Sugar Glider Safety Part 2

Heating/cooling vents:  Make sure your heating/cooling vents are securely covered.  A curious, determined sugar glider could open a loosely-covered vent, and any sugar glider can quickly escape into an open vent.  Picture yourself trying to get your glider out of your ductwork!  Some people nail window screening or hardware cloth over their heating/cooling vents.

Open water:  Never leave a bucket full of water where your glider might accidentally fall into it and drown. Although sugar gliders are not known for a fondness for water, a glider might fall into an uncovered aquarium.  If it did, it would most likely drown. So keep your aquarium covered or in a place that is inaccessible to your sugar glider.

Hanging threads in the sleeping pouch: Be sure to trim all hanging or loose threads in your sugar glider’s sleeping pouch. A thread wrapped around a paw can cause a traumatic injury.

Bathroom hazards: The bathroom is really a bad place to take your glider.  But because it is small and enclosed, many people take their gliders into their bathroom. Water in a sink, bathtub or a toilet can be deadly to your sugar glider. If your glider falls in and you are not there to immediately take him out of the water, he will try to climb out. But because the sides of the sink, tub or toilet are slippery and smooth, he won’t be able to get a grip. Eventually, he will get tired and drown.  Don’t let this happen to your glider!  Keep the lid down on your toilet at all times, just in case your glider has accidentally gotten out of his cage and/or safe room.

Substances commonly found in the bathroom can be quite poisonous and/or deadly to a sugar glider. For example, perfume, hairspray, shampoo, shaving cream, prescription and over-the-counter medicines, nail polish remover, tub and toilet cleaners and many other substances are all poisonous.  Then there are sharp items, like razor blades and scissors.  The general rule for the bathroom is this: if you wouldn’t let a toddler get into or handle it, don’t let your sugar glider get into or handle it!

Kitchen hazards:  In general, the kitchen is a bad place to bring your sugar glider. From a human’s perspective, sugar glider pee or poop in the kitchen is very unsanitary. But I want to focus here on the hazards to the glider himself in the kitchen. A sugar glider can incur serious burns if he jumps on a hot stovetop or a hot toaster oven. Remember that food cooking on a stove may smell very enticing to your sugar glider. Your sugar glider can also get underneath your stove (and get burned or follow the gas line right into your basement or out of your house).

He can also get behind a refrigerator, which has a moving fan that could injure your glider. The exposed coils of a refrigerator are also dangerous to your precious little one. Of course, the electrical cords for the refrigerator, microwave, etc. are a danger. It also goes without saying that you should never leave your dishwasher open when your sugar glider is around.  How horrible it would be to open your dishwasher and discover your glider had gotten in there and died while your dishes got clean!

Be aware if you have had an exterminator place mouse bait or insect poison under your stove or refrigerator. If so, you cannot let your sugar glider run free. Mouse bait (usually warfarin) could easily kill a glider.  And insecticides can also make a sugar glider very sick.

While we are on the subject of mice and other vermin, remember to not use pest control devices that use radio waves or ultrasonic sound to drive pests from your house. They can literally drive your sugar gliders crazy!

Never leave floor-level kitchen cabinets open while your sugar glider runs around.  He could get into some poisonous cleaning compounds. If the cabinet is under your sink, he could squeeze through the hole(s) that the plumbing comes through and exit into your basement.

Remember to keep caffeinated drinks and alcoholic drinks in your kitchen inaccessible to sugar gliders.

(To be continued)

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