Preparing an appropriate sugar glider cage is the first thing you need to do when you get a pet glider. For a pair of gliders, you will need a cage that is at least 24″W X 24″D X 36″H. Bird cages are sufficient, but cages made specifically for sugar gliders are better.

Sugar gliders like to be up high, so if you can elevate your cage at all, it will help make your baby feel safe (especially if you have other pets). At first, the cage should be set up with a wheel, a pouch, food bowls, a hanging water canteen, and a tray with newspaper on the bottom. It is best not to fill your cage with toys when you’re initially bonding with your glider. You want to keep your cage pretty bare at first because you want your baby to bond with you and not his/her things.

After a couple of months, you can start gradually adding to your cage. You can give your glider bird toys, fake branches and leaves, toys that hang from the ceiling of the cage, pouches and hammocks, and any other non-toxic toy you can find (just nothing too small, you do not want any choking hazards).

You can have fun and be creative decorating the cage. I used leaves intended for an aquarium and wrapped them through the bars of the cage so the backdrop would look like vines. I also cut up a piece of felt and tied it to the ceiling to create a hammock. Pokey loves sleeping in there!

I added to the cage several tiny stuffed animals that my glider likes to cuddle up to, and a bean bag toy that she likes to sit on. In addition to her primary pouch, I added a bigger pouch that I put a towel in with some plastic leaves, and she’ll opt to sleep in there sometimes. I used the pouch that came with a set of bed sheets and she loves it. I have two of these bigger pouches, one in her cage and another than hangs off the top shelf that her cage is on.

There are many things you can do to make your cage comfortable for your baby, just make sure whatever you give him/her is safe. It might take a couple of days/weeks for your glider to use something new, and this is normal. Gliders are very aware of their surroundings and when something new is introduced to them, they might take a little while to feel comfortable, but when they do, they will love the new addition.

Another important issue is cleaning your cage. It is best to clean your cage and anything in it as often as you can. Keeping the floor of your cage as bare as possible will be best for allowing any urine and feces to fall through to the tray. This will help keeping linens and toys clean, but it is possible your glider will urinate anywhere in the cage, so cleaning often is necessary.

I find the best way to clean my cage is to take everything out (except the leaves) and wash it off in my bathtub. This is quite a process, so sometimes in between major cleanings, I will just wipe down her cage with some clorox wipes and rinse it thoroughly with wet towels. Also, make sure to change out the dirty newspaper at the bottom of the cage at least once or twice a week. Cleaning your sugar glider cage often will help keep your sugar glider healthy and cut down on the smell of the cage.