Marina Gustafson 10 owns a total of seven sugar gliders as pets. According to ActiveWild.com, Sugar gliders are marsupials that are native to Australia. They are part of the Petauridae family, which is a species of opossum.

“They are incredibly high maintenance. Out of all my animals, I have to be the most careful with them because they are very susceptible to the outside environment,”Gustafson said. “We have to wash our hands before we touch them. We are very careful with the clothing we are wearing inside.”

Sugar gliders nest in holes in trees that are covered with leaves. Many sugar glider owners attempt to mimic their pets’ natural environments.

“We have kind of a big birdcage, but you need to have enough room for them to be able to jump and glide,” Gustafson said.

The gliders also eat various different foods. In the wild, sugar gliders eat sweet food, such as nectar and tree sap. They are also insectivores, which eat insects, and omnivores, which eat both vegetables and meat, according to Sugargliderinfo.org.

“In their diet, we give them mealworms, and things like that for protein, but the diet we actually make for them is hard-boiled eggs, shell and everything, apple juice and vitamins, such as wheat germ.”

“There is a breeder in Texas that we got my first two gliders from, but we ended up getting the ones I have now from Craigslist. If you are getting (a glider) from a breeder in Texas, or a breeder that is well known, the gliders are super expensive,” Gustafson said. “Some of the cost is because of shipping and because they (sugar gliders) are very high maintenance animal, but the ones we got off of Craigslist were a few hundred dollars, and I got them as a Christmas gift.”

According to sugargliderinfo.com, one unique thing about keeping sugar gliders as pets is that they bond to their human families and other pets in the home.

“They bond to people because they are colonial animals, but they are really mean at first. They bite and bark at you, which is so annoying. But once they bond with you, they are so sweet” Gustafson said. “You can just put them in your pocket and they will just curl up, and sleep in your hand.”