Looking for a cool and unique alternative to the standard household pets?  Cats and dogs a bit boring?  Have you considered looking for an exotic pet?  If so then perhaps a sugar glider is up your alley.

I am sure you are wondering what a sugar glider is, they resemble a flying squirrel of sorts.  The little critters are cute and adorable, furry and quite friendly.  I have had three sugar gliders in a short 4-month period.  Biggest problems that I experienced I will outline below so that if you decide to acquire on of these cute little furry animals you can avoid the problems I had. 

We had done a lot of research and knew that sugar gliders loved huge cages.  We made the mistake of building our own cage, which was huge.  It was a whopping 6-foot square cage, with loads of toys in it to keep my gliders occupied.  However, as great as the cage was, the doors were not very secure.  Gliders are naturally very smart creatures and quite capable of figuring out how to sneak out of very small holes. 

This created a huge problem for me, since we had two cats in the house.  While the dog was fascinated by the gliders, she was a bit scared because of the crabbing noise they make.  The cats however, viewed them as a gliding dinner to go catch.  To my dismay, the first glider became lunch for one of my cats after my cat was able to catch the glider on her trip down the hallway where my husband and I were watching television. 

While I have heard some people state that the gliders produce a strong foul smell, we never experienced this problem.  I have heard however that the smell is stronger in males, however all three gliders we had were female.  As with all strange pets, you do need to watch small children with the gliders, simply because the gliders are so small it is quite easy to injure them. 

They have very sharp teeth; however, their mouths are very small making it difficult for the gliders to do much damage.  While their bite does seem scary at first, it is relatively harmless.  Gliders are typically disease free so there is no worry about them transmitting diseases from glider to human. 

If you think a glider is for you, check with your local and state laws, since gliders are exotic some states have deemed them illegal.  Some states will only allow the gliders into homes with a limit on the number of gliders allowed in each residence.  My state has unrestricted limits on gliders.  Check with your state to be sure before bringing the little darling home.