic effect and peripheral vasodilation is reported in several species as well as dose-dependent respiratory depression and reduction in minute volume ventilation. Moreover, in rabbits, sialorrhea and voluntary apnoea are reported; the latter may lead to hypercapnia and respiratory acidosis and may promote marked bradycardia and sudden death.
Information regarding the use of injectable anaesthetics in sugar gliders is sparse and mostly anecdotical. Analgesic drugs routinely used in sugar gliders are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as meloxicam and opioids, such as buprenorphine.
The combination of dexmedetomidine (120 μg/kg) and ketamine (5 mg/kg) administered SC and reversed with atipamezole, provided short-lasting anaesthesia in four sugar gliders undergoing elective orchiectomy. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first reported use of dexmedetomidine for anaesthesia in sugar gliders.
Drug Dosages for Sugar Gliders
Very few pharmacological studies have been performed in sugar gliders. Most published drug dosages have been extrapolated from those determined for cats, ferrets, and hedgehogs. For drugs and dosages commonly administered to sugar gliders, see the table Drugs Commonly Used to Treat Sugar Gliders.
In captivity, the sugar glider can suffer from calcium deficiencies if not fed an adequate diet. A large amount of attention and environmental enrichment may be required for the highly social species, especially for those kept as individuals.
In several countries, the sugar glider (or what was formerly considered to be the sugar glider) is popular as an exotic pet, and is sometimes referred to as a pocket pet. In Australia, sugar gliders can be kept in Victoria, South Australia, and the Northern Territory.
Table: Common Health Issues and Treatments in Sugar Gliders
| Health Issue | Common Causes | Treatment |
|---|---|---|
| Nutritional Osteodystrophy | Calcium and vitamin D deficiency | Cage rest, calcium and vitamin D supplements, dietary correction |
| Dental Disease | Tartar buildup, periodontal disease | Scaling and polishing, tooth extraction, antimicrobials |
| Bacterial Infections | Various bacterial pathogens | Oral antimicrobials (e.g., amoxicillin, enrofloxacin) |
| Parasitic Infections | Toxoplasmosis, giardiasis | Trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, metronidazole |
| Diarrhea | Bacterial infection, parasites, dietary issues | Supportive care, fluids, drug treatment based on cause |
