petcareawareness:

corinneypiggy:

petcareawareness:

corinneypiggy:

amazingpetenclosures:

Another cute sugar glider set up with lots of fun things for the gliders to interact with.

Personally, I don’t think I’d agree with this. I’ll hold my hands up and say I’ve never owned nor do I know very much about sugar gliders, but I do have an aversion of a cage where all the enrichment is clearly more geared towards being aesthetically pleasing rather than truly the best for the glider. I see lots of things to play with, but I’d be asking these questions:
Do gliders chew? If yes, those plastics do not look pet safe.
Do gliders need substrate to hide food and dig in? If yes, where is that?
Are gliders litter trained? If no, those perches and plastics are gonna be pee magnets.
What’s a natural environment like? And how does this mimic it in a way to give the glider the best care?
I’m admitting I’m assuming a whole lot, but I’d be more inclined to have branches, ropes, hammocks and hiding spots much like a rodent layout.

Please feel free to correct me if I’m way off base.

Sugar gliders are marsupials not rodents. I don’t think they’re big chewers and they spend most of their time in trees in the wild I’m pretty sure. As long as all of the plastics can be cleaned, I really don’t see a problem with it.

Some other cages I’ve seen also have plenty of plastic stuff.

So I’m assuming it isn’t a big concern.

That’s really interesting, thank you for taking the time to link other enclosures too.
I think my main problem with it is probably just personal opinion, in that I don’t much like the non-natural looks there. I think also there is quite a large difference of opinion between USA and UK (judt for example) enrichment etc, and I’m used to seeing lots of more natural looking enclosures, which we seem to favour here in the UK as better for the animals. I don’t think that either is right or wrong, but I have a noticed a trend here towards more bioactive and natural looking in general. Fleece in the rat world is one thing for example that’s hotly debated, and I know it’s very much used elsewhere. The enclosures you posted here look like a lot of fun to a tree dwelling climber 🙂 thank you, I’m off to read about adorable gliders now! (although my mischief would not be happy with me giving my attention to anyone else, heh)

That’s very interesting to me about the fleece, what is used by UK owners?

– Dark

Animals don’t care if their habitat looks natural. You need to give them lots of enrichment and hiding places, similar to what they’d have in the wild, but colors and appearance don’t really matter unless your animal is a color-changer. For example, fish need hiding places and cover, but it doesn’t cause them any harm if all their hiding places are black and neon pink.