Sugar Glider Cage Information
A sugar glider cage should be a safe and comfortable home
for your suggies. Below are the basic requirements of a
cage. Soon, we would like to post cage reviews. If
you have a store-bought cage that you would like to submit a
review for, please contact us.
We will also be posting instructions on how to make a sugar
glider cage soon.
Cage Size
You will hear different opinions about minimum cage
size from different people. A universally acceptable
standard seems to be around 2.5-3 feet wide by 3 feet tall.
This is the MINIMUM amount of space you should provide
for your sugar glider(s). Here are a few points to
remember:
- Bigger is obviously better.
- Taller is better than wider.
- Sugar gliders like to jump and glide. They may be
small, but they require a lot of exercise and need plenty
of space to play.
- Some states have minimum cage size requirements that
are larger than the universally acceptable standard. We
will try to post more information about this soon. Make
sure your cage is large enough to meet the minimum
requirements in your state.
- The cages sold by Perfect Pocket Pets are too small. If
you are currently using one of their cages, please buy or
make your gliders a larger home and ditch their cage or use
it as a travel cage.
- Be sure to get a cage that will leave plenty of room to
hang a pouch, have a food area (possibly with a glider
kitchen), use a wheel, have a few toys, and still allow
room to leap from side to side.
Cage Style
 Sugar gliders
need space to jump. Minimal or no shelves is optimal.
Multi-level styles are not optimal. A better layout is to
remove the shelves and accessorize it with branches,
vines, ropes, and/or hanging toys. If you are going with a
manufactured cage, many of the larger-style bird-cages are
acceptable, if you can get the right wire spacing. It is
important to make sure that all doors latch very securely.
Gliders are very good at escaping. Get a style with a
pull-out tray, to keep the gliders away from their waste.
Keep in mind, gliders can reach a few inches with their
hands, so if the pullout tray isn't deep enough, you may
have a mess on your hands.
Cage Wire Spacing
The general consensus is that the wire spacing should be 1/2
inch in one direction and can range anywhere from 1 inch to 6
inches in the other direction. The longer dimension can
run either up and down or side to side. That doesn't really
matter. The important part is making sure the wires are no more
than 1/2 inch apart in one direction. A sugar glider joey can
squeeze through the bars if the spacing is even just a little
bit wider (yes 5/8 inch is too wide). Most home-made cages use
1/2" x 1" spacing.
Cage Materials
There are a few acceptable materials for sugar glider cages
and there are some unacceptable materials. Here are a few
general rules of thumb:
- If you are going to buy a cage or make a cage using
wood, make sure that the wood is only for decorative
purposes and is on the outside of the cage. If the gliders
can get to the wood, not only will they chew on it, but
they will also urinate on it and make your house smell
horrible.
- DO NOT buy or make a cage using galvanized steel. Urine
causes a chemical reaction with the galvanized steel, which
can cause urinary tract infections.
- DO NOT use a cage made out of aluminum.
- DO NOT make a cage out of hardware cloth.
- If you are going to make a cage, PVC-coated wire is a
very popular material to use. You may be able to find this
at a local hardware store, feed store, or fence company.
Otherwise, it can be purchased online. We were unable to
find any wire locally. We searched online for several days
before finally finding what we wanted. The best deal we
found was at the Ace Hardware website. They offer free
shipping to your local Ace Hardware store as well.
Klubertanz' website is probably a close second.
Powder-coated wire is usually ok too.
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